Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc led a Ferrari 1-2 as the Championship rivals fought over third place in an exciting end to the US Grand Prix. Talking of exciting, our 2024 US F1 Grand Prix Result Summary should capture some of the action but guarantees nothing.
This 2024 US Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings which gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
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Latest 2024 F1 Driver Rankings – from Singapore GP
2024 US F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – Max Verstappen dominated the Sprint race section of the weekend with a sprint race win from sprint pole ahead of Sainz, Norris and Leclerc who put on a decent battle for the podium. Then it looked like days of old as Max Verstappen topped both Q1 and Q2, before Lando Norris pulled out a lap of magnificence to take pole ahead of Verstappen, setting up the Championship story nicely. A few surprises from the rest of qualifying, Pierre Gasly and Kevin Magnussen good. Oscar Piastri looking slightly off the pace. And Lewis Hamilton had a disastrous exit in Q1. Not as spectacular as George Russell’s barrier filled exit. He qualified top 10 but will start from pitlane. But at the front it is all set up for the title battle.
GRID (Starting Order) – NOR VER SAI LEC PIA GAS ALO MAG PER TSU
Lap 1 – The cars blast up the steep hill towards the tight turn one and the two championships contenders go at it through the first corners with Max Verstappen making a lunge, but it drags them wide and the fast-starting Charles Leclerc steals the lead from 4th on the grid. Lando Norris replaces him in that position. Max Verstappen finishes the first lap in second. Yellow flags at turn one for some reason but it appears Lewis Hamilton took advantage as he is up to 12th on the first lap, and Liam Lawson has done well to be 14th from second last. A round up of lap one hijinks sees Alex Albon spin Esteban Ocon around. Albon helps himself to a penalty.
ORDER – LEC VER SAI NOR PIA GAS MAG TSU PER ALO
Lap 2 – Carlos Sainz harasses Max Verstappen for third and sets fastest lap, meanwhile Charles Leclerc is over a second in front in first. Ferraris looking the quickest car right now. Less fast is Lewis Hamilton who is in the gravel and out of the race. It was at the same place that his team mate crashed in qualifying yesterday towards the end of the lap. Replays show it was just a regular mistake.
Lap 3 – SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lap 5 – SAFETY CAR ENDS
Lap 6 – Race resumes without incident or accident, with the top four clearing out a bit. Oscar Piastri is falling behind already, and truth be told has seemed off the pace a little all weekend. He is just in front of Gasly who has been quite fast all weekend. As a side, the Alpine has changed colours for this race to feature a lot more orange this weekend for some reason, and the end result is it makes it look like a McLaren. Not sure how the marketing works on that one. At least they are still running.
Lap 7 – Nico Hulkenberg takes 10th place from Fernando Alonso, who predicted his race struggles to Martin Brundle on the grid walk.
Lap 9 – Carlos Sainz radios his team to complain about lack of power exiting out of the corners, and it smells like fuel. Which is probably something a driver wouldn’t be too keen on. Can’t say I blame him. If there was fuel coming out of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari no one would know. He is over three seconds in front of Max Verstappen in the lead.
Lap 10 – A spin for Guanyu Zhou at least gives Sauber some TV air time.
Lap 11 – Liam Lawson is up to 11th after a great pass on Fernando Alonso. His drive from the back and performance in sections of qualifying are more than justifying his Ricciardo swap. Perez is only two place further up the road….he could get an early swap of positions with the Mexican. One this race, the other next season.
Lap 14 – Leclerc is over five seconds in front of Max Verstappen and cruising. The gaps are between 1.5 and 3 seconds throughout most of the top ten at this point with the battle for 8th being the closest one at the moment.
ORDER – LEC VER SAI NOR PIA GAS MAG TSU PER HUL
Lap 16 – George Russell gets a five second penalty for forcing Valtteri Bottas off the track in a passing move. It seems a little harsh given what happened on lap one at the front, and in other unpunished incidents so far in the race.
Lap 17 – Sergio Perez passes Yuki Tsunoda for 8th, which doesn’t really help either driver.
