Things you might've missed from the US GP: A three-way title race and the return of a legend

Lawson, Alonso, socials — Photo: © IMAGO

US Grand Prix

Things you might've missed from the US GP: A three-way title race and the return of a legend

It was a hectic afternoon in Texas

Chris Deeley

Monday 21 October 2024 10:57

The US Grand Prix has wrapped, providing some late drama for the championship battle.

Lando Norris' late penalty for a less-than-legal pass on Max Verstappen put him back behind the Dutchman, who took the last podium place behind Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

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Lewis Hamilton's nightmare weekend continued, starting from 17th and spinning off on just the second lap, beaching himself and exiting the race he's won more often than anybody else.

But...what's that? You already know all of that, because you watched the race? Or the highlights on YouTube? You're here for the little things that slip through the cracks? Lovely stuff, strap in.

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Austin was kind to Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc

There was another flashpoint moment in the title battle

'Sorry, what?'

Ferrari team radio has become a thing of legend over the years, their greatest hits including Charles Leclerc's meltdown after crashing in Germany and the engineers scrolling through plans A-Z.

It's easy to wonder whether they actually know what they're doing, and they might've just confirmed that they don't. 'More phase 1 brake release for Turn 1', Carlos Sainz was told in Austin.

His reply? 'I don't know what that means'. Ah well.

Return of a legend

It's been a while since Bernd Maylander was on our screens, but Lewis Hamilton's early beaching in the gravel trap brought a third Aston Martin out onto the track.

The safety car period came too early in the race to meaningfully impact strategies with a rash of cheap pitstops, but it was nice to see the Aston Martin Vantage out there for the first time since the Canadian Grand Prix at the start of June.

Is it something about North America...?

McLaren and Red Bull are being caught by Ferrari

Three-way title battle

Verstappen's win might've pushed the door a little more closed on the drivers' title battle, extending his lead over Lando Norris and removing an opportunity for the Brit to snatch some much-needed points, but there's one championship that's still wide open.

McLaren's lead over Red Bull sits at just 40 points, enough to be overhauled in a single race, and Ferrari's 1-2 means that they're now just eight points further back.

It's hard to tell how Ferrari are going to perform race to race, but they've been unusually ruthless when on song in 2024 – securing two 1-2 finishes this season, while McLaren have just one. The papaya team remain in the box seat, but any wobble will see them swallowed whole by the chasing pack.

Big calls pay off

Daniel Ricciardo, don't read this.

Liam Lawson probably should've been driving the second VCARB all season, shouldn't he?

His pace on the hard tyre in Austin was incredibly impressive, and his ninth place finish – comfortably ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, only ten seconds back from Sergio Perez – even more so.

A little way down the pitlane, Franco Colapinto continued his impressive start to life in F1, picking up his second points-paying finish in four races and continuing his record of finishing in the top 12 in all of his starts, while team-mate Alex Albon finished just 16th.

Oh, and the driver he replaced? Logan Sargeant didn't score a single point in 14 starts, and finished inside the top 12 once.

All of that's a long way to say: Williams and VCARB were absolutely right to turn to their young drivers, and the only criticism possible of the decisions is that they weren't made earlier.

Disaster averted

This was not the weekend that Mercedes were looking for, especially after that kicked off with a front-row sprint qualifying lap from George Russell.

Hamilton got knocked out in the first part of qualifying for the Sunday feature race, only even starting as far forward as 17th because Lawson and Russell were forced to start from the back of the grid and the pitlane respectively.

The weekend continued to kick the team somewhere painful once the race started, with Lewis Hamilton spinning off to end his afternoon on just the second lap.

There was one silver lining among it all though, Russell pulling out the best finish of his career when starting so far back. His drive through the field took him all the way up to sixth, which meant that, yes, Sergio Perez was beaten by a driver who started from the pits. Ouch.

Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Mercedes FIA Lando Norris Charles Leclerc