Lando's F1 title challenge falls wide of the mark at United States GP

Unlike during the summer, the four-week gap between the races in Singapore and Austin was not used as a break by the teams. They were flat-out – and that had a significant outcome on the competitive order. The pattern in play ever since post-Miami – with a super-fast McLaren and a difficult Red Bull – was potentially turned on its head. Building upon the first signs of progress seen in Baku, Red Bull turned up at the Circuit of the Americas with a car in which Max Verstappen could properly compete. In combination with a Ferrari on a very fruitful development curve since its Monza upgrade, the McLaren was arguably no more than the third-fastest car around the magnificent sweeps and swoops of the Texan track.

Which potentially spoiled the narrative of the slow-building title fight between Verstappen and Lando Norris, as the latter sought to overcome the former’s big points lead built up in the early season. In truth, that contest had never properly got going, despite the McLaren’s often searing pace. After Miami the gap between them was 53 points. Twelve races later, that gap was 52. There’d been lost opportunities for Norris, and some overachievement by Verstappen to explain that stasis. But the changed competitive picture revealed at Austin – the first of the final six races – threatened to kill off any feasible contest in the drivers’ championship, even if McLaren continued as favourite for the constructors’.

Sprint

It was a sprint weekend, so just one practice session before sprint qualifying, where Verstappen took a fairly resounding pole, with Norris only fourth-fastest 0.2sec slower on much the same pace as George Russell’s second-fastest Mercedes and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. The pattern was confirmed in the sprint race the following day, with Verstappen leading start to finish, getting out of the DRS range of the fast-starting Norris after four laps, then just managing the gap and leaving Norris to fend off an attack from Russell and to subsequently run out of front tyres and lose out to an attacking Sainz at the beginning of the final lap.

The Ferrari had been the fastest thing around on the medium compound tyres which were mandatory in the first two sprint qualifying sessions, but lost its balance on the softs used for final qualifying. But in the race, with everyone opting for the mediums, it was again super-quick.

Despite Sainz and Charles Leclerc engaging in a no-holds-barred dice in the early laps and then passing Russell’s Merc (which was overheating its rear tyres), Sainz’s tyres were still in far better shape than Norris’s by the end.

So two of the three sprint podium finishers were very satisfied. Verstappen said of his heavily revised Red Bull: “Yes, it felt a bit like old times! It was nice not to be looking behind and just being able to push.” The RB20 looked supremely balanced and driveable and in Verstappen’s hands was devastatingly quick through the high-speed esses, around 5mph faster between Turns 5 and 6 than Norris in a McLaren which was bouncing and giving its driver a much more spectacular ride.

“Norris said with full confidence, it ‘was the best lap of my career’”

Sainz was relieved that the Monza upgrade – which had worked well on the outlier tracks of Monza, Baku and Singapore – passed the litmus test of a conventionally demanding track like this. “Honestly, I was worried that it was a Monza/Baku Special,” said Sainz, “but this is a track with long combined corners which is where we’ve struggled with the car before the upgrade. All we need is to get it in a better place for qualifying.”

“We just haven’t got the pace this weekend,” bemoaned Norris. “We can maybe make some changes for [grand prix] qualifying later this afternoon. But we are a long way off what Ferrari could achieve.”

Grand Prix

Many set up changes were made up and down the pitlane in the couple of hours between the sprint race and grand prix qualifying. But for Verstappen it was just a case of “tidying up a few things”.

With the soft tyres apparently dulling the Ferrari pace, McLaren struggling with a poor, crashy, bouncy ride over the bumps and Mercedes having lost its way in the warmer conditions of Saturday, qualifying looked set to be a cakewalk for Verstappen and indeed he breezed to the head of the times in both Q1 and Q2, with quite a comfortable margin.

The McLaren drivers had very little confidence in a car which was notably lively in the fast bumpy sections and Norris and Oscar Piastri were only 10th and 12th respectively in Q1. Norris’s belief, however, gradually built and into Q3 he was ready to take his MCL38 by the scruff of the neck for the first time.

What unfolded was what Norris said with full confidence, “was the best lap of my career”. It was a most extraordinary performance in a car that was a long way from its usual composed self. Running super-low and stiff to extract every last bit of underbody downforce, it made for a dramatic sight as Norris nailed it through the super-fast esses sequence. On the slower corners Norris was manhandling it, using up every inch of track width on the exits. The McLaren was even less tolerant of combined braking and cornering here than other cars and Norris’s engineer Will Joseph had warned him against it on the out-lap. Instead, he nailed the braking into the hairpin of Turn 11, the 90-degree left of Turn 12 at the end of the back straight – and in the following sequence of fiddly interlinked corners. Only a spectacular opposite lock moment over the Turn 19 kerbs lost him any time.

Verstappen looked far less spectacular but was 0.124sec faster through the first sector (which includes the esses) and less than 0.1sec slower through the more intricate middle sector. Had he not had an even more time-costly Turn 19 moment than Norris, he’d have been on provisional pole rather than 0.03sec behind the McLaren. “I felt that without the moment, there was a pole lap in there,” said Verstappen, “so I was not too concerned.”