Lap 22 – Carlos Sainz becomes the first of the front runners to pit as he looks to undercut Max Verstappen. He comes out just in front of Sergio Perez, who would have helped his team mate if he was two seconds quicker. Sainz sets fastest lap on Lap 24 to emphasise the benefits of his new shoes.
Lap 25 – Max Verstappen pits at the end of lap 25 and falls behind Carlos Sainz in the net pecking order. Meanwhile his team mate was over 10 seconds in front, but getting increasingly grumpy about being kept out too long.
Lap 26 – Charles Leclerc pits from the lead, which the McLarens take over for now. Leclerc’s lead to his team mate is cut to just over six seconds.
Lap 28 – McLarens stay out for now in first and second, hedging their bets for strategy, and are going quite quick on the older tyres. As fast as Max Verstappen on new tyres on some laps. Fast enough for Norris to get ahead of Verstappen later maybe. Hopefully. Need the Championship lead to shrink a little.
ORDER – NOR PIA LEC SAI VER RUS LAW COL PER MAG
Lap 31 – Charles Leclerc has caught Oscar Piastri for second, and now it’s time to see how much the Australian will help Lando Norris. Not much, Leclerc breezes past the McLaren without issue. Lando Norris is a big boy though and can do things himself. He pits at the end of lap 31 and rejoins six seconds behind Verstappen, so not sure staying out worked, although Norris won’t pit again of new tyres.
Lap 33 – Oscar Piastri pits and rejoins just in front of George Russell who has yet to pit, but surely he stays in front on tyres which are 32 laps newer. His team mate Lando Norris sets fastest lap in his chase for Max Verstappen.
Lap 37 – Liam Lawson finally pits and conveniently exits just in front of his RB team mate in 12th. With fresh new tyres he could really make a name for himself for the rest of the race. Yuki isn’t happy. He probably shouldn’t be. Lawson uses his new tyres to good effect and takes 10th place and a point a few laps later.
ORDER – LEC SAI VER NOR PIA RUS PER COL MAG HUL
Lap 39 – The gap between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris is down 2.5 seconds, and Max appears unhappy with his car. Wonder if he will do the safe things and let Lando pass if it comes to that. Probably not.
Lap 42 – Norris is within 1.5 seconds of Verstappen now and on newer tyres and is happier with his car.
Lap 45 – Just half a second now between Verstappen and Norris who is now sniffing around for a good spot to pass.
Lap 47 – Not only is Norris now just a couple of car lengths from Verstappen, Carlos Sainz is threatening Charles Leclerc for first with a bit of a charge. Norris spends the second half of lap 47 ducking and diving around the Red Bull looking to pass. Norris will get past by the looks. But will he stay in front? And will that end in tears at the same time?
ORDER – LEC SAI VER NOR PIA PER RUS HUL LAW COL
Lap 50 – Lando Norris closer than ever to Verstappen as they approach turn one but Max has him covered for now.
Lap 51 – Lando is dangerously close to overtaking Max in the second half of the lap through the tight turns, trying to switch from outside to inside. They stay apart for now. Probably helps that they like each other.
Lap 52 – Lando Norris overtakes Max Verstappen into the corner at the end of the back straight. He had to do it on the outside of the track, but Max did force him off the track to do so. Cue radio conversations. Two wrongs make a right here me thinks.
Lap 53 – As we all await the fallout of Norris’ overtake of Verstappen on the outside, the McLaren has cleared out by over a second with a lap. That’s after a rigourous defence of Verstappen going into the first corner on the next lap.
Lap 55 – Not only is the discussion ongoing about the Max Verstappen move for Lando Norris, but he is also apparently over the limit for track limits. Which means almost guaranteed penalty for Norris either way. George Russell takes 6th place from Sergio Perez.
