“We had much higher ambitions than finishing outside the points,” admitted Pierre Gasly after taking the chequered flag 12th in yesterday’s race.
Thanks to an upgraded car, a superb qualifying lap and George Russell’s crash, Gasly secured Alpine’s best starting position of the year so far with sixth in the grid. The team’s chances of at least finishing in the points received a further boost when Lewis Hamilton spun out in the other Mercedes on the second lap.But Gasly’s race went awry once he exchanged the medium rubber he started on for a set of hards. He did so on lap 18, one lap after his closer pursuer, Kevin Magnussen, did the same. Both were doomed to finish outside the points as their teams misread the the race.
Given how quickly the medium rubber dropped off during the sprint race, and the hotter conditions on race day, teams went into the race expecting to pit twice. However the tyres stood up better than expected and the Safety Car period caused by Hamilton’s spin helped teams extend their opening stints.
Alpine left Gasly out. He had already been badly delayed by a slow pit stop, which cost him around four seconds, dropped him behind Magnussen, and cost him the chance to emerge from the pits ahead of Lance Stroll and Alexander Albon. He became stuck behind them, losing even more time, and once he cleared them Magnussen was now 10 seconds up the road.
After the race Gasly said he was “lacking pace on the hard tyre.” Even so, despite his early first pit stop and the fresh set of medium rubber waiting for him in the pits, Alpine decided against bringing him in. A late Safety Car would have been a godsend, but none came, and instead Gasly was passed by the one-stopping Franco Colapinto and Magnussen after the Haas driver’s second stop. That left him a disappointed 12th.
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“We had too many sub-optimal situations throughout the race,” Gasly admitted afterwards. “It looks like our rivals are just that bit quicker at the moment.”
Alpine failed to score a point for the fourth race in a row, but they did prevent Williams from extending their lead as much as they might have done. Colapinto held the fast lap as the race entered its final stages, but Alpine brought Esteban Ocon in for a fresh set of softs to take the time off him, though he finished 18th and couldn’t score it himself.
2024 United States Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
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2024 United States Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
2024 United States Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2024 United States Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
| Rank | # | Driver | Car | Lap time | Gap | Avg. speed (kph) | Lap no. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1’37.330 | 203.91 | 53 | |
| 2 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | Williams-Mercedes | 1’37.611 | 0.281 | 203.33 | 46 |
| 3 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1’37.656 | 0.326 | 203.23 | 42 |
| 4 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’37.679 | 0.349 | 203.18 | 55 |
| 5 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 1’37.763 | 0.433 | 203.01 | 42 |
| 6 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’37.834 | 0.504 | 202.86 | 39 |
| 7 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’37.883 | 0.553 | 202.76 | 42 |
| 8 | 30 | Liam Lawson | RB-Honda RBPT | 1’38.091 | 0.761 | 202.33 | 54 |
| 9 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda RBPT | 1’38.117 | 0.787 | 202.28 | 42 |
| 10 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’38.210 | 0.880 | 202.09 | 56 |
| 11 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine-Renault | 1’38.311 | 0.981 | 201.88 | 55 |
| 12 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas-Ferrari | 1’38.404 | 1.074 | 201.69 | 51 |
| 13 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull-Honda RBPT | 1’38.514 | 1.184 | 201.46 | 45 |
| 14 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams-Mercedes | 1’39.084 | 1.754 | 200.3 | 54 |
| 15 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB-Honda RBPT | 1’39.193 | 1.863 | 200.08 | 54 |
| 16 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’39.214 | 1.884 | 200.04 | 54 |
| 17 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1’39.261 | 1.931 | 199.95 | 52 |
| 18 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’39.272 | 1.942 | 199.92 | 53 |
| 19 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’40.575 | 3.245 | 197.33 | 53 |
| 20 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’48.064 | 10.734 | 183.66 | 1 |
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2024 United States Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
