Formula 1 News: Leclerc leads Ferrari 1-2 to win 2024 USGP

Charles Leclerc grabbed the lead in the first corner as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris squabbled on the outside of corner 1 and was never headed except for his pitstop to win the 2024 USGP at the Circuit of the Americas.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Carlos Sainz Jr. was second in the #55 Ferrari, 8.8s behind Leclerc, to give the tifosi something to cheer about back in Italy.

“Very, very happy. It hasn’t been an easy weekend until now, I was struggling with the car but today in the race the feeling was better,” said a delighted Leclerc to the cheers of the estimated 150,000 in attendance.

“We thought after the Sprint the others would improve a lot, but we still had the upper hand.

“It was a pretty good Turn 1, that as exactly what I wanted to do. That helped our first stint as we had mega pace. The pace of the car was really, really good.”

“Obviously, first of all, congratulations to the whole team that puts us in the fight for the constructors’ Championship” said Sainz.

“I knew a lot of the race would get decided at the start, I knew Lando and Max would go hard and unfortunately, I got the worst of it. I had to settle for P2 but that is still a good race. How little deg we have is something I enjoy, and makes me enjoy racing. We can just go on attack mode and just push and overtake, which is just fun.”

McLaren’s Lando Norris passed his rival for the driving title, Max Verstappen, with 5 laps to go, but was handed a 5-second penalty for passing off the track, handing the final podium position back to Verstappen.

Verstappen fought hard with Norris who clearly had the faster car, but the McLaren did not instruct Norris to let Verstappen past to try and pass again; hence the officials slapped Norris with a 5-second penalty.

As a result of Verstappen finishing ahead of Norris, combined with his win in the Sprint race, Verstappen has increased his point lead over Norris to 57 points. That makes it a net five point gain for Verstappen across the Sprint and Grand Prix, but he remains without a Grand Prix win since Spain in June.

The fight in the Constructors’ championship is much closer with three teams all covered by 48 points: McLaren leads on 544, followed by Red Bull on 504 and Ferrari on 496.

“For me it was a difficult race, I never had the pace to attack,” said Verstappen. “It was a tough battle, tried everything I could to keep [Norris] behind, but in the end a podium is a great result. I have my opinion but I don’t need to say it here, I’ll just let the stewards do their thing.”

Oscar Piastri rounded out the top-5 in the 2nd McLaren, 21.9s behind Leclerc, while Sergio Perez could not hold off George Russell’s Mercedes for 6th in the #11 Red Bull, as both finished almost 60 seconds behind Leclerc.

Nico Hulkenberg and Liam Lawson were 8th and 9th while Franco Colapinto rounded out the top-10 for Williams.

The rookie Colapinto once again outperformed his Williams teammate, Alex Albon.  He is that good.

Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a superb opening lap as he made up five places and was running in 12th. But into Turn 19 on lap three, he ran out of talent, spun on his hard tires, and beached his car in the gravel. He finished dead last.

The incident sparked a short safety car period, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc leading ahead of Verstappen, with Carlos Sainz in his Ferrari third, and McLaren’s Lando Norris fourth.

Cooldown room Discussion between Top-3

2024 USGP Race Results – 56 Laps