Max Verstappen was the winner of the United States Grand Prix in Formula 1, thus obtaining a new record of points in a single season (466). However, it was far from being one of the easiest victories for the Red Bull driver this year. Verstappen also became the fifth in history to reach 50 wins, in addition to equaling the highest number of triumphs in a single season that he already owned.
Race summary
The pole position belonged to Charles Leclerc, but the Ferrari driver was beaten by Lando Norris (McLaren) on the way to turn one, while Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) yielded to Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and dropped to fourth. Verstappen moved up to fifth.
At the front, after one lap Norris had a lead of around two seconds, which continued to extend. Hamilton found a way to overtake the Ferraris, as did Verstappen – who, however, only managed to get past Leclerc later on. When Hamilton had already managed to reduce a gap of Norris that had reached over three seconds, Verstappen was the first of the front-runners to change tires – at the end of lap 16.
A lap later, Norris did the same, which left Hamilton at the top… until he changed tires on the 21st lap, being unable to follow a one-stop strategy in the pits. He returned to the track in a virtual third place behind Norris and Verstappen. The Dutchman had managed to get significantly closer to Norris: before changing tires, he was seven seconds behind, reducing the distance by half afterwards.
When Leclerc went to the pits on lap 23, Norris became the real leader again. Two laps later, he made a mistake in braking for turn 11 and conceded over a second to Verstappen… who would complete the overtaking in turn 12 on lap 28.
After a phase in which he couldn’t break away, the already world champion would increase his pace before the second tire changes. Leclerc was betting on a pit stop strategy and, with the second changes of his rivals, he stayed in front.
However, Verstappen quickly overtook him at turn one, and the Monegasque driver ended up losing ground as his tires started to deteriorate. The race leader had some complaints about the brakes, but even so, Norris couldn’t keep up… and even lost second place to Hamilton on lap 49 despite a strong defense from #4.
Until the end, the seven-time champion managed to get closer to Verstappen, but not enough. The Dutch driver took advantage of lapping Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) to protect himself from any attacks from Hamilton on the final lap. He crossed the finish line with a 2.225s lead.
But the result was not yet final, even though the finish line had been crossed. The stewards disqualified Hamilton, as well as Leclerc, who had finished sixth, due to technical infringements. Therefore, Norris finished second, 10.730s behind Verstappen, and Sainz completed the podium. Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) finished fourth, having been one of those who overtook Leclerc on track when his performance dropped due to the misguided pit stop strategy.
George Russell (Mercedes) finished in fifth place. In the second half of the points-paying positions were Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) – with the fastest lap – and the Williams of Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant. Competing at home, the American driver thus scored his first point.
Although there were no safety cars and hardly any yellow flags, there were three retirements: Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), as well as Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine). In the case of the latter two, an incident between them on the first lap determined the outcome.
Results:
