Max Verstappen rose from sixth on the grid to win the United States Grand Prix, beating Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris to take his 15th win of 2023.
The world champion gained five places to move into the lead of the race just after his final pit stop, leading home Hamilton and Norris in a hard-fought race where just 20 seconds covered the top five at the chequered flag.While 20 drivers started the race, only 16 lined up on the grid with the Aston Martin and Haas starting from the pit lane. All of those on the grid opted for medium tyres to start the grand prix.
When the lights went out, Norris got the jump on pole-winner Charles Leclerc and leapt into the lead before the pair had reached the apex of turn one. Carlos Sainz Jnr moved up ahead of Lewis Hamilton into third place, while Max Verstappen moved up into fifth place after George Russell dropped two places to seventh.
Norris began to pull out a small lead over Leclerc’s Ferrari. Hamilton used DRS to slip past Sainz for third along the back straight on lap four before doing the same to Leclerc on lap six to move up to second. Freed from the Ferraris, Hamilton began his pursuit of the leader, but Norris appeared capable of maintaining the gap at three seconds.
After contact on the opening lap, Esteban Ocon and Oscar Piastri retired from the race by the end of lap 10. By lap 11, Verstappen began to put Leclerc under pressure for third and dived up the inside of turn 12, taking the place but appeared to push the Ferrari driver off the circuit. The incident was noted by the stewards but no further action was taken.
Hamilton began to close on the leader, cutting Norris’s lead to within two seconds. Verstappen was the first of the leaders to pit at the end of lap 16, fitting a second set of medium tyres. Race leader Norris pitted for hard tyres one lap later, emerging in fourth, as Hamilton inherited the lead and remained out on his old medium tyres.
Hamilton eventually pitted at the end of lap 20, but a 3.6s-long stop for hard tyres saw him rejoin five seconds behind Verstappen in fifth position. Leclerc then picked up the lead and remained out until the end of lap 23 until making his first stop for hard tyres, dropping to sixth behind Sergio Perez. That cycled Norris back into the lead, with a 2.5s advantage over Verstappen.
A mistake at turn 11 on lap 25 allowed the world champion to close to within a second of the leader, with Verstappen coming from a long way back to lunge by Norris into turn 12 and take the lead on lap 28. Verstappen gained a lead of three seconds over the McLaren driver until Norris eventually pitted for a second time at the end of lap 34, fitting a fresh set of hard tyres and emerging 23 seconds behind the Red Bull driver.
Red Bull called in Verstappen at the end of the next lap to fit on hard tyres, but despite a 3.3s pit stop, he rejoined with his track position over Norris intact. Hamilton picked up the lead of the race, but he was called in soon after to make his second stop for medium tyres. That gave the lead to Leclerc, but almost as soon as he gained the lead he was overtaken by Verstappen into turn one.
Norris followed Verstappen by Leclerc soon after to move up to second, with Hamilton also passing Leclerc a handful of laps later to take fourth. Verstappen’s lead over Norris remained under four seconds until Norris began to fall back from the leader. Hamilton caught and passed Norris at the exit of turn one to move up to second, but was unable to close quickly enough on the leader.
Verstappen checked off the remaining laps and took the chequered flag to secure the win, his record-equalling 15th of the season, by just over two seconds from Hamilton. Norris claimed the final podium place in third, around ten seconds behind the winner.
Sainz came home fourth for Ferrari, ahead of Perez in fifth and Leclerc finishing sixth after a one stop strategy failed to pay off. Russell came home in seventh, with Pierre Gasly securing four points for Alpine in eighth. Lance Stroll secured his first points since the summer break with ninth, while Yuki Tsunoda took tenth place and a bonus point for fastest lap after pitting for soft tyres on the penultimate lap.
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2023 United States Grand Prix
- US GP was Mercedes’ best race of 2023 despite disqualification – Wolff
- Singapore and Austin retirements cost me top 10 championship place – Ocon
- United States Grand Prix result unchanged as FIA rejects Haas’ call for review
- Sargeant admits he’s ‘struggled to use all the downforce at times’ in F1
- Mercedes’ Brazilian GP set-up was “conservative” after US GP disqualification
mystic one (@mysticus)
22nd October 2023, 21:54
First pit stop too late cost the mercedes the win today. dont know what they ve been thinking… silly over simple thinking.
