RACE REPORT | F1 USA 2024

Ferrari dominated this year's US Grand Prix in Austin after Charles Leclerc won and Carlos Sainz finished second. Third place went to Max Verstappen, who was helped by a 5-second penalty for Lando Norris.

Although Norris started this year's US GP from first place, he soon lost it. After a duel with Verstappen, he dropped all the way down to fourth, while Leclerc took advantage of the chaos to take over the top spot.

So after the first round, the order was as follows: Leclerc, Verstappen, Sainz, Norris and Piastri.

On lap three, Hamilton went off the track, causing the Safety Car to come out. However, after the restart, the order remained the same.

The pit stops, as far as the front drivers were concerned, began on lap 22 after Sainz pitted for a tyre change. Both Leclerc and Verstappen pitted just after. The McLaren drivers, on the other hand, delayed their pit stops.

The early pit stop paid off for Sainz, who executed a successful undercut on Versatpepn, whose pace was not as good as in Saturday's sprint.

The McLaren drivers made their pit stops on laps 32 and 33. While Piastri was a little lonely in fifth place, Norris quickly began to chase down Verstappen.

He was able to close significantly on him with about 10 laps to go, but was unable to attack for long. The Brit managed to do so on lap 52, but went off the track after his maneuver, for which he was penalized 5 seconds shortly afterwards.

Leclerc, meanwhile, went on to take the win, his third victory of the year. Sainz confirmed Ferrari's dominance with second place.

Third place went to Verstappen, who returned to third after Norris was penalised. The Dutchman also increased his lead over the Briton in the championship - his advantage increased to 57 points with 5 races to go.

Piastri had a lonely race, coming home in fifth place.

Russell, who started from the pit lane, made a strong run and was able to overtook Perez at the end of the Grand Prix to finish ahead of him in sixth place. Eighth place Haas went to Hulkenberg, while youngsters Lawson and Colapinto rounded out the top ten.

The next race will take place in Mexico City on 27th October.

Race results: