Here’s our report from Austin. And that’s all from me - thanks for reading!
And a triumphant Max Verstappen: “Of course we lost out in the start so we had to try and do something else. The tyre wear is quite high around this track, we went aggressive and I was not sure it was going to work but the last few laps were fun. A bit sideways through the high-speed corners but super happy to hang on. It’s amazing to be here, hopefully we can do this for many years to come.”
Lewis Hamilton speaks: “Firstly congratulations to Max he did a great job today. It was such a tough race. I got a good start, gave it absolutely everything but at the end of the day, they just had the upper hand this weekend and we couldn’t really have asked for more. A big thank you to my team, great work through the weekend.”
How it finished:
What a drive by @Max33Verstappen 👏
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 24, 2021
He earned that 👊#USGP 🇺🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/iNDm2xSgQB
That couldn’t have been much tighter! And with a quarter of the race to go, it looked like Hamilton was the only winner. But Red Bull got their tactics spot on, pitting early, forcing Mercedes’ hand, and coming away a 1.3sec win that extends Verstappen’s championship lead to 12 points. “I think I’ve aged about 25 years in that race,” says Red Bull boss Christian Horner. Quite.
Updated
Max Verstappen wins the US GP!
Lap 56/56: Verstappen stays cool and leads – just – into the last lap and beyond. Bottas gets past Sainz. Hamilton is right on Verstappen’s tail all the way into the last two corners but there’s nothing he can do to reel Verstappen in. Verstappen steams over the finish line in first!
Lap 55/56: Hamilton is within inches of DRS but not quite there. Schumacher is right ahead of Verstappen, will he get out of the way? He finally does, into the last lap. Hamilton and Verstappen get DRS!
Lap 54/56: Now for those last three laps Mercedes were playing for. Again Bottas can’t get past Sainz.
Lap 53/56: Bottas tries to eat up Sainz but fails. Raikkonen spins off into the gravel. Hamilton narrows the gap to 1.5secs.
Lap 52/56: Vettel clears Giovinazzi and hunts down Raikkonen in 10th. And Verstappen clocks up another personal best! Ben Stiller watches on!
Lap 51/56: Verstappen increases his lead for the first time in a good few laps! This might not be as straightforward as it looked.
Lap 50/56: Leclerc, seven seconds behind Perez, is eyeing third but that looks hopeful. Alonso retires with a rear wing issue! That’s both Alpines gone. The Gap That Matters is 1.7secs.
Lap 49/56: Bottas looks to pick of Sainz in sixth but his tyres don’t seem to let him – his are two laps older than Hamilton’s remember…
Lap 47/56: Verstappen has had bad luck traffic-wise, but that won’t fly as an excuse if Hamilton catches him as early as he looks set to: the gap is 2.5secs now. Ten laps to go.
Lap 45/56: Sainz on Ricciardo: “That got a bit dirty, I think he did that on purpose guys.”
Lap 44/56. Hamilton has narrowed the lead to 4.1secs. This looks like it will only end one way.
Lap 43/56: Sainz goes for Ricciardo again and the cars touch! Those two are going at it in the fight for fifth, with McLaren holding a 1.4pt championship over Ferrari in the constructors championship as it stands
LAP 36/56
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 24, 2021
Feelin' the need for speed!
A closer look at our fastest lap holders 👀#USGP 🇺🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/aFx7FYCKHu
Lap 41/56: Sainz goes for Ricciardo but can’t make it. Perez is pretty much on his own in third. And the gap at the front is narrowing fast: 6.6secs now. Have Mercedes nailed this one…?
Lap 39/56: “It’s all about the last three laps,” Mercedes tell Lewis Hamilton. His rival is 8secs ahead out in front, but has Giovinazzi but has Alonso, Raikkonen and Tsunoda all in his way.
Lap 38/56: Bottas pit stops and comes out ahead of Norris. And then Hamilton follows them in! He’s back out in 2.4secs, 7.8secs behind Verstappen, his tyres eight laps fresher with 18 to go.
Lap 36/56: “Tyres feel just about OK,” reports Hamilton
Lap 35/56: Verstappen has gobbled up Perez and is in second, 14secs behind Hamilton. Leclerc (from fourth) and Tsunoda (11th) are next into the pits: both sticking with the hard compound.
As it stands:
1 Lewis Hamilton
2 Max Verstappen +16.845
3 Charles Leclerc +27.714
4 Sergio Perez +39.244
5 Valtteri Bottas +50.002
6 Daniel Ricciardo +1:01.582
7 Carlos Sainz Jnr +1:05.277
8 Lando Norris +1:11.852
9 Yuki Tsunoda +1:13.903
10 Kimi Raikkonen +1:17.361
11 Sebastian Vettel +1:27.695
12 Lance Stroll +1:35.473
13 George Russell +1:37.990
14 Fernando Alonso +1 lap
15 Antonio Giovinazzi +1 lap
16 Mick Schumacher +1 lap
17 Nicholas Latifi +1 lap
18 Esteban Ocon +1 lap
19 Nikita Mazepin +1 lap
NC Pierre Gasly
Lap 32/56: Verstappen’s pit stop has opened the floodgates: Sainz, Ricciardo and follow him in, while Hamilton sets a fastest lap.