FINAL LAP – Lando Norris has a five second penalty applied….He is currently 3.5 seconds in front of Max Verstappen on the last lap, and it’s not enough as he crosses the finish line. Max Verstappen regains third position. Further ahead of the drama Charles Leclerc wins for Ferrari and Carlos Sainz makes it a red 1-2.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – LEC SAI VER NOR PIA RUS PER HUL LAW COL
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – CHARLES LECLERC
A dominant win after making the most of the first corner shuffling at the front. Controlled the race as he can do when the car is on and the Ferrari strategy team leave him alone.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
CARLOS SAINZ – A good all round weekend with a second place a fine reward in both the race and sprint. The race 1-2 brings Ferrari closer to Red Bull for second in the teams points battle.
LIAM LAWSON – Finished Q1 at the sharp end before sitting out Q2 because of his 60 place grid penalty. Made a great start up to haul himself up the grid on lap one and continued to make progress throughout.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Decent recovery drive from the pitlane after binning it during qualifying.
HAAS – Showed some real upper midfield pace, Kevin Magnussen made it to Q3 and raced in the top ten throughout, and his team mate Nico Hulkenberg didn’t go backwards in the race for a change. Both had good races to be fair and performed a load of overtakes.
FRANCO COLAPINTO – Another point and impressive weekend for the Willaims fill-in.
PIERRE GASLY – Good effort to qualify well into the top ten. Went backwards a little in the race, but a chance to show his pace for a change.
THE GRAPE-EST – LEWIS HAMILTON
Knocked out in Q1, spun out on lap 2. Fair to say it wasn’t a great weekend for the Mercedes driver.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANDO NORRIS – Turned a brilliant pole into fourth place. Dudded with a penalty to take a deserved third place away.
YUKI TSUNODA – Not the best weekend, despite occasional glimpses of speed. A scrappy race which culminated in getting jumped by his team mate at the final pitstop and then spinning a few laps later. Down the Perez replacing pecking order after one race.
SERGIO PEREZ – Another weekend of mediocrity. Outqualified by a Haas and an Alpine. Raced in the lower top ten for most of the race. Liam Lawson’s race won’t help him keep his seat for next season.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Whilst not a terrible end result in the main race, he seemed a little off the pace all weekend. Dropped out at Q1 in Sprint qualifying after having a lap time deleted, and he failed to take a Sprint Race point, and got a penalty post-race too.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
ON TRACK ACTION – 6 / 10
The first corner with the front runners was rather exciting, with the order mixed up good and proper. Thereafter the front runners were a little spread. Unlike the midfield which seemed to be swapping positions every lap or so.
ANY SURPRISES? – 3 / 5
The first corner shake up was a bit of a surprise, as was the Ferraris race dominating pace.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 5
Although only for third place, a battle between the Championship rivals none the less. And it ends up in Lando Norris’ favour. It was a pretty clean battle compared to previous ones involving Max.
ENDING 9 / 10
Among the midfield arguing over positions we got a battle between the Championship rivals to end the race. Which raged and raged. Then once over, there was the threat of a penalty to take it all back.
OVERALL RATING 23 / 30
A decent enough race with a lot of points of interest, with a Championship battle to end it all.
2024 F1 Race Rankings
R18 – Singapore Grand Prix…10/30
R17 – Azerbaijan Grand Prix…25/30
R16 – Italian Grand Prix…21/30
R15 – Dutch Grand Prix…15/30
R14 – Belgian Grand Prix…23/30
R13 – Hungarian Grand Prix…19/30
R12 – British Grand Prix…25/30
R11 – Austrian Grand Prix…27/30
R10 – Spanish Grand Prix…19/30
R09 – Canadian Grand Prix…22/30
R08 – Monaco Grand Prix…17/30
R07 – Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix…23/30
R06 – Miami Grand Prix…23/30
R05 – Chinese Grand Prix…15/30
R04 – Japanese Grand Prix…18/30
R03 – Australian Grand Prix…23/30
R02 – Saudi Arabia Grand Prix…9/30
R01 – Bahrain Grand Prix…13/30
2024 F1 Season Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
Why not check the latest race ratings – 2024 Singapore Grand Prix Ratings
Or our 2024 F1 Half Season Report.
Or check out our 2023 Season Driver Rankings and Stats
