Luke’s Weekend Review – USA GP 2024

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USA GP 2024: Leclerc Triumphs, Norris Penalized as Championship Heats Up

USA 3

Round 19 is over and race one of 3 for the last triple header of the 2024 season is over and I must say it was an entertaining one as we had action ongoing for most of the race similar to what we saw in the sprint race.

George Russell had to take a pitstop start as Mercedes had to work on the car for Russell after the crash while also changing the spec of the car. Russell will have a mountain to climb to get some decent points from a pitlane start. The Top 12 drivers all opted for the medium tyre as a starting tyre while we had Lance Stroll, Franco Colapinto, Lewis Hamilton, Liam Lawson and George Russell all opt for the hard while the rest were also on the mediums.

At lights out is where the action started and never stopped as we see both Lando Norris and Max Verstappen get an equal start and Norris goes over to cover off Verstappen but left a Red Bull wide gap on the inside that Verstappen didn’t need to think twice to get in there, both drivers weren’t able to make the corner as they both go off the track wide and while this was happening, this opened the door for Charles Leclerc who started in 4th to swoop through on the inside of both drivers and go into the lead. This was a very similar move to Lando the day before in the sprint race. Further back we see Esteban Ocon being spun round as Alex Albon touched his wheel and Ocon ended up in last place, while this was happening there was a bit of chaos in Turn 1 and Lewis Hamilton saw the opportunity to get through most of the chaos and went up to 12th from 17th making 5 places at the start.

Carlos Sainz who started in 3rd and was still running 3rd at this stage found himself behind Verstappen and was pushing him quite hard on Lap 1 as the pair swap places a couple of times but in the end of the lap, Verstappen was able to hold his position in 2nd. Hamilton’s early success quickly came to an end on Lap 3 as we see him lose control of the Car in Turn 19 and ended up beaching himself in the gravel, Hamilton tried his best to keep the car going but the car was not having any of it. This only meant one thing and the Safety Car came out for the first time since the Canadian GP which is the longest streak without a Safety Car.

On Lap 5 the Safety Car announced that it was ending and everyone got ready to go racing again and Leclerc had to redo some of the good work he had already done as the gap to Verstappen was now gone. Leclerc goes on the exit of Turn 19 and Verstappen was expecting this as he was on the back of Leclerc immediately, despite this however, Leclerc was able to hold the lead into Turn 1 and now had to worry about breaking the DRS threat to Verstappen in a lap. Sainz continued where he left off putting the pressure on Verstappen and this might have helped his teammate as by the end of the lap, he was able to both get the fastest lap at the time but also break the DRS threat to Verstappen.

Turn 12 was once again showing that it is going to be one of the corners where most overtakes would happen as early on, we started seeing some moves there starting with Lap 7 as we see Nico Hulkenberg move up to the points by overtaking Fernando Alonso. Same lap at the front there was some trouble forming as Sainz was reporting no power on corner exits and more worryingly, he was reporting a strong smell of fuel in the car. At this stage of the GP Sainz had dropped back from Verstappen and was looking like he was about to retire with a possible leak in the car. Luckily the team were able to get him to do some changes on the driving mode and the issue seems to have sorted itself out.

Another driver who seemed to be flying at the early stages was Russell who started from the pitlane and on Lap 14 he was making a move on Valtteri Bottas into Turn 12 but in the process of the overtake, he forced Bottas off the track, a lap later he pulled the same move on Franco Colapinto but this time he was able to not force Colapinto off the track and get up to 13th. The stewards had a look at his move on Bottas and decided to hand Russell a 5 second penalty which he seemed to be quite shocked about and so did we.

Round 19 Review: Leclerc's Masterclass, Norris vs. Verstappen Showdown, and Strategy Drama in Austin

Strategy calls started coming into play for teams and Ferrari were already on the radio to Leclerc asking him about Plan A, to which he responded that he prefers Plan B or C and that he would like to focus on that. At this stage on Lap 15, he was already 6.4 seconds ahead of Verstappen which was a healthy lead even if Verstappen went for an undercut. Zhou Guanyu was the first to pit and pull the trigger to some stops as he comes in for mediums and comes back out in last. The same lap, Red Bull report to Max that they are seeing an issue on the car and that they can fix it at the pitstop and asked Verstappen to hang in there for now. This could lead to a slower stop depending on what the issue was. On Lap 18, his teammate Sergi Perez was able to get past Yuki Tsunoda and moves into P8 after a few laps of battling once more as the pair had already quite a good battle in the sprint race on Saturday.

