Ferrari enjoys perfect 1-2 result at Austin, Verstappen gets third after Norris penalty
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc took the lead when exiting Turn 1 and never really gave up control of the race to take another brilliant win for Ferrari. Carlos Sainz got into second thanks to a great strategy call by Ferrari while Verstappen took third after Norris got a very dubious penalty.
Following a perfect sprint for Max Verstappen, the main race kicked off with Lando Norris on pole. George Russell on the other hand had to start from the pitlane as the Mercedes crew were forced to work late to fix a badly damaged car following Russell's qualifying crash. That meant Russell didn't have the latest car updates as the team had no spares and did not want to switch the parts from Hamilton to Russell's car.
The start went well initially for Norris but as he went to the left to defend the inside line, Verstappen still found a gap further left, enabling the latter to take the inside of the apex. As both had for from ideal lines out of the corner with Norris notably being pushed wide, Leclerc enjoyed the battle and happily took first place.
Carlos Sainz got into third behind Verstappen while Norris slotted into 4th, just ahead of his teammate Piastri and Gasly. Magnussen, Tsunoda and Perez followed suit while Alonso completed the top 10 after losing three places at the start.
Sainz was immediately on fire and attacked Verstappen repeatedly in the following laps until a safety car was necessary when Hamilton's rear stepped out under braking, leaving him stuck in the gravel. Hamilton apologised immediately but surely the incident was also the result of the stability issues that Mercedes struggled to dial out of the setup.
The safety car left the track on lap 5, allowing to continue with the race as of lap 6. Leclerc did a very slow start and only powered away in the penultimate corner. Though he held first place it didn't impress Verstappen at all as the Dutchman was very very close to the Ferrari in the first few corners of the lap.
Leclerc had a great second sector got break away from Verstappen, leaving the latter without DRS by the start of the next lap whereas Sainz looked to continue to put pressure on the Red Bull. Leclerc went on to impress and steadily pulled away from Verstappen, up to 7 seconds by lap 15.
George Russell meanwhile remained stuck behind Bottas fo a long time but when he eventually got past the Finn he soon made further progress by passing Colapinto. The stewards though judged Russell's move on Bottas a bit pushy and hence handed him a 5s penalty. As Russell expressed his surprise and Team Principal Toto Wolff backed him by claiming that penalty was a joke, George already caught Alonso who seems totally powerless this weekend. Sure enough they switched positions on lap 18 as Russell breezed past the Aston Martin on the back straight.
After the number of pitstops from midfield runners, Carlos Sainz became the first podium contender to pit. The Spaniard exchanged his medium compound tyres to a fresh set of hards on lap 22. Sainz rejoined in 5th place and immediately set the fastest lap, enjoying more than 10 seconds worth of clean air ahead of him.
It took another 3 laps before the next car pitted, and it was the blue one of Max Verstappen. The stop was quicker but he still returned to the track more than 6 seconds behind Sainz. Leclerc pitted the next lap and also changed to the hardest Pirelli. He returned to the track in third place, behind Piastri and 6 seconds ahead of his teammate.
Leclerc enjoyed the newer tyres and soon found himself closing in on Piastri, overtaking the McLaren in lap 31. That easy pass seemed to trigger McLaren to call Norris in for a tyre change. Norris returned to the track 6 seconds behind Verstappen and six seconds ahead of Russell - who still had not pitted.
Piastri pitted one lap later and rejoined the track only just ahead of Russell.
Norris then went on to start a series of fastest laps, rapidly closing in Verstappen. The Dutch Red Bull driver on the other hand complained he couldn't do much, "I can't attack anything, I can't brake, I can't turn". On lap 37, with 20 remaining, the gap between the two title contenders was 3.7 seconds.
While Tsuoda spun off at Turn 1 to lose a couple of places and Colapinto proved a tough nut to crack for Magnussen, Norris got DRS behind Verstappen for the first time in lap 44 with 12 remaining. That moment was the start of a long sequence of corners and laps where Norris seemed ready to punch, repeatedly forcing Verstappen to take a defensive line.
Every lap that went by Norris seemed to have more of an advantage and eventually on lap 52, after repeatedly getting aside of the Red Bull, Norris went past on the back straight. Verstappen however was on the inside and Norris went off track, soon triggering a protest from Verstappen even though the Dutchman definitely did not leave space for Norris on the outside anyway. The steward quickly dismissed the incident and "noted" it down.
As McLaren informed Norris they were of the opinion that if both cars left the track there is no issue, Max was told "flat out" as a penalty might still be imposed for leaving the track a third time. Indeed, even before the end of the race, Norris was handed a 5-second penalty for "leaving the track and gaining an advantage".
Ahead of the antics, Ferrari enjoyed a perfect result with Leclerc and Sainz taking the best positions on the podium.