DaveW (@dmw)
22nd October 2023, 21:58
The stop was also 3.6s. That second was DRS lost on the last lap. But a lot of things add up to a second in a race.
If they were playing for a one stop that was already clearly a loser in first stint with the deg showing on other cars. In the end it was a disaster for people like leclerc and ricciardo.
Doggy
22nd October 2023, 22:04
Mercs pulled a Ferrari today…
I will like to see an explanation about how in 24 hrs, in park fermme, a car loses 0.4 sec pace advantage all the way to only match Mercedes.
MERCS, McLaren, and Ferrari all kept the same pace shown in sprint race.
MattDS (@mattds)
22nd October 2023, 22:16
– Circumstances are never identical
– Max nursing a braking issue – might not be catastrophical, but Max won’t have been as comfortable as yesterday and if it changes just a bit in how you have to drive the car, then it impacts time
– Max starting from P6 meaning never in clear air for a large part of the race, so cannot nurse the tyres as much, needs to use the mediums to hang behind people, following closely, and overtaking them
– Max covering off Norris with the last pit stop gave Lewis a double advantage: bigger tyre delta in the last stint, but also not all of the medium tyre used in the second stint
– Last stint saw Max on the harder and slower tyre than Lewis
Put all of it together and you have a whole different race.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
23rd October 2023, 0:28
Red Bull have a fast car out in front on smooth tarmac to complement their great floor. Take both of those away, and the car is going to be a lot slower. Every other team in F1 isn’t nor hasn’t been on the same level as RBR for well over a decade.
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
22nd October 2023, 22:41
Max would have just turned up the engine. This race was never in doubt.
Edvaldo
23rd October 2023, 1:00
Once Hamilton cleared Norris, Max, who didnt seem to have extra pace over him, pulled away.
It was barely enough to win with issues in the car.
Would be a walk in the park with the car on proper conditions.
MacLeod (@macleod)
23rd October 2023, 13:19
the engine can’t turned up anymore during the race…
mystic one (@mysticus)
22nd October 2023, 22:04
they greatly over thought of a 1 stop. big mistake. ham lost like 7 secs there! he could have easily get by norris after first stops. it was obvious he was much faster than mclarens. if they played it right, max would have been overtaken if he were to manage ham after the second stops if he were to overtake ham! big if as seen he had trouble getting by norris. ham get by norris much easier
Paul A (@paul-a)
22nd October 2023, 22:05
Pretty good race. Most unfortunate the booing of the winner, I’ll never come back here, maybe watch it on TV next time rather than spending a lot of money to listen to a disrespectful crowd.
Tommy Scragend
22nd October 2023, 23:13
Not only booing the winner, but chanting during the national anthem.
Imagine the outcry from Americans if people in another country had tried to drown out the Star Spangled Banner?
Jazz (@jazz)
23rd October 2023, 2:49
Brace yourself for Mexico, because it’s about to get a lot more hostile towards VER and he has only himself to blame for that. Zero sympathy!
baasbas
23rd October 2023, 8:01
@jazz
Yes, good on him! He shouldn’t have keyed all those cars with Mexican plates. And bully all those Mexican kids in the playground for their lunch money. And all those tik toks where he burns the Mexican flag. Zero sympathy!
Ludewig
23rd October 2023, 9:51
What has Max done to Mexico or Checo other than beat Perez? It’s not like he drove Checo off the road, because he’s never close enough to Max for that to happen.
G
23rd October 2023, 11:13
@Jazz
I’m pretty sure Max doesn’t need your sympathy, or anyone else’s. I’d say he has a good laugh at all the pathetic people booing.
MacLeod (@macleod)
23rd October 2023, 13:21
And he said he is going to have fun lapping everyone ……. scary (I think he was joking but if booing is getting on his nerve that would be the outcome ofcourse)
MichaelN
23rd October 2023, 10:11
Ironically that’s what Verstappen himself suggested fans do after he was penalized in the 2017 US GP, back when Red Bull drivers using racial slurs against the FIA officials was still considered cool (take note, Vips).
Edvaldo
22nd October 2023, 22:08
Mercedes was racing Norris, not Verstappen. Had they not taken Hamilton out of Max’s way after the first round of pits, perhaps he or Norris could’ve won this race as Max had break issues later on and couldn’t push.
