The teams and drivers were in Western Hemisphere for the first time this season, having skipped the Canadian Grand Prix again this season. The Circuit of the Americas circuit played host to the FORMULA 1 ARAMCO UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX 2021. It was a race of tyre conservation, with Max Verstappen narrowly taking victory ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton had a better start from the second grid slot. Max Verstappen saw this and moved to the left side of the straight, forcing Hamilton to the very inside of the circuit on the run up to the first corner. Verstappen was forced to run wide in the narrow first corner. Verstappen rejoined the track side-by-side with his teammate, but Sergio Perez let him by, keeping Verstappen in P2.
Meanwhile, Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi dropped to the rear of the field after colliding in the first corner. Latifi was between Stroll on the outside and a Haas on the inside. His Williams front wing clipped the rear of Stroll, spinning the Aston Martin around in front of Latifi.
McLaren and Ferrari treated fans to some entertaining opening lap action, as Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz jockeyed for position like it was the final lap of the race. In the end, Ricciardo earned P5 ahead of Sainz and Norris.
Esteban Ocon was the first driver to pit on lap 4, taking a set of hard compound tyres. It was an unscheduled stop to replace a front wing that was damaged when he clipped a fast overtaking Antonio Giovinazzi in the Silverstone-inspired turns 3, 4 and 5.
His teammate Fernando Alonso was the first to make what appeared to be a scheduled pit stop for new hard tyres on lap 8.
Much like in qualifying on Saturday, the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton appeared to be set up to run faster on the straights, but it appeared to slide more in the corners than the Red Bull of Verstappen. As the two leaders pulled away from the rest of the field, Verstappen appeared to have the upper-hand.
Verstappen was the first of the leaders to pit for hard tyres on lap 11, trying to undercut the Mercedes. Other drivers followed suited in the laps that followed. Sergio Perez pitted a lap after his teammate for new tyres, but his stop was slow. Hamilton pitted on lap 13, but it was too late and Verstappen zoomed past into the lead of the race.
There was a fair bit of track limits drama involving Fernando Alonso and the Alfa Romeo drivers. Early in the race, Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen were scrapping into the first corner. Raikkonen was forced slightly wide, shedding some parts when the Alpine made contact with the Alfa Romeo. Raikkonen stayed alongside and got by Alonso in turns 3, 4 and 5. Alpine were unhappy with Raikkonen’s move, feeling he had gained an advantage by going off the track. The stewards did not agree.
Later in the race, Alonso tried a lunge on Antonio Giovinazzi in turn 1. The Alpine ran very wide on the outside of the corner, gaining the position. The stewards forced the Spaniard to give back the position. A couple laps after returning the position, the two were locked into a tight battle in turn 12. This time it was Giovinazzi’s turn to yield the position for track limits.
On lap 28 there was a brief virtual safety car period to clear some debris from the circuit. It was not long enough for any drivers to make a cheap pit stop and the race resumed shortly after the VSC started.
Max Verstappen was the first of the lead cars to make his second pit stop of his two-stop strategy. He traded in his comfortable race lead for a set of new hard compound tyres, covering off a potential undercut from the Mercedes.
It was nearly 10 laps before Mercedes made Hamilton’s second pit stop for another new set of hard compound tyres. He rejoined the race a little less than 9 seconds behind Verstappen, hoping that the newer rubber would pay off in the closing stages of the race.
Some of the lapped cars (namely Yuki Tsunoda) slowed down Max Verstappen down as he made his way around the circuit. Hamilton, on the newer tyres, was able to dramatically close down the gap to the leading Red Bull. Verstappen was also setting personal best lap times, but Hamilton still had a strong pace advantage.
Hamilton closed to within 2 seconds of Verstappen with 5 laps remaining in the race. Now in the dirty air, Hamilton’s pace began to drop off, as the Mercedes appears to struggle following other cars, which was evident with Valtteri Bottas early in the race starting in P9.
Coming into the last lap, Hamilton was finally within DRS zone, but not in the detection zone for the main straight. Crucially, Verstappen had DRS from the Haas of Mick Shumacher as the two leaders lapped him. DRS down the main straight allowed Verstappen to pull away from Hamilton slightly down the main straight. Hamilton’s chances of attempting to take the lead from Verstappen ended when he was unable to get within the DRS range of Verstappen on the back straight.
Lewis Hamilton had to settle with a second place finish with the bonus point for fastest lap. It was Max Verstappen on top of the podium, maintaining his lead in the World Drivers’ Championship. Sergio Perez was also on the podium, having run a race of his own for much of the afternoon.
With the United States Grand Prix now completed, just five races remain in the 2021 season. Next up is the Mexican Grand Prix which will be held on the weekend of November 7.
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| DNF | ||
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| DNF |
