Max Verstappen led every lap from pole position to win the sprint race of the United States Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton capitalised on an unsuccessful attempt by Leclerc to pass Verstappen at the first corner to take second place from the Ferrari but was unable to chase down the world champion ahead, who won by nine seconds.Prior to the start of the race, almost the entire field opted for medium tyres for the 19-lap sprint. Carlos Sainz Jnr in sixth was the only driver to start on softs.
When the lights went out, second-placed Charles Leclerc immediately challenged pole winner Max Verstappen on the run to turn one, forcing Verstappen to defend the inside line jealously to keep the Ferrari at bay. Verstappen emerged with the lead, while Lewis Hamilton took advantage of Leclerc’s compromised line to sweep by at the exit of the first corner.
Verstappen led from Hamilton, Leclerc and Sainz gaining two places over the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in fourth. DRS was activated at the start of the second lap, but Verstappen escaped out a second from Hamilton by the end of lap two. Despite this, Verstappen began complaining about the balance of his Red Bull and Hamilton managed to pull back within a second of the leader.
George Russell overtook Oscar Piastri for seventh place at turn 15 but did so outside the confines of the track. Rather than hand the position back to the McLaren, Russell remained ahead and was soon punished with a five second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Out front, Verstappen grew his lead to two-and-a-half seconds over Hamilton by the end of lap eight, while Leclerc fell to almost four seconds behind Hamilton in third. Verstappen gradually pulled further away from the Mercedes behind as the race progressed.
Sainz’s soft tyres began to fade, allowing Russell to close up to the back of the Ferrari. However, Sainz was able to hold off the Mercedes who appeared unable to make a pass despite his healthier tyres.
Verstappen comfortably checked off the remaining laps and crossed the line at the end of the 19th lap to take the eight points for victory. Hamilton came home just nine seconds adrift of the world champion, as Leclerc completed the top three a further 8.5 seconds behind.
Lando Norris claimed fourth for McLaren with Sergio Perez in fifth. Sainz held off Russell to finish sixth on the road, while the Mercedes driver dropped from seventh to eighth after his time penalty was applied. That promoted Pierre Gasly into seventh place, with Alexander Albon just missing out on points in ninth and Piastri fading to tenth at the chequered flag.
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2023 United States Grand Prix
- US GP was Mercedes’ best race of 2023 despite disqualification – Wolff
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- United States Grand Prix result unchanged as FIA rejects Haas’ call for review
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- Mercedes’ Brazilian GP set-up was “conservative” after US GP disqualification
Jere (@jerejj)
21st October 2023, 23:45
Hamilton should’ve also received a 5-second penalty as he clearly benefitted from his brief T1 exit off-track excursion.
MadMax (@madmax)
21st October 2023, 23:45
he only avoided contact
Neutralino
21st October 2023, 23:47
False. He overtook off track.
MadMax (@madmax)
21st October 2023, 23:48
false
David (@nvherman)
22nd October 2023, 0:05
You were clearly not watching the same race. He gained that position due to being off track
MadMax (@madmax)
22nd October 2023, 0:08
the short off track prior to the overtake gave him no advantage, it only reduced the risk of contact. the stewards obviously also watched a different race, than you biased anti fans.
NM
22nd October 2023, 0:21
Funny you call other people biased anti fans, no mirrors in your house i presume
MadMax (@madmax)
22nd October 2023, 0:33
@NM i am in line with the stewards. So its not my bias distorting the facts here.
amped
22nd October 2023, 0:33
Avoiding contact doesn’t mean you come back on track ahead of the car you were behind…
Then there is the fact that there was enough space for him to stay on track. If a driver leaves the track, it doesn’t matter. they HAVE NOT passed the car they were racing. Racing takes part on track.
MadMax (@madmax)
22nd October 2023, 0:39
maybe thats why he came back onto the track right before the overtake. i didnt see any cam from above, but from Hamiltons onboard you can see, that he was probably back before the overtake.
MadMax (@madmax)
22nd October 2023, 0:50
highlights vid is on youtube. stop at 1:33, at earliest point when lewis front left again touches the white line. by what is visible of charles frontwing, i would believe that lewis is still behind at this moment. i could be wrong, cause its probably only centimeters.
anyways, stewards decided.
Markp
22nd October 2023, 2:42
Mute point. 5 second penalty but finished over 8 seconds in front. Should have been a penalty but that it wasn’t doesnt matter overall. He does seem to get away with these things like Mexico few years ago or Abu Dhabi 2021 but then again his luck was paid back with interest at Abu Dhabi 2021.
Illusive (@illusive)
22nd October 2023, 8:30
It all about momentum, he could have slowed down to avoid contact but he chose the one that benefits him, carry speed outside the track and join it carrying more speed than the one who took a tighter line.
Doggy
21st October 2023, 23:54
Certainly Lewis overtook Charles out of track limits, but it’s almost never penalized since it was lap 1 within the first 3 corners.
It would have been unfair to give a penalty there
Moshambles (@moshambles)
21st October 2023, 23:59
Not according to the FIA or Charles Leclerc or Ferrari… Maybe get on to them and see if they’ve missed it? Get on the them about Alonso leaving the track and keeping a position on the first lap too. Someone’s gotta do it. Bang! 5 second penalty for Hamilton, he now finishes 2nd. Justice has been served.
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
22nd October 2023, 2:37
Imagine arguing over a sprint race. Who would watch this?
S
22nd October 2023, 6:01
F1 enthusiasts, presumably. And most of the people who went to the effort of posting a comment about it…
SteveP
22nd October 2023, 7:51
Dunno, what happened?