Lap 30/56: Verstappen makes his second pit stop and he emerges in third after 2.8secs. Red Bull have gone early again - and Hamilton is told by Mercedes they’ll be going long. Game on!
Lap 29/56: “My drinks system is not working,” says Sergio Perez, from the cockpit of an F1 car racing on a 39-degree track.
Lap 28/56: Vettel scoots ahead of Russell into 13th, and we get a virtual safety car while a marshal clears a bit of debris from the track. Then the green flag.
Lap 27/56: The gap at the top is now less than 3secs, partly because Verstappen lost time trying to lap Latifi. Hamilton’s tyres three laps fresher.
Lap 25/56: An irate Alonso has another go at it, charging at Giovinazzi but not quite managing to get round him. Watch this space.
Lap 23/56: Alonso picks off Giovinazzi but is ordered to give the position back as he left the track.
Lap 21/56: Fourth-placed Leclerc is a full 10secs ahead of fifth-placed Ricciardo. The incident between Raikkonen and Alonso has been noted for a possible investigation. Up top, Hamilton is finding it difficult to make up any ground, still 5.6s back from his rival.
Lap 19/56: “We pulled the trigger early, so we’ve got three more laps on these tyres, but Max is doing a good job,” says Christian Horner. “It’s like a game of chess this race. You can rest assured there’s not much in it between the teams.”
Lap 18/56: Verstappen clocks up the fastest lap, while Tsunoda and Bottas see of Stroll, who heads into the pits allowing Giovinazzi into the points places.
As it stands:
1 Max Verstappen
2 Lewis Hamilton +6.396
3 Sergio Perez +11.792
4 Charles Leclerc+22.530
5 Daniel Ricciardo +30.789
6 Carlos Sainz +32.834
7 Lando Norris +36.307
8 Sebastian Vettel +44.432
9 Lance Stroll +47.000
10 Yuki Tsunoda +48.084
Lap 16/56: Raikkonen and Alonso go at in going into turn one! It’s wheel to wheel as the Finn emerges just ahead, elbows out. Meanwhile Bottas, having braved it for long enough now, pits from fifth and comes out in 11th behind Tsunoda.
Updated
Lap 15/56: Gasly reports a problem with his suspension. Is that his race over? Could be … yep - he trundles his car off the track and into early retirement.
Lap 14/56: Hamilton pits from the front! And watches Verstappen blaze past him into first. Mercedes would have liked to have kept Hamilton out longer but Perez’s pit stop forced their hand – and Verstappen now leads by 6secs.
Lap 12/56: Ricciardo and Bottas quickly fall by Verstappen’s wayside, and Ricciardo and Sainz then head into pits from fifth and sixth. Then it’s “Box, Checo, box,” and Perez steams into the pits for some used mediums – but it’s a slow stop!
Lap 11/56: In goes Tsunoda for the same reason. And Verstappen too! Red Bull pull in their man, presumably to undercut Hamilton. They don’t muck about, and Verstappen emerges in fifth, ahead of Sainz, the gap between him and Hamilton now 19secs.
Lap 10/56: Verstappen is sticking close, just 0.7secs behind, while back in 15th Alonso pits for some hard compounds. Sainz scoots past Norris into sixth.
Lap 8/56: “He’s quicker than me right now,” says Hamilton of Verstappen, who’s within DRS range. It’s a marathon not a sprint, of course, though all that sliding won’t be great for Hamilton’s tyres.
Lap 6/56: Having said that, Perez has dropped to 2.4secs off the front two. Further back, Latifi is miffed after being pincered by the two Haas cars and goes in for a new front wing.
Lap 4/56: Ocon pits very early, to switch to hards. “He’s sliding a lot,” Verstappen is told over the radio – “he” being Hamilton of course. The front three are pulling away.
Lap 3/56: That was a great start from Hamilton, fast and belligerent, pushing Verstappen wide from the off. Less great for his teammate Valtteri Bottas, though, who has dropped to 10th.
Lap 2/56: Hamilton leads by 0.6sec. Norris and Sainz go toe to toe, both running wide and Ricciardo recovers back to sixth, then past Sainz into fifth! Perez third ahead of Leclerc.
Lap 1/56: Hamilton nudges Verstappen wide going into turn one and overtakes his rival on the inside!
Updated
And the drivers set off on the formation lap, Verstappen leading the way on the very short run-up towards turn one, with the crowd going wild. Gasly’s car looks fine.
