Race Results 2021 USA F1 Grand Prix
Event: USA F1 Grand Prix
Track: Circuit of the Americas
Start of the F1 Grand Prix of USA at Circuit of The Americas on October 24, 2021 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
Weather: dry 27.9°C
Tarmac: dry 38.0°C
Humidity: 59.9%
Wind: 1.0 m/s SE
Pressure: 992.5 bar
Max Verstappen scored his 18th race win today. The Dutch driver won the USA F1 GP for the 1st time. It was his 8th race win of the 2021 season. The Red Bull driver started from pole and kept his head cool during the end of the race. It was the 73rd race win for Red Bull.
2021 US F1 GP Race Report
It was a beautiful day for racing. The grandstands were packed and the event started off perfectly. All cars started the warm-up lap without any issues. The start of the race with Max Verstappen on pole position in the Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton behind him on P2 with the Mercedes was speculated to be very tight.
The start was clean and Hamilton had a perfect start on the 'dirty' side of the grid and was able to get along side the Red Bull of Verstappen to take the lead at turn 1. Verstappen had to heal and settled for P2 a couple of laps. Both McLarens and Ferraris had a great battle in the first lap.
Both Canadian drivers collided in turn 1, Lance Stroll spun in the Aston Martin and hit the front of the Williams of Nicolas Latifi. In lap 4 Esteban Ocon was the first to do a pitstop. The French Alpine driver switched to the hard tyres and got a new front wing.
The Dutchman was able to keep close to his rival and could use DRS to get closer. Both drivers pulled away from the rest of the field. In lap 7 Hamilton told his team on the radio that Verstappen was quicker than him at that moment as he was was about 0.7s behind him.
In lap 8 Fernando Alonso did his pitstop to go to hard tyres with a quick stop of 2.5 sec. He returned to the track with the Alpine being 17th. In lap 10 a lot more drivers did there first pitstop to go to the hard tyres. Verstappen also pitted at the end of the lap and came back to P5 with a pitstop of 2.9s. He was 19.8 sec. behind Hamilton now. After one lap he already had passed the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo for P4 and was getting closer to his rival on the new tyres.
Max Verstappen driving RB16B leading the midfield behind Hamilton on lap 1 of USA GP at Circuit of The Americas (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
At the end of lap 13 Verstappen clocked the fastest lap with 1:40.426 and now only was 15 sec. behind Hamilton. Perez pitted to go to a new set of mediums. Hamilton pitted at the end of lap 14. His pitstop took 2