Charles Leclerc struck when least expected, snatching the lead in the first corner from fourth as Lando Norris’ and Max Verstappen’s attention focused squarely on each other. Leclerc pulled away in his Ferrari and wasn’t challenged on his way to a dominant win in the Pirelli United State Grand Prix at the Circuit Of The Americas on Sunday (October 20th). Carlos Sainz finished second to give Ferrari a 1-2 finish and a huge boost in the constructors standings, where they are only seven points behind Red Bull for second.
[I’m] very happy,” Leclerc said after jumping out of the car. “It hasn’t been an easy weekend; until now, I have been struggling a bit with the feeling with the car, but I had the confidence that in the race the feeling was better and it was the case.
“We’ve seen it yesterday (October 19th) in the Sprint race, we were a bit… not scared, but we thought the others would improve a lot more today but we still had the upper hand, so [I’m] really happy with today. A one-two for the team, we couldn’t have dreamed for better.”
Verstappen finished third after coming out on top in an exciting battle with Norris (Norris finished third on the track but was dropped to fourth after a five-second penalty for leaving the track to gain an advantage over Verstappen while passing him on lap 52). Norris’ fourth was little consolation for another failure to win from the pole. Oscar Piastri finished fifth, followed by Mercedes’ George Russell in sixth, who started from the pit lane. Sergio Perez took seventh, and Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg. was eighth. In his first F1 races since October of 2023, Visa Red Bull’s Liam Lawson finished ninth and is likely to be strongly considered for a seat alongside Verstappen in 2024. Williams’ rookie Franco Colapinto grabbed the final points-paying position in 10th.
In the driver standings, Verstappen leads Norris by 57 points, 354 to 297. With a 30-point weekend, Leclerc is in third, only 22 behind Norris, with Piastri just 28 behind Leclerc.
In the constructor standings, McLaren leads Red Bull by 40 points, 544 to 504. Ferrari knocked 26 points off their deficit to Red Bull and trail by just eight points.
The Race
Norris was off decently at lights out but failed to cover Verstappen on the inside, allowing the Red Bull to get by. But as the McLaren and Red Bull jockeyed for position, Leclerc stole the lead, while Sainz moved into third, dropping Norris down…
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