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Formula 1 United States GP
F1 Grand Prix race results: Verstappen wins US GP in Austin
Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on Sunday after a tense battle with Formula 1 title rival Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Oct 25, 2021, 8:37 AM
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Hamilton led from the start, but Verstappen undercut him at the first round of pitstops.
Although that gave Verstappen the lead, it always meant he’d be vulnerable on tyre life in the closing stages.
Hamilton chased him down, but was unable to get close enough to attack and he came up just short after a charging drive.
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2021 US Grand Prix race results
Cla Driver Laps Time Gap Interval 1 Max Verstappen
56 1:34'36.552 2 Lewis Hamilton
56 1:34'37.885 1.333 1.333 3 Sergio Perez
56 1:35'18.775 42.223 40.890 4 Charles Leclerc
56 1:35'28.798 52.246 10.023 5 Daniel Ricciardo
56 1:35'53.406 1'16.854 24.608 6 Valtteri Bottas
56 1:35'56.680 1'20.128 3.274 7 Carlos Sainz Jr.
56 1:36'00.097 1'23.545 3.417 8 Lando Norris
56 1:36'00.947 1'24.395 0.850 9 Yuki Tsunoda
55 1 lap 10 Sebastian Vettel
55 1 lap 11 Antonio Giovinazzi
55 1 lap 12 Lance Stroll
55 1 lap 13 Kimi Raikkonen
55 1 lap 14 George Russell
55 1 lap 15 Nicholas Latifi
55 1 lap 16 Mick Schumacher
54 2 laps 17 Nikita Mazepin
54 2 laps Fernando Alonso
49 Esteban Ocon
40 Pierre Gasly
14 View full results
How the US Grand Prix unfolded
From pole position Verstappen got wheelspin off the start line and Hamilton rocketed past him into Turn 1, holding the inside line from P2 on the grid to lead. Behind them, Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin got punted into a spin by fellow Canadian Nicholas Latifi’s Wiliams at Turn 1.
Hamilton led Verstappen, Sergio Perez (Red Bull) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), while Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Lando Norris (McLaren) fought hard over fifth. Eighth-placed Yuki Tsunoda held Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) at bay, and his AlphaTauri teammate Pierre Gasly managed to pass Bottas on Lap 3.
Hamilton couldn’t pull away from Verstappen, who noted that Lewis was “sliding a lot”, while Perez fell away by 5s on Lap 10. Verstappen pitted early on Lap 11 for hard tyres, putting him back behind Ricciardo but he quickly dealt with the McLaren on the back straight. Perez pitted for mediums on Lap 13, but it was a relatively slow stop.
Hamilton pitted on Lap 14, opting for hard tyres, and Verstappen took the lead with a 6.7s advantage but with three laps less on his similar-compound tyres.
As the race approached half distance, Hamilton carved into Verstappen’s lead, cutting it to under 3s by the time Max pitted for a second time on Lap 30 – giving him a 26-lap run to the finish. Red Bull feared it would get undercut by Hamilton like Verstappen had done to him after the opening stint.
Mercedes opted to run long, with Hamilton pitting on Lap 37, rejoining 8.8s behind Verstappen.
Verstappen lost a chunk of time behind Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, who’d earlier clashed with Fernando Alonso (Alpine), for which Raikkonen received a black and white flag.
With 10 laps to go, Hamilton got to within 3.4s of Verstappen with his tyres that were seven laps fresher. He got the gap under 2s with six laps remaining, and the gap briefly got under 1s with two laps to go, but crucially not in the DRS detection zone.
Verstappen clung on to win by 1.3s over Hamilton. Behind the lead battle, Perez finished a clear third (although he struggled physically with no drinking water in the car), ahead of Leclerc and the battling Ricciardo and Sainz. Bottas got ahead of Norris for seventh and closed in on their fight, passing Sainz in the closing laps for sixth.
Behind Norris, Tsunoda finished ninth, ahead of Sebastian Vettel, whose Aston passed Raikkonen when the Finn spun with four laps to go.
Gasly slowed with a suspension issue and retired, while both Alpines also retired.
2021 Formula 1 US Grand Prix fastest laps
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h 1 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 41 1'38.485 201.521 2 Max Verstappen
Red Bull 52 1'39.096 0.611 0.611 200.278 3 Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 41 1'39.303 0.818 0.207 199.861 4 Sergio Perez
Red Bull 32 1'39.566 1.081 0.263 199.333 5 Fernando Alonso
Alpine 46 1'40.067 1.582 0.501 198.335 6 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes 41 1'40.147 1.662 0.080 198.176 7 Lando Norris
McLaren 41 1'40.228 1.743 0.081 198.016 8 Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren 43 1'40.345 1.860 0.117 197.785 9 Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari 40 1'40.377 1.892 0.032 197.722 10 Sebastian Vettel
Aston Martin 40 1'40.481 1.996 0.104 197.517 11 George Russell
Williams 36 1'41.120 2.635 0.639 196.269 12 Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo 44 1'41.145 2.660 0.025 196.221 13 Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 47 1'41.151 2.666 0.006 196.209 14 Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 36 1'41.189 2.704 0.038 196.135 15 Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo 43 1'41.340 2.855 0.151 195.843 16 Mick Schumacher
Haas 36 1'41.395 2.910 0.055 195.737 17 Nicholas Latifi
Williams 46 1'41.818 3.333 0.423 194.924 18 Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 12 1'42.015 3.530 0.197 194.547 19 Esteban Ocon
Alpine 28 1'42.194 3.709 0.179 194.207 20 Nikita Mazepin
Haas 42 1'42.886 4.401 0.692 192.900 View full results
2021 Formula 1 US Grand Prix tyre history
Cla Driver Chassis 1 2 3 4 1 Max Verstappen
Red Bull M 13 H 19 H 27 2 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes M 16 H 24 H 19 3 Sergio Perez
Red Bull M 15 M 21 H 26 4 Charles Leclerc
Ferrari M 15 H 20 H 24 5 Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren M 14 H 19 H 26 6 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes M 18 H 19 H 22 7 Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari S 14 H 18 H 27 8 Lando Norris
McLaren M 13 H 20 H 26 9 Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri S 12 H 23 H 23 10 Sebastian Vettel
Aston Martin M 19 M 23 H 17 11 Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo M 8 M 21 H 29 12 Lance Stroll
Aston Martin M 18 M 16 H 21 13 Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo M 12 M 19 H 24 14 George Russell
Williams M 9 H 22 H 24 15 Nicholas Latifi
Williams M 5 H 20 H 30 16 Mick Schumacher
Haas M 11 H 23 M 20 17 Nikita Mazepin
Haas M 1 H 23 M 13 M 18 Fernando Alonso
Alpine M 7 H 21 H 11 M 10 Esteban Ocon
Alpine M 6 H 22 M 18 Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri M 13 H 4 View full results
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