Charles Leclerc took a flawless victory in the 2024 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, the Monegasque leading Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz in a one-two after storming through into the lead on the opening lap, while a tense late-race battle between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen saw Norris receive a penalty and drop to fourth behind his title rival.
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Pole-sitter Norris initially looked to have held the lead off the line when the lights went out for the 56-lap encounter, but the McLaren went side-by-side with Verstappen into the first corner, which led to the Briton being pushed wide, allowing Leclerc to sneak through and snatch P1.
From there, the Monegasque enjoyed an unchallenged drive to victory, while teammate Sainz benefitted from an undercut to put himself into second place ahead of Verstappen following his pit stop, the Spaniard putting in a solid drive to cross the line 8.5s back from Leclerc.
As the race entered into its final stages, Norris overtook Verstappen for P3 following a fiercely close duel between the championship rivals – but the nature of the move prompted discussion over the radio, with Verstappen and Red Bull claiming that Norris had overtaken outside of the track limits.
This ultimately saw Norris receive a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, dropping him down from third to fourth and promoting Verstappen to the final podium position.
Oscar Piastri took fifth behind his McLaren teammate, while George Russell worked his way up to sixth in the Mercedes after starting from the pit lane. Sergio Perez added to Red Bull’s points tally in seventh, ahead of Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg in eighth.
Liam Lawson scored two points by finishing P9 on his first weekend back on the grid for RB, while Franco Colapinto was an impressive P10 for Williams. Kevin Magnussen missed out in P11 for Haas, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly behind in P12 from Fernando Alonso in P13 for Aston Martin.
Yuki Tsunoda slotted into 14th for RB, having dropped backwards following a spin, while Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was 15th in front of Alex Albon in 16th, a disappointing result for the Williams driver on his 100th race start.
The Kick Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu again missed out on breaking their points…
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