The Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) took victory this Sunday in the United States Grand Prix, ahead of his teammate, the Spanish Carlos Sainz, by taking advantage of the fight between Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Lando Norris (McLaren ), which ended with a five-second penalty for the British that gave the Dutchman a third place that practically finished off the World Cup.
Sainz achieved a great second place despite being affected by the fight in the first lap between Norris and Verstappen, while the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) rose to seventh position, the Argentine Franco Colapinto (Williams) went from fifteenth to tenth place, adding one point, and the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) finished thirteenth.
The fight between Norris, who started on pole, and Verstappen, second, marked the race from the first second. The Dutchman threw the Englishman off the track in the first corner by forcing him to go off the track, a movement that affected Sainz, third just behind the McLaren driver, and which benefited Leclerc who traced the curve on the inside and He advanced three positions in one fell swoop, while the Briton dropped to fourth and the Dutchman maintained second place.
However, Norris’ pace in the second half of the race allowed him not only to reach Verstappen, but also to pass him at the end of the long backstretch on lap 52, although he did so off the track, as he was forced to leave to avoid touching ‘Mad Max’ again, the same thing that had happened to him on the first lap.
That overtaking on the outside earned him a five-second penalty that caused Norris to finish fourth and the Dutchman third, which leaves him with a 57-point advantage over Norris at the end of the weekend and practically liquidated the drivers’ World Championship.
Verstappen corners Norris at the start, but they both lose
Although the pole position went to Norris, who started well in the first metres, the triple world champion, second, got into the Englishman’s line in the first corner, in which the Dutchman barely braked and drew a line from the inside to the outside that cornered the McLaren driver on the outside of the curve.
They both left the line on the outside, which caused Sainz, who had also made the first turn on the outside, to encounter them head on and had to brake, while Leclerc, who started fourth and traced the curve well on the outside, inside, he discovered that, with little effort, he could overtake the first three and focus on shooting from the lead.
A safety car caused by Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who lost control of the car at turn 19, calmed everything down, but with the Englishman’s vehicle removed, Sainz tried again to stalk Verstappen, but he could do nothing against the triple champion. of the world, and the positions changed nothing, with Leclerc commanding and. behind. Verstappen, Sainz and Norris.
The race seemed to be behind. With no alternatives on the part of the McLarens, neither Norris, fourth, nor Piastri, sixth, the British George Russell (Mercedes), who started from the pit lane, was the main protagonist at the rear.
He passed eleven drivers in just nineteen laps, the same ones that Checo Pérez needed to complete a comeback that started from ninth position and that took him to seventh place, an impossible goal for Fernando Alonso who was lost in the middle of the field. table after a start in which he ran into Sainz, Norris and Verstappen, and that complicated even more a race that he already knew in advance would be complicated.
Norris arrives and overtakes him in an agonizing ending that is of no use
Sainz was the first of those above to go through the pits trying to throw an undercut at Verstappen, who however was worried about the difference with Norris and not so much about the Madrid native. Verstappen, who did not stop to defend himself from Sainz, allowed himself to be ‘overtaken’ in the pits, while defending his more than three-second advantage over Norris.
But he encountered a flaw in the plan: the degradation of his tires was much greater than that of Norris, which forced him to stop five laps before Norris, who stopped with 24 laps to go, so It had practically new tires, which heralded a very tight finish to the race.
The laps passed and, while Leclerc was five seconds behind Sainz, Norris was closing in on Verstappen until he reached DRS. New tires, more pace, overtaking seemed like an easy task, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The first two of the World Championship starred in a vibrant last fifteen laps in which Verstappen defended himself perfectly until lap 52 arrived, when Norris reached the apex of the curve on the long Austin straight a little earlier, but the Dutchman, barely braking, forced him to go outside.
Norris came out before the triple world champion, but the stewards quickly got into the action. It was the same thing that had happened in the first corner of the first lap of the circuit, but now the Briton had passed Verstappen and had not lost positions, as had happened on the first lap.
But Norris was penalized with five seconds, the same ones that prevented Norris from being able to cut three units in the drivers’ World Championship and which allows Verstappen to add those three points of difference – between third and fourth – to the two he already gained. in the sprint race this Saturday.
(With information from EFE)
LEE:
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