But they’re all as so used to race for 2nd than not even when the chance is clear in front of them they take it. Again.
Edvaldo
22nd October 2023, 22:22
*brake issues
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd October 2023, 23:19
Yes, this is a problem, not taking chances to win when they are there. They’re only capable of winning when verstappen is far back, but when he’s in the fight they don’t try any more.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
23rd October 2023, 0:30
no, the strategy team at mercedes doesn’t understand imitative nor do they like giving Lewis a good shot at running a race on pure pace. They always cock up his races with desperate strategies. The guys at mercedes think very highly of themselves, thats pretty much it.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
23rd October 2023, 2:54
I’m unsure I understand ‘imitative’ either?
David (@nvherman)
23rd October 2023, 8:29
@cairnsfella Typo for ‘initiative’
Mr_NovemberHotel (@nicharvs)
22nd October 2023, 22:10
Lewis went from being 4 seconds ahead of Max before the first stop to being 7 seconds behind after. Mercedes lost 11 seconds to the eventual race leader because they faffed about trying to decide if one-stop was better than a two-stop. They ignored Max because they assumed he would easily win and focused too much on Lando, instead of just trying to win the race by keeping Lewis in front of Max.
They seem to keep trying to win races by making things complicated, just keep it simple!
Kribana (@krichelle)
22nd October 2023, 22:19
What a weekend from Lewis… Otherwise, Mercedes should be careful with this performance because it was on a sprint weekend. I think Mercedes were very focused on the 1 stop and focused only on Norris. The win was definitely possible for Hamilton. It was clear from the beginning that once in clear air, Hamilton had the measure of Norris, and maybe Verstappen but it was hard to judge a bit. I think Hamilton and Mercedes had the fastest car in this race to be honest, but probably realised it too late to take advantage.
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
22nd October 2023, 22:43
Watched first race in a few months. Noticed how bad the advertising is. Crypto, Qatar, and Aramco. Kind of makes going to South Africa and cigarettes seem quaint.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
22nd October 2023, 22:46
Thought the comment from Max’s race engineer of “Well done, see you Friday” was a little strange.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
22nd October 2023, 23:21
Yes, there might be some discord among them lately.
Ludewig
23rd October 2023, 9:53
You seem to be reading a lot into a basic comment. Perhaps GP had a wedding, funeral or whatever and had to leave quickly.
James Bond (@jamesbond)
22nd October 2023, 23:32
GP had to go to UK after the race so that’s why he said: “See you friday.”
CP
22nd October 2023, 23:36
The inevitable Hamilton 6/10 and George 8/10 rating coming up on race fans…
baasbas
23rd October 2023, 8:31
@CP
I’m sure there will be a quote in there about not being able to assess Hamilton fully because his car was too low and therefore had more performance than it should have
James Bond (@jamesbond)
23rd October 2023, 4:19
Max surely deserves a 10/10 rating after starting from 6th and winning the race while having brake issues.
MadMax (@madmax)
23rd October 2023, 7:22
11/10 for messing up qualy and all the swearing on the radio
Ludewig
23rd October 2023, 9:55
Swearing makes you a worse driver?
Anyway, good to see that we have diversity on this site. Church ladies are in tha house.
F1 Fan
23rd October 2023, 10:16
Hard to get a pole when it’s likely that your competitors ran illegal cars except for Norris.
JoshJ81
23rd October 2023, 5:19
Lewis and Merc was correct on the 1st pit stop. However, they could not have imagined such a long stop to occur nor could they have predicted the amount of time lost, while trying to take advantage of the tires, to pass Norris. Conversely, McLaren, in a scared manner, reacted to Red Bull’s first stop. They tried to cover VER off and failed by choosing the Hards. It worked in the short term but was not correct. I find it odd that they did not go longer, like Lewis, and duke it out with the mediums. Lewis’s pace at the end, and Norris’s pace in the 19 lap sprint, showed this was correct. This was Norris’s race to win or at least fight wheel to wheel at the end with Red Bull and Merc. Feels like Sochi again, especially given it was reported McLaren had a fresh set of mediums available. Norris will get it right one day…I hope it’s not to late by then…
MacLeod (@macleod)
23rd October 2023, 13:25
The Mediums were the right tyre the hard dropped way too much to be a racing tyre.