Written by Owen Bradley
Credit: Mark Thompson
Max Verstappen wins his 50th Grand Prix, now only a few race victories away from Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost's win records. He came back from 6th on the grid, to take a milestone victory.
BREAKING - Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc Disqualified from the U.S. Grand Prix due to infringements on the technical regulations, with the plank of wood on the floor of the car being too low and showing a lot more wear than it should have, as a result of running low to the ground.
Credit: Portal RBR Racing on Twitter/X - Comparison of the floor between the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.
BREAKING - Logan Sargeant Scores FIRST POINTS in Formula One, at his home race at the Circuit of the Americas. He is the first American to score points in F1, since 1993.
Formula One returns to America once again in 2023, the 2nd of 3 visits to the United States, but the only one at an actual purpose-built racing circuit. Circuit of the Americas, in Texas has often delivered a thrilling Grand Prix multiple times since 2012, when the circuit was first added to the Formula One calendar.
1st Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
2nd Lando Norris, McLaren
3rd Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
4th Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing
5th George Russell, Mercedes
6th Pierre Gasly, Alpine
7th Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
8th Yuki Tsunoda, Alphatauri
9th Alex Albon, Williams Racing
10th Logan Sargeant, Williams Racing
11th Nico Hulkenberg, Haas F1
12th Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo
13th Zhou Guanyu, Alfa Romeo
14th Kevin Magnussen, Haas F1
15th Daniel Ricciardo, Alphatauri
16th Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
17th Oscar Piastri, McLaren
18th Esteban Ocon, Alpine
DSQ Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
DSQ Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
1:38.139s - FASTEST LAP, Yuki Tsunoda
Grand Prix
Credit: Mark Thompson
Lando Norris made a great start off the line, jumping Charles Leclerc and taking an early lead for the first 27 laps, steadily being caught by the 2023 F1 Champion, Max Verstappen. Elsewhere, the Ferrari's were struggling greatly to lay down the pace, not fighting the other cars and seemingly wanting to conserve their tyres and come back stronger, later in the race. Unfortunately, they lost a lot of track position and continued to lose time to the leading pack.
Verstappen eventually managed to catch up to Norris, who opted to move on to the Hard compound tyres for the middle stint, but only ended up doing around 17 laps on those Hard's, instead of going longer into the race. Verstappen on the other hand, moved onto the Medium tyres for his middle stint, carrying much more pace and flying by Lando Norris.
Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso had been coming through the field like a hot knife through butter, after starting from the pitlane. Unfortunately for the Spaniard, floor damage would lead to Alonso being unable to progress much further, being beaten on this rare occasion, by Teammate Lance Stroll.
Credit: Chris Graythen
Lewis Hamilton began closing in on Lando Norris, eventually making his way through on his fellow Brit. Hamilton was carrying far more speed on the Medium tyres in the final stint.
Verstappen had been complaining on the radio during the final stint, about some brake issues. He asked the team not to give him updates during the corners and braking zones because he had to focus incredibly hard to keep the car within the white lines.
Hamilton eventually managed to put himself right in the window, on the penultimate lap, he caught Verstappen by around 0.6s and was closing fast, with Verstappen having to nurse the brake issue that was ever-evolving and seemingly degrading the car's performance each lap.
Verstappen though, did manage to cover Hamilton off and took his 50th career victory, an absolutely exceptional achievement, one of only a handful of drivers throughout history, to reach 50 victories. Hamilton however, scores even more points and is closing the gap to Sergio Perez, incredibly quickly, the Mexican has been rumoured to have been given an ultimatum by Red Bull, that if he fails to finish 2nd in the Driver's Standings, he will be released from Red Bull for 2024. This was also Hamilton's closest chance of victory, arguably since Brazil 2022 against teammate George Russell.
Credit: Chris Graythen
Unfortunately, as Verstappen was crowned the victor of the U.S. Grand Prix, and a milestone victory of 50 wins as well, he was being booed on the podium by the American fans. This is not uncommon for the American audience, who draw, not only their guns, but also a large crowd of varying fans. Most of this American audience likely influenced by Netflix's Drive to Survive, which painted Max Verstappen as some sort of villain. But as Martin Brundle said at the Singapore Grand Prix in 2013, where Vettel was also being booed on the podium, "That's not Correct."
Well, another entertaining race at COTA, shows exactly why America has a problem in Motorsport. They need to be racing at purpose-built circuits, because the racing is thoroughly entertaining and draws a large amount of fans, rather than Las Vegas and Miami. The U.S. has circuits like Indianapolis, Daytona and many more iconic tracks which F1 could utilise, but instead they seem to settle for lower quality circuits.
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