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UNITED STATES GP – Charles Leclerc beats teammate Carlos Sainz by eight and a half seconds to take victory, as heat gets to Max Verstappen and Lando Norris

Testing & Race Reports
Jack
20-10-2024

Charles Leclerc has won the United States Grand Prix following a dominant drive beating his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz by eight and a half seconds. The Monacan made a lighting start from fourth on the grid as the two title rivals Max Verstappen and Lando Norris fought for the lead, and both went wide at the first corner allowing Leclerc to dive down the inside and take the lead at the first corner.

That allowed Leclerc and Sainz to take control of the race from the very start, they soon were able to break the DRS early on before pulling away despite the early safety car where he was able to pull away from his teammate. Ferrari looked in the mix all weekend and delivered a strong result, their first one-two in America since the controversial race at Indianapolis in 2005.

Max Verstappen was third just under a second ahead of title rival Lando Norris on track, however, their scrap where the McLaren driver was deemed to have forced Verstappen wide and breech track limits for the third time saw him awarded a five-second penalty which saw him drop to fourth.

Before the incident at Turn Twelve, the two rivals had fought each other hard and cleanly with it all bubbling over the final few laps. McLaren’s driver refused the instruction to give the place back thus not getting a penalty while Verstappen complained that his rival had to give the place back, the stewards agreed and gave him the five second penalty dropping him behind the Dutchman as he was only four seconds ahead.

Norris had dropped behind Verstappen during the opening stint and then a long opening stint had brought him back into the battle with the Red Bull in the second half of the race/ but it up until the final laps it had been beautiful defensive driving by both drivers, Verstappen covering off Norris attacks lap after lap, as he tried to find his way past.

Until it overboiled most of the race appeared to work for McLaren, a longer middle stint brought Norris into play as he rejoined six and a half seconds behind the Red Bull. That meant with just over ten laps to go he was on the back of the Red Bull, as the fight continued over several laps.

The two ran side by side through some of the corners of the complex after Turn Twelve, the tight corner at the end of the long back straight. But Verstappen positioned his car with expertise to prevent Norris from ever being able to make a move at the hairpin.

On lap fifty-two, Norris was closer than ever coming into the back straight and he went for the outside as Verstappen defended the inside line. Both cars ran off the track, Norris considerably, and the McLaren emerged ahead. As the race entered into its final lap, it was confirmed that Norris had received a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

That means Verstappen extended his championship lead to fifty-seven points with five Grands Prix and two sprints remaining and a hundred and forty-six points on the table. Norris finished ahead of his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, both ahead of George Russell comfortably by thirty-five seconds.

Leclerc, who takes his third victory of the season in the Ferrari” “Very happy, it hasn’t been an easy weekend until now I have been struggling with the feeling in the car but I had the confidence in the race and the feeling was better. we still had the upper hand so really happy with how it went today, a one-two for the team, we couldn’t have dreamed for better.”

Sainz on finishing second for Ferrari: “Obviously I knew was going to be decided at the start. I knew Lando [Norris] and Max [Verstappen] were going to go hard into turn one and unfortunately, I got the worst of it and I couldn’t get that lead and even though the pace was good from then on was really good and all weekend I was really fast, track position is key and I had to settle to P2 which anyway was a good race.”

Verstappen who finished third place because of a five-second penalty for Lando Norris: “For me, it was quite a difficult race. I didn’t have the pace to attack, it was a bit different to yesterday. Just understeering a lot, struggling on the braking. That made the defending quite difficult because every time someone wanted to go for a move, I couldn’t really brake that late. It was a tough battle.”

It was a good result for Russell, the Mercedes driver had started from the pit lane and a five-second penalty for forcing Valtteri Bottas wide as the fought for fourteenth place early on. Mercedes had opted to break parc ferme and fit an new power unit after he was knocked out early in qualifying.

Sergio Perez was seventh the second Red Bull finishing nearly three seconds ahead of the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg. It was a strong result for the US-owned team which could be very important in the teams fight with RB for sixth in the constructors, with Liam Lawson nearly eight seconds behind. While Franco Colapinto completed the top ten finishing just over a tenth behind Lawson.

Kevin Magnussen was eleventh, but his race was undone by needing to stop twice and he was ahead of Pierre Gasly by over ten seconds, with the two drivers the final drivers on the lead lap of the race. But the Alpine was also given a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Fernando Alonso was thirteenth the Aston Martin driver the lead lapped car finishing almost six and a half seconds ahead of Yuki Tsunoda while his teammate Lance Stroll was eight seconds behind. Alex Albon was ahead of Valtteri Bottas with Esteban Ocon between the Finn and teammate Guanyu Zhou.

Lewis Hamilton was the only retirement on lap three, a rare mistake nearly identical to teammate Russell in qualifying saw him spin off at Turn Nineteen becoming beached in the gravel. but the seven time champion had made a good start gaining five places.

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