Max Verstappen vs McLaren figures in US GP miracle

Max Verstappen finished a respectable third in the United States Grand Prix, surviving a late charge by Lando Norris after a dubious five-second penalty.

Ferrari also achieved an incredible 1-2 thanks to a great and good strategy by Carlos Sainz.

How an exciting United States Grand Prix unfolded

With no surprises at the top of the grid, all drivers starting inside the top 10 started the race on fresh medium tyres. That way, they could either commit to the initial one-stop plan by installing the hard tire or switch to a two-stopper with another set of medium tires available.

The US Grand Prix race was a good battle of pace, tire management and strategy between the top three teams. Each of them played their cards differently, but efficiently within the reality of their opportunities and changing their early career plans after a start that quickly upset the order.

Ferrari were smart to control the pace at the front from the start as Charles Leclerc managed to get ahead at the first corner, taking advantage of the early duel between Verstappen and Norris. The Monegasque driver braked early, but when he saw that the inside line was free, he made an easy maneuver to get good traction and take P1.

In turn, Sainz also gained a position, leaving Norris in P4 and leaving Verstappen in the middle of an ‘Italian sandwich’, where he found himself as the ham. In this way, Ferrari was in the best position to execute the strategy for the first phase of the race.

After Lewis Hamilton’s Safety Car on lap 3, Leclerc quickly opened up enough space to keep Verstappen out of the DRS zone and avoid potential belligerents from the Dutch driver in the opening laps. Sainz kept the Red Bull driver at bay as McLaren dropped on the timesheets.

However, McLaren’s pace was quite surprising in these first 10 laps. Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were losing quite a bit of time in Sector 1 to Ferrari and Red Bull, interestingly the sector that hurts the front tires the most in the fast ‘S’ corners.

It was clear that the Woking team had a unique strategy in mind and so they couldn’t risk suffering a major demotion like they did during the Sprint race.

For his part, Leclerc was able to push clean air without seriously damaging his lap times and Sainz was able to run at a decent pace behind Verstappen for many laps without overheating his tires.

By lap 17, Leclerc had already opened a +7s delta over Verstappen. Sainz was still less than +2s ahead of the Red Bull driver. McLaren began to change the pace and both Norris and Piastri began to set their personal best times to that point.

On lap 22, after a change of pace with the intention of entering Verstappen’s attack zone, Sainz pitted for the hard tire and launched an attack underneath the Red driver Bull.

Ferrari were smart with this move not only to launch the undercut attack but also to force Red Bull to commit to a one stop only strategy when it was still undecided at that time if the two-stopper was a feasible alternative that everyone seemed to have. have in their papers as plan B.

Leclerc was still on track, so the Italian team, in the event that a scenario of doubt opened up about which plan to run – A) one stop or B) two stoppers – could be covered in both cases with its two drivers.

However, it was not necessary. Sainz, with a brilliant overtake, prevented Red Bull from holding off Verstappen on the next lap and thus immediately ceding P2 to the Scuderia.

Before his pit stop, Sainz was +2.490 seconds behind Verstappen. The Spaniard’s overtaking, after correcting his time in the first sector for the estimated lost pit time of 20.3 seconds on the COTA circuit, estimates that the undermining effect that occurred in just one lap was about 2.4 seconds, enough for Verstappen his P2 at extreme risk if he stopped on lap 23.

Despite this, Verstappen pushed hard to try and reduce the undercut effect. But his front tires couldn’t cope with this change of pace and on lap 26 with Norris also reducing time and Sainz closing the virtual gap even further, Red Bull pitted the Dutchman against the hard tyre.

Verstappen came out +4.5s behind Sainz making the total undermining effect +6.736 in favor of Ferrari. No doubt a great move, considering that the Dutch driver’s tire delta over the Spaniard was only four laps, plus they had gained track position and were able to run in clean air thanks to the important gap that existed between its two pilots in the first two. race positions.

Leclerc stopped a lap later, on lap 27. This left Norris and Piastri virtually in the top two positions of the race. That’s when McLaren once again took the opportunity to send a message: don’t take us out of the equation so soon, we have a plan too.

The Woking team started by obviously managing their tyres, but on old medium tires they managed to run similar lap times to Leclerc, Verstappen and Sainz, who were already on a new hard tyre. In fact, Norris set the second-fastest average time during the first stage, despite extending it to lap 31.

Norris came out of the pits +6.3 seconds ahead of Verstappen, who was unable to close the gap with Sainz below +3.5 seconds. With tires six laps cooler than the Red Bull driver, McLaren held nothing back this time and began a comeback in pursuit of the podium once their hard tire reached temperature on lap 35.

On lap 44, Norris entered Verstappen’s DRS zone for the first time. But it wasn’t until lap 47 that the head-to-head battle between the two contenders for the World Championship for the 2024 season began.

Meanwhile, up front, Leclerc controlled the race comfortably without needing to push too hard. Carlos Sainz was doing the same, although he was trying to push harder to overcome the five second margin on Verstappen.

Norris unsuccessfully tried to overtake in another great defensive display from Verstappen. It was only on lap 52 that Norris was able to execute the pass at Turn 12, but the stewards ruled that the maneuver had been illegal and penalized the McLaren driver with five seconds added to the end of the race, which which allowed Verstappen to regain the podium position as Norris. he was unable to open a gap of five seconds at the end of the race with only +0.942s.

Verstappen survived against McLaren once again. Norris and Piastri who, thanks to the tire advantage over Ferrari and the Dutch driver, were the fastest drivers on track during the second stage.

Verstappen suffered the most out of the top five in this final stage and it is almost a miracle that he managed to keep Norris in his rear-view mirrors for so many laps without being easily overtaken.

In fact, of the top five, Verstappen was, together with Sainz, who made a very conservative last lap, the only driver who lost more time to Leclerc after the first stage. The Monegasque pilot, thanks to the great advantage he had already achieved in the first stage, limited himself to managing the tires and drove calmly and without making any driving mistakes.

McLaren had a plan to reach the podium, which seemed difficult to achieve after seeing the pace of the Sprint race from Ferrari and Red Bull. However, the Woking team played it smart.

What McLaren didn’t count on was that Verstappen would once again put on a master class in survival to hold on to the podium no matter what. In terms of pace during Sunday’s race and tire management, this podium was clearly in McLaren’s hands.

But Verstappen put in another excellent display, regardless of the final maneuver with Lando Norris, who can certainly have different opinions and ratings.

However, the big winners this weekend are undoubtedly Ferrari with an impeccable race execution in both pace and strategy.

Read below: Explanation: Why Max Verstappen was not penalized in the dramatic battle with Lando Norris