Updated
Nearly there now. A reminder of how they line up:
#F1 - Final Starting grid for the #USGP 🇺🇸⬇ pic.twitter.com/G1xaILE9ME
— FIA (@fia) October 24, 2021
Elsewhere:
Toto Wolff speaks: “It’s hot, hotter than expected. So I guess there is strategy to play. I think that means on track to overtake will be pretty difficult, and following will also be difficult because the tyres will just melt in a few corners. If you can’t pass, I think it’s about protecting the tyres and maybe going for an undercut, overcut, or more stops.
A panic over at Alpha Tauri, where mechanics are swarming around Pierre Gasly’s car. It’s a sensor issue, apparently - but they seem to have fixed it in the nick of time.
Carlos Sainz: “The target for the [Ferrari] team is to finish ahead of McLaren with both cars. I’m in a bit of a weird situation with the soft tyre so let’s see how it goes.”
Would he change it? “One hundred per cent, but it’s better not to dwell on it too much and just get on with it.”
As the drivers take to the track for the We Race As One gesture, here’s some pre-race reading from yesterday’s qualifiers:
And Sebastian Vettel: “Turn 12 will be the best spot to do overtaking. I think today will be quite warm, expecting the sun to come out and then yeah, it will be a difficult race on tyres.”
Here’s Valtteri Bottas: “I’ll try and make the most out of it, always looking at things with the most optimism. Turn one at the start is a good place, and the back straight - that’s the best opportunity [to overtake]. Being patient can always pay off - it’s a long race ahead.”
Sky Sports’ roving reporter Martin Brundle hounds down Megan Thee Stallion on the track. “You’re a freestyle rapper, do you have any rap for us?” he asks. She responds in the appropriate manner: laughing in his face and wandering off.
Fans have amassed around turn one, the site of much prospective early drama. Could that drama be influenced by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz? The pair are back in fourth and fifth and both using their new power unit without engine penalties for the first time.
Red Bull will also be looking forward to the next two races, Mexico and Brazil, more than Mercedes will. So yet more pressure on Hamilton to claw back some vital points today. He says: “The start is definitely an opportunity but it’s a long race. The cloud cover makes it a bit better with the tyres. Keeping up with the Red Bulls will be a challenge but I’ll give it absolutely everything.”
Meanwhile, while the clouds have amassed over Houston, word is there’s very little chance of rain today.
Danica Patrick reckons it’s advantage Red Bull, with Perez starting from third. “I think it’s a really big deal,” she says. “Every time you have two team-mates there and one solo, it makes a difference. If Lewis is second and let’s say Max is leading, he’ll have pressure from behind, and if he gets behind he has the ability to get held up too. I think it’s a really tough dynamic for Lewis - not something he can’t overcome - but it’s tough.”
Serena Williams is in the house. Also in attendance: Ben Stiller, Megan Thee Stallion and Geri Horner – a trio who could put on a decent variety show between them.
How they’ll start
1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
3 Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
4 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
5 Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
6 Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
7 Lando Norris (McLaren)
8 Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
9 Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
10 Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
11 Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
12 Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)
13 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
14 Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
15 Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)
16 Mick Schumacher (Haas)
17 Nikita Mazepin (Haas)
18 Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
19 Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
20 George Russell (Williams)
Preamble
As road rage incidents go, a middle finger and a “stupid idiot” may not rank very highly in the grand scheme of things but it certainly marks a break with the blandishments and politesse that tends to govern the public conduct of Formula One drivers. As such, this weekend’s exchanges between between Max Verstappen (deliverer of aforementioned insults in Friday’s practice session) and Lewis Hamilton (recipient) have been very welcome for those of us who prefer our sporting rivalries heated, hostile and vulgar.
Are we reading too much into a three-second tete-a-tete? Almost certainly – “It’s all fun and games” said Hamilton afterwards – but it nonetheless sets things up nicely for a race on a bumpy track with ample overtaking opportunities in front of a full house in Austin. Hamilton, the reigning world champion, was overtaken at the top of the standings by Verstappen in Turkey two weeks ago.
And there’s more anxiety at Mercedes after Valterri Bottas – who came third in Friday’s qualifying and triumphed in Turkey – will start further back after being handed a five-place grid handicap for using a sixth internal combustion engine this year, something that has left Toto Wolff worried about possible engine trouble. “We are trying to get on top of the problems, and we haven’t understood full,” he fretted on Saturday, knowing that his team need to avoid at all costs a scenario where Hamilton retires and his rival hoovers up the points.
Hamilton himself struck a morose note after qualifying: “it’s been a real struggle compared to normal here,” he said – and yet despite the doom and gloom he will will have to fancy his chances at a circuit where he has won five of his eight previous visits.
Verstappen meanwhile is six points ahead with six races remaining. “Everyone’s expecting a great race, and that’s what we expect as drivers,” says the championship leader. Quite right.
