Leclerc wins in America, Verstappen baits Norris into crucial penalty
Charles Leclerc won the United States Grand Prix, leading home a Ferrari 1-2, as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris locked horns once again, this time around at the Circuit of the Americas.
The 19th round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship was held in the United States at a fan favorite, the Circuit of the Americas near Austin, Texas.
With Norris starting from pole and Verstappen from P2, the promise of Turn 1 fireworks at the start did not fail to deliver.
Verstappen went for the late lunge up the inside of Norris, pushing the McLaren driver off. Leclerc, however, was the big winner in all of this. As the fight for the lead ensued ahead, he dove up the inside of teammate Carlos Sainz and took not only the Spaniards P3, but also came away with the lead roaring into the following fast sweepers.
On alp 3 at Turn 19, where George Russell had met his qualifying demise the day before, his then Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton upon entry into the unforgiving corner lost control of his W15, beaching it and prompting a Safety Car.
The race progressed with Liam Lawson's on-track feud with Fernando Alonso, as Russell got a penalty for pushing Valtteri Bottas off the track.
During the pitstops Ferrari outsmarted its rivals, by jumping Verstappen with a Sainz undercut, they were able to ensure a 1-2 order on the track with Leclerc running away in the lead.
Verstappen - Norris tussle ends in penalty
In the last laps of the race, a hard-charging Norris came hunting down Verstappen as the pair fought fiercely for the last podium place.
After several overtake attempts the British driver was finally able to move past the Dutchman. However the move was done off the track so Norris was obligated to return the place to Verstappen, or risk a 5-second time penalty for the irregular move.
McLaren and Norris would choose to risk the penalty and try to build a gap of over 5 seconds, to override its impact. Verstappen, however, squeezed every one thousandth of a second possible from his RB20 and was able to keep Norris within the 5 seconds range until the flag, earning him P3 behind race winner Leclerc and second-placed man Sainz.
Ferrari don't travel to the USGP with the same expectations
The Italian team's current form prevents its key players from believing a repeat of last years success on American soil is in the cards for them in 2025, with Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc both agreeing they were out of the picture in COTA this season.
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