Charles Leclerc produced a stunning victory at the Circuit of the Americas to win from fourth on the grid as fireworks exploded between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in their quest for the F1 title. So who were the winners and losers from the 2024 United States GP?
The race instantly began with drama when Red Bull’s Verstappen looked to take the lead into Turn 1 and pushed the pole-sitting McLaren off the track, allowing Leclerc’s Ferrari to slip by and seize control of the Grand Prix and from there, he never looked in trouble.
The 27-year-old masterfully extended his opening stint to the point where he could simply react to anything that happened behind him and as a result, all he had to do was go through the motions to take the flag first.
Meanwhile, Verstappen and Norris continued their duel for the F1 title as the Dutchman boldly repelled any attempts to overtake him in the second stint until Lap 52 when the Brit finally got alongside and seemed destined to claim the final podium spot.
However, as he is known for doing, the triple world champion left no mercy to his foe and ran him off track once again as Norris defended the place by overtaking outside of the white lines, for which he earned a five-second time penalty and ultimately lost third by 0.9 after 56 laps.
With that summary in mind, Total-Motorsport.com takes you through the main winners and losers of the 2024 United States GP, hosted at the Circuit of the Americas, on Sunday, October 20.
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Winners: Ferrari
The Scuderia showed they can win the United States GP without the rest of the grid being disqualified first.
What was perhaps most remarkable was how unremarkable the victory seemed, largely thanks to the titanic championship tussle going on behind Leclerc and Sainz.
But Ferrari were the class of the field on Sunday, with Leclerc making a smart move into the lead at turn one and Sainz taking second with an undercut of the distracted Verstappen and showing a clean pair of heels to the chasing pack from there.
Ferrari also lit up the sprint race despite missing out on victory, and have now equalled their best win tally in the last five years. Three more maximums and they’ll have more than any season since they were winning championships – though a tilt at either crown this season still seems unlikely.
Losers: The FIA Stewards
If a Formula 1 and FIA steward has done their job well, then you simply won’t hear from or about them following the final lap of the race and that was simply not the case in Austin at the heart of the Lone Star State.
A series of inconsistencies on almost identical incidents left major personalities in the F1 paddock such as Zak Brown and Lando Norris simply confused as to what the rules when two drivers go wheel to wheel actually are, whilst Toto Wolff went one step further to hint at bias.
Carlos Sainz, Verstappen and George Russell all produced very similar defences at Turn 12 yet they all received different outcomes as the stewards seemed unable to remember their own precedents.
Sainz neither suffered nor saw his rival receive a penalty, Verstappen saw his rival collect some punishment whilst Russell himself was the victim of a time penalty for forcing a Sauber off in the opening stages.
Once again, frustrated fans and paddock personalities find themselves calling for natural track limits to ensure as much “nuance” as possible is removed from the stewards office, which leaves COTA hardly covered in glory.
Winner: Max Verstappen
However, while the manner of his victory will be rightly scrutinised, this was another race ticked off for Max Verstappen on his run to a fourth championship.
The vaunted Red Bull upgrade didn’t return Verstappen to the days of 20-second victory margins as had been feared, but it didn’t need to.
The stewards’ assistance coupled with Verstappen‘s assured sprint win extended his advantage over Norris by five points meaning the Brit now needs to gain 11.4 points per weekend over the remaining five weekends (including two sprints) of 2024.
Losers: Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes, and particularly Lewis Hamilton, will look back on the 2024 United States GP with bewilderment as to just how it got away from them when they seemed set for pole in Friday’s Sprint Qualifying.
The upgrade from the Silver Arrows seemed to be working a treat for both of their drivers who showed prowess over one lap whilst Hamilton was struck with misfortune when a yellow flag was tossed before struggling with the balance of the car on Saturday’s Grand Prix Qualifying.
Dumped out in Q1 for the fourth time in his career, the seven-time world champion wanted to start from the pit lane but his engineers said no, meaning that he began the race with the same issues as the Sprint, where he lacked confidence and balance after suspension damage.
So it’s no surprise that on Lap 3 his car suffered a bizarre loss of grip as he ended up beached in the gravel at Turn 19 and out of the race at one of his strongest tracks. A weekend that offered a win turned into one he will desperately want to forget.
And the sentiment will be the same for Russell after his Q3 crash, very similar to his teammate’s and at the same corner, ensured a start from the pits. Despite being so far back, he finished sixth and 36 seconds behind Verstappen suggesting a top three finish was very much a possibility.
Winners: Super subs
While Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson may have had markedly different arrivals to the 2024 F1 grid, both drivers added another exhibit to their growing cases for a full-time seat next season.
Williams‘ understudy outqualified Alex Albon on aggregate over the weekend and scored for the second time this season, only denied an unfathomable fastest lap by Esteban Ocon‘s late pit stop for softs.
Despite Ocon‘s intervention, Williams still extended their lead over Alpine in the constructors’ championship though couldn’t close up to seventh-placed RB thanks to Lawson‘s heroics.
Replacing arguably the most popular driver in F1 with an inherited 60 place grid penalty at his first race, it threatened to be an inauspicious start to Lawson‘s second bite at the cherry but he dispelled that immediately by earning the wrath of Fernando Alonso in the sprint race.
And Lawson‘s grand prix was a masterclass in moving up the grid on-track and in the pit stop phase as the Kiwi landed an important first blow in a high-stakes RB battle with Yuki Tsunoda, finishing ninth.
Losers: Yuki Tsunoda/Sergio Perez
The Red Bull seat is up for grabs in 2025 and at the Circuit of the Americas, neither Sergio Perez nor Yuki Tsunoda did much to impress Christian Horner and Helmut Marko to prove they should be next to Verstappen as both were soundly outshone by Liam Lawson.
The 22-year-old only getting into the car for the first time in a year, with Perez only finishing 11 seconds up the road in a much faster vehicle with over a decade of experience as he got beaten by Russell as the Mercedes began from the pits.
The 34-year-old finished seventh and was 39 seconds behind Verstappen, despite the Dutchman spending the better part of 15 laps compromising his own racing lines to defend from Norris.
Whilst Tsunoda was a distance 14th and 31.5 seconds behind his RB teammate after a self-inflicted spin, as well as earning a five-second time penalty, saw his race fall apart before his eyes.
If both of them hope to retain, or land, the gig with the defending world champions from next season then they will need to buckle up their performances sharpish otherwise Lawson is going to be the only choice for Marko and Horner to make.
Winner: Sprint races
The sprint criticism grows quieter and quieter with each passing race, and this weekend was no exception with a Saturday thriller that saw a brilliant duel between the Ferraris and Lando Norris.
The format has faced plenty of backlash from fans and media – including in this parish – and has been forced to adapt but the 2024 season has shown it at its best by completely uncoupling the sprint and grand prix sections of the weekend and allowing the shorter version to flourish in its own right.
Handpicking some of the best tracks for wheel-to-wheel racing, and Qatar, has produced some stellar wheel-to-wheel action while 12 months on from runner-up Hamilton and polesitter Leclerc being disqualified at Austin for excessive plank wear partially due to the sprint, the FIA’s change to parc ferme has also paid off.
Saturday also dispelled any notion that drivers are incentivised to play it safe before the main event and the reality remains that while the going is good in F1, the sprint is just a way to show off more of the best of the sport – if implemented correctly.