After this battle, Tsunoda immediately found himself in hot water once more as Hulkenberg this time was going for an overtake and the pair battled quite nicely between Turns 12-18 but Tsunoda was able to stay ahead, however he dived into the pits at the end of the lap. Looking once more at Russell, on Lap 19 he was now up to 8th place as he overtakes Lawson into Turn 12. Colapinto seem to have been doing a good job in this race as on Lap 22 we see him get past Alonso into Turn 12 and up to P10.

On Lap 22, Ferrari pull the trigger with Sainz to undercut Verstappen as he pits from 3rd to get on the hards and comes back out in 5th just ahead of Perez which was crucial as otherwise Perez could have played the team game and slowed Sainz up. Verstappen and Red Bull reply 4 laps later and on Lap 26, we see Max come into the pits for the hards from 2nd and comes out in 5th behind Sainz and the strategy for Ferrari worked well. At this stage Leclerc had been coming on the radio telling the team to not leave him out too long as he does not want to come under pressure by anyone with how strong the undercut was here. The team listened and on Lap 27 they brought Leclerc in to get on the hards himself and he came back out in 3rd from 1st behind the McLaren pair, but they were yet to pit.

On Lap 28 we see Pierre Gasly make a similar move to Russell on Albon and Gasly forced Albon off the track while overtaking him, this was looked into by the stewards and Gasly was also given a 5 second penalty, a lap later on Lap 29, Gasly was also shown the Black and White Flag for exceeding track limits multiple times. Leclerc out front quickly caught up to the back of Oscar Piastri on Lap 31 and made a move into Turn 12 to go back up to 2nd, Piastri knew this was not his race and did not fight this too much. And on Lap 32 we see Norris come into the pits from 1st and comes out in 5th behind Verstappen but with a much better tyre delta. Piastri follows in a lap later and comes out in 5th behind his teammate.

On Lap 36 we also see Tsunoda get a 5 second penalty for forcing another driver off track and this seemed to be coming a bit of a common occurrence in this race as all the moves on Turn 12 seemed to be quite edgy. At this stage of the race, Norris was the fastest man on track on his new hards as he has already closed up to Verstappen quite a bit which meant, Verstappen was soon going to come under pressure. Lap 37 Verstappen in fact came on the radio saying that he was not happy on these tyres as he seems to not be able to turn, brake or do anything with them.

Lawson who was still out on the hards he started on comes in on Lap 37 to get on the mediums and from 7th he comes out in 12th ahead of his teammate Tsunoda, showing that going long on the first stint was the better strategy for him and now he is on faster tyres for the end of the race. Lap 38 we see Perez move ahead of Colapinto into Turn 12 and moves up to P7. Lap 39 Kevin Magnussen gets very urgently called into the pits like he had an issue but after a quick change of tyres, Magnussen was back out on track and no news came about this but maybe there was a puncture or a tear off that got stuck in an air vent somewhere.

Coming into the closing stages of the race now, on Lap 41, Russell gets called in to serve his penalty and change his tyres, Russell comes out in 8th but with much faster tyres, 6th was on the cards for the only remaining Mercedes on track. By Lap 45 he was able to clear Hulkenberg for P7 and could set his eyes on Perez for P6. On Lap 54 he caught up with Perez and was able to get ahead momentarily but Perez fought back but on Lap 55, Russell was able to make the move stick.

This is where it all started to get quite interesting as on Lap 44, we see Norris in the DRS range of Verstappen and the battle begun between the 2 Championship rivals. On Lap 47, Max locks up into Turn 1 and that helped Norris get that much closer but Verstappen was defending very well against him. Max however was under pressure as on Lap 50 he locked up once again into Turn 12. On Lap 51, Norris does manage to get ahead shortly at Turn 16 but Max saw that coming and was able to get ahead once more. On Lap 52 is where Norris went for the move into Turn 12, he seemed to made the move before the corner but Max came back at him under braking and the pair go off track as Max seem to have pushed Norris off and also went wide himself. Norris still overtook here off track and Max was straight on the radio saying that Norris overtook off track while Norris said that he thinks he was ahead at the Apex to which the team agreed. This incident went to the stewards and Norris got a 5 second penalty for this.

Charles Leclerc in the end took the chequered flag followed by Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg, Liam Lawson and Franco Colapinto form the Top 10. Verstappen was only 4 seconds behind Norris, so he moved up to 3rd while Norris dropped to 4th due to his penalty. Charles Leclerc took the driver of the day award for his flawless drive and also calling the strategy himself to ensure another win for him and Ferrari which is helping them get closer to Red Bull for the constructor Championship. Esteban Ocon took the fastest lap of the race in the end.

Who do you think was the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the USA GP? Charles Leclerc definitely up there with a P4 to P1 drive. We now head to Mexico for the Mexican GP for Race 2 of the last triple header.

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