AUSTIN, Texas — Charles Leclerc led a Scuderia Ferrari one-two effort in Sunday’s Formula 1 United States Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas.
As polesitter Lando Norris and title rival Max Verstappen dueled for the lead in the first corner on the first lap, Leclerc snuck by to take the top spot. From there, Leclerc controlled the race and crossed the finish line 8.562 seconds clear of Sainz.Â
“(I’m) very happy,” Leclerc said. “It hasn’t been an easy weekend, until now I have been struggling a bit with the feeling with the car but I had the confidence that in the race the feeling was better, and it was the case. We’ve seen it yesterday in the Sprint race, we were a bit… not scared, but we thought the others would improve a lot more today but we still had the upper hand so really happy with today.
“A one-two for the team, we couldn’t have dreamed for better.”Â
In a battle for the final podium position, Norris was handed a five-second penalty or exceeding track limits, which allowed Verstappen to snag third.Â
Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri placed fifth with Mercedes’ George Russell rebounding to sixth after beginning the race at COTA in pit lane. Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez placed seventh while Haas F-1’s Nico Hulkenberg gave the American team a top-10 finish in eighth.
Rookie Liam Lawson snagged points for Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team in ninth. Franco Colapinto (10th) secured the final points for Williams Racing.Â
Haas F-1’s other entry, driven by Kevin Magnussen, narrowly missed a double points day for the American team in 11th.Â
A rough weekend for Lewis Hamilton resulted in an early exit on lap three after the Mercedes driver spun and could not continue.
“I had a great start, and I thought we were in for a positive race,” Hamilton began. “I was just bringing the tires in when I had the accident, which was a really strange moment. I wasn’t pushing too hard but the car bounced a little into turn 19, I lost the back end and that was that. We measured a large gust of wind, up to 40 kph, as I turned in which likely didn’t help. George had a similar spin to me yesterday so we will work hard to analyse both incidents and see what we can learn from them.
“I am sorry to the whole team who have worked so hard to bring these updates but onwards and upwards from here. Hopefully we can get the car in a better place for next week in Mexico. We will all be working incredibly hard to do so.”