Going into the last runs with the track grip having plateaued some time earlier, Norris knew he wasn’t going to improve on the lap he’d just done and indeed by the end of the second sector he was already a couple of tenths down. But Verstappen was within hundredths and going faster than ever into the long loop of Turn 16 as the double yellow flags came out: Russell had gone off heavily at that bogey Turn 19, “trying to get something from the car that wasn’t there”, as he put it. Like that, Russell protected the Norris pole from possible (but not certain) vanquish by Verstappen.

“The gap Norris left was instantly pounced upon by Verstappen”

It was a Norris pole more than a McLaren one and he was justifiably proud afterwards. “Max has been extremely quick in the first sector, with high speed,” he said, “so I was trying to limit that a little bit. That was a good start. And then just the braking. The final sector, from 12 to 16. As soon as one part goes wrong, it can all fall away quite quickly. And again, I just hooked everything up, probably the first time all weekend and probably the last. It all just came together perfectly.

“Red Bull are very quick in these faster corners. And I just had to risk that a little bit more. It was close, it was on the edge. But it’s what I needed today. Quite simple. The gap was 0.03sec. And without some of these little bits where maybe some people didn’t use all of the track, that kind of thing, today I had to and I needed to, and it got me pole. My performance engineer will be very happy with me.”

Sainz was almost as disappointed as Verstappen with the yellow flags. The Ferrari had suddenly come alive on the second run for no reason he could understand. “Maybe it was just the slightly lower track temperatures,” he mused. But from being 0.3sec off Norris, he was within 0.076sec by the end of the second sector before he too had to abandon the lap. Still P3 was an encouraging grid position given the Ferrari’s excellent tyre deg in the sprint, and around a track on which overtaking is feasible. Team-mate Leclerc duly lined up alongside him.

Norris’s reaction to the lights was measured as significantly better than Verstappen’s – and this time the McLaren got off the line better than the Red Bull. But that was only half of the job of retaining the advantage of pole. The other was using that momentum to block the inside line – and this Norris didn’t do. The gap he left was instantly pounced upon by Verstappen and once inside the McLaren he was able to run it out wide over the exit kerb. But in doing this, Verstappen created space on his inside on the exit of the corner, which was filled by two Ferraris, with Leclerc bursting through to lead. Sainz, in having to back off momentarily to avoid Verstappen, was initially third but in the way he was able to turn right with the Red Bull for lap after lap suggested he was quicker. Meanwhile Leclerc pulled away from them both at an impressive rate.

Running fourth and fifth with Norris and Oscar Piastri, McLaren decided to run a long opening stint to create a grip advantage in the second stint by virtue of newer tyres. So their pace was controlled initially and it appeared as if they simply didn’t have the Red Bull’s searing speed. Verstappen was finding the car a little more understeery than in the sprint once the tyres got a few laps on them. Leclerc continued to open out the gap.

On lap 21 (of 56), with the pitstop window open, Ferrari instructed Sainz to do the opposite to Verstappen. As the Red Bull stayed out, so the Ferrari came in. This was early for a one-stop race, but Ferrari was confident that its better tyre deg would allow it this luxury. As Verstappen stayed out on his old mediums for an extra six laps and Sainz pressed on with his new hards, the Ferrari undercut its way up to second and proceeded to pull away. Ferrari was now in total command of this race.

“Verstappen let his car run out wide until Norris was forced off the track”

Norris stayed out for an extra five laps longer than Verstappen, creating the offset that McLaren was seeking. The McLaren had been able to maintain a good pace on its old tyres, finding that the graining of the fronts eased once the tyre had worn. Norris rejoined 6sec behind Verstappen and began hunting him down. It took him only 12 laps to catch the Red Bull, but passing it was another matter entirely. Verstappen produced a masterclass in defence as the laps ticked by. He was placing the car perfectly and using his battery defensively but sparingly, forcing Norris to use up his. But it seemed only a matter of time before Norris found a way by. The decisive moment came on the 52nd lap as they raced into the braking zone of the tight Turn 12 at the end of the back straight.

They went side-by-side, Verstappen on the inside. The McLaren appeared to be ahead at the apex but Verstappen let his car run out wide until Norris was forced off the track. Taking to the run-off, he increased his momentum and rejoined now ahead. Verstappen was quickly on the radio insisting Norris should give the place back. McLaren advised Norris it believed he was ahead at the apex and that he should not surrender the position. The stewards were obliged to get involved and assessed that Norris gained an advantage by leaving the track, even though they acknowledged that he’d been forced there. A 5sec penalty was applied, which was the smallest it could give.

Norris’s third across the line (17sec behind Leclerc before the latter backed off on the final lap) became fourth after the penalty. Piastri took a quiet fifth while Russell – starting from the pitlane in his rebuilt Mercedes – made a strong race through the field, depriving Sergio Pérez of sixth going into the last lap. On the race’s second lap Lewis Hamilton spun out at the same corner Russell had gone off in qualifying. Nico Hülkenberg drove a strong race too, his Haas ahead of the starring new boys Liam Lawson (who started from the back after taking engine penalties in his RB) and Franco Colapinto in the Williams.

Combined with his sprint win, Verstappen’s third extended his lead in the standings to 57 points. Meanwhile, Ferrari’s 1-2 means it is coming up fast behind Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.