From comments above, Hamilton got past Leclerc and finished 2nd in a pre-race event.
AlanD
22nd October 2023, 12:13
@Jere, there is a better view from high above the outside of the corner where you can see LH was on much the same line as MV, but CL comes quite a long way across and LH took avoiding action. If LH had braked at that point instead of running wide, they’d probably still have been entangled. I daresay if the Ferrari and Merc had been the other way around, people would have been screaming that LH forced CL off track.
melanos
22nd October 2023, 15:18
What, penalize whom? No way
Edvaldo
21st October 2023, 23:49
Theyre more lenient with stuff happening at the start.
Paul A (@paul-a)
21st October 2023, 23:54
Deadly dull. Let’s get rid of these “snooze-fest” events.
theRealMax (@millionus)
22nd October 2023, 0:35
I watch these races, cause I also watch practice, nice seeing the cars go round the track. But it feels like such a non-event. Even for the drivers they don’t seem to really care. It’s just a bit meh….
dot_com (@dot_com)
22nd October 2023, 1:15
I’m the same, I watch because I’d rather watch cars going round a track than not watch cars going round a track. But it really dilutes the whole Grand Prix weekend. I’m so much less excited for Sunday on sprint race weekends.
Mark (@mrcento)
21st October 2023, 23:56
I hope for Piastris sake the contact with Sainz at the start gave him damage, because if not… wow he’s in trouble on Sunday. Fell like a rock. Suspect he did have something wrong because that drop off in pace was unnatural over the stint after a fairly ok first few laps of pace.
Towards the end he was lapping over 3 seconds a lap off Lando…
Robert Henning
22nd October 2023, 0:29
Oh well. If Verstappen gets away clean tomorrow he will take the lead by Lap 25. He had no degradation.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd October 2023, 1:59
Verstappen taking the lead on lap 25 is actually optimistic as far as competition is concerned, I’m sure there’s people who think he will do so a lot earlier, and I wouldn’t be surprised either, if he does by 25 at least we’re likely to see some fighting.
MadMax (@madmax)
22nd October 2023, 7:50
With about half a second car advantage it shouldnt take more than 12 to 15 laps, unless he messes up his start.
Robert Henning
22nd October 2023, 12:15
Don’t think you understand much regarding car advantage my Mad fellow user Max.
MadMax (@madmax)
22nd October 2023, 16:59
more than you, obviously
Robert Henning
22nd October 2023, 12:19
It is not really optimistic unless others in front of him fight and waste time.
Verstappen has around 3 to 5 tenths advantage after degradation kicks in. So he will initially be slower than the leaders, and once wear hits he will gain ground on them. That will take some time and overtaking delta is quite high at Austin. RB are running their cars higher from the ground and therefore compensating for it using big rear wings. RB’s DRS effect is less with the most loaded rear wing and much higher on other spec wings. All of this will play a role.
I in fact think Norris has a decent shot at the win if things fall in his way. He needs to lead after Turn 1 and hope that a few funny things happen behind him, which may well happen.
melanos
22nd October 2023, 15:20
I’ll be surprised if it takes more than 5-6 laps, excluding SC or collisions
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
22nd October 2023, 2:14
Mercedes are going to have a hard race if they get DRS’d, their car has a hard time staying behind other cars, at least the way Lewis sets his car up. Ferrari and McLaren have similar race pace, and Mercedes are vulnerable to being DRS’d or getting stuck behind the faster cars down the straight.
The only way Max doesn’t win tomorrow is if Lewis gets out in front and maximizes his tires, otherwise its gonna be a RBR win. But Lewis getting out in front of a Ferrari that is much faster than it down the straight is a hard ask on this track. I think Charles pace might not even be as good as Carlos’, so I am looking forward to the intra-team battles, and to see what Lewis can do from the front, if he can get there, but their car, … so slow down the straight, and a real shame, the only thing really holding them back right now from meeting RBR near even.
Sham (@sham)
22nd October 2023, 8:25
Christ, even the ultra short.youtube highlights were dull.
I missed being able to watch quali because it’s on a Friday, I missed the sprint quali and race because I didn’t want to watch it. Sprint weekends are just garbage.
I don’t understand how they gain anything with the sprint, it’s just a single stint race with the same tyre management.
Want to improve F1? Bin the sprints,.and sort.the damned tyres out.
SteveP
22nd October 2023, 9:38
Agreed totally.
Even the COTA organisers agree that the sprint thing isn’t worth the effort, no doubt other track owners too.
Repurpose the sessions as race sessions for aspiring F1 drivers.
MichaelN
22nd October 2023, 9:58
Judging by the highlights, if Pérez wasn’t so much slower than his car can go and Sainz hadn’t opted for the soft tyres, presumably to save a set for the real race, nothing of note would have happened.
These cars and tyres don’t work. I know a lot of bigwigs are personally invested in them, but this is just a snooze.
Robert Henning
22nd October 2023, 12:19
It is not really optimistic unless others in front of him fight and waste time.
Verstappen has around 3 to 5 tenths advantage after degradation kicks in. So he will initially be slower than the leaders, and once wear hits he will gain ground on them. That will take some time and overtaking delta is quite high at Austin. RB are running their cars higher from the ground and therefore compensating for it using big rear wings. RB’s DRS effect is less with the most loaded rear wing and much higher on other spec wings. All of this will play a role.
I in fact think Norris has a decent shot at the win if things fall in his way. He needs to lead after Turn 1 and hope that a few funny things happen behind him, which may well happen.