Round 19 of this year’s Formula One season took place on Sunday in Austin at the Circuit of the Americas. After 56 laps, Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc won his third victory of the season, the eighth of his career, with his teammate Carlos Sainz finishing behind him in second position (P2). Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing rounded out the podium in P3, extending his championship lead over McLaren’s Lando Norris, who finished P4.
Norris started the race from pole position at the front, which he immediately lost in the first turn and fell to P4, exchanging places with Leclerc as the Ferrari driver made his way to the front. Verstappen, who started P2, managed to stay in his position and keep Sainz behind in P3.
Verstappen pitted to change tires in lap 26, followed by Norris in lap 32. The two struggled for third position for various laps, the two Ferraris ahead, until Norris — on fresher tires — overtook Verstappen in lap 52 in a movement that saw both cars going wide at a turn. The incident was noted by the Race Stewards, who gave Norris a five-second penalty for going off-track to take the position. Verstappen crossed the finish line 4.058 seconds behind Norris, pushing him up to the podium and allowing him to increase the points gap between him and Norris in the Drivers’ Standings for the second time in the weekend.
Verstappen won the 19-lap Sprint race on Saturday, earning eight points and got 15 points in Sunday’s race, going home with 23 points total. Norris goes home with 18 points: six for finishing P3 in the Sprint and 12 for his P4 finish in the race. The gap between them is now 57 points with five races and two Sprints left in the season. Leclerc in P3 is closer to Norris in the Standings than Norris to Verstappen, with only 22 points separating them.
“It was a tough battle,” Verstappen said after the race. “I tried everything I could, of course, to keep him behind. At the end to be on the podium is still for us a great result. That was definitely a positive weekend of course, but there’s still quite a few points that we need to collect.”
“I think I did the correct thing,” Norris said of his overtaking move on his opponent. “But I don’t make the rules. Max drove well, it was a fun race between us, a good battle. He defended well, he did everything he had to do.”
Round 20 of the 2024 F1 season will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, Mexico.