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2024 United States Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Rank | # | Driver | Team | Complete stop time (s) | Gap to best (s) | Stop no. | Lap no. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 23.58 | 1 | 26 | |
| 2 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 23.731 | 0.151 | 1 | 31 |
| 3 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 23.817 | 0.237 | 1 | 26 |
| 4 | 30 | Liam Lawson | RB | 23.839 | 0.259 | 1 | 36 |
| 5 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | 23.963 | 0.383 | 1 | 21 |
| 6 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 23.966 | 0.386 | 1 | 17 |
| 7 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | Williams | 23.971 | 0.391 | 1 | 39 |
| 8 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 24.087 | 0.507 | 2 | 38 |
| 9 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 24.107 | 0.527 | 1 | 32 |
| 10 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 24.156 | 0.576 | 1 | 31 |
| 11 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | 24.193 | 0.613 | 1 | 18 |
| 12 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 24.228 | 0.648 | 1 | 25 |
| 13 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 24.247 | 0.667 | 1 | 26 |
| 14 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 24.391 | 0.811 | 2 | 33 |
| 15 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Sauber | 24.433 | 0.853 | 1 | 13 |
| 16 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | 24.439 | 0.859 | 1 | 15 |
| 17 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 24.5 | 0.92 | 1 | 27 |
| 18 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Sauber | 24.89 | 1.31 | 2 | 35 |
| 19 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 26.175 | 2.595 | 2 | 51 |
| 20 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 26.399 | 2.819 | 1 | 27 |
| 21 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 28.228 | 4.648 | 1 | 18 |
| 22 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 29.327 | 5.747 | 1 | 40 |
| 23 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 34.983 | 11.403 | 1 | 3 |
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2024 United States Grand Prix
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- Why McLaren’s focus on Verstappen’s driving failed to overturn Norris’ penalty
- Stewards reject McLaren’s request to review Norris’ United States GP penalty
- McLaren know Norris’ penalty is likely to stand – so what do they hope to gain?
- McLaren request review of Norris’ penalty for off-track pass on Verstappen
frood19 (@frood19)
21st October 2024, 23:35
Thanks for focusing on something other than the front of the race – it’s probably more interesting tactically in the midfield because there are more variables and more variation in who the rivals are. There are so many stories in a grand Prix, it’s nice to investigate some of the less well told ones.
Captain_Slow
23rd October 2024, 9:02
Nice view of the midfield battle, I love getting this sort of data to look at.
Agree with the title, it should have been the other way around: “Why Alphine failed to convert Gasly’s best start this year…”
Both Alphine and Haas was more caught up in the other teams strategy than executing their own plan.
Best example being Magnussen’s second stint of only 21 laps on a hard tyre he radioed worked great for him (the shortest hard stint besides Zhou’s closing laps in last place).
Honda
22nd October 2024, 5:17
KMag was also behind Albon and Stroll after the pits but he was able to pull away from Gasly after the stop.
The problem was that Haas foolishly went for aggressive strategy KMag came on lap17 so Gasly and Yuki also followed him next lap which was also a mistake. Gasly was some 2secs behind KMag but some 2secs ahead of Yuki. Haas later realized it and brought him to pits for medium. At lap 41 Yuki spun when he was some 1sec behind Gasly. Colapinto and KMag went past and him and later both overtook Gasly as well. Just how Lawson did with the medium. KMag stop was a mistake caused created this chain reaction for the other two in the midfield as well. I would especially be mad if I was KMag. He came to pits on lap17 and Nico on lap27 and apart from Russell and Perez who were anyways going to get them. He finished ahead of the rest of the midfield.
Coventry Climax
22nd October 2024, 13:34
So while the entire article -correctly- explains how the team judged their sunday raceday wrong strategy wise, and likely also erroneously responded to Magnussen pitting, the title tells us it was only ‘Gasly failing to’ for not ending up higher?
I’m not a specific Gasly fan or any such, but this is clearly the wrong title. ‘Team Gasly failing to’ would have been a much better choice of words, because I recognise Gasly himself obviously is part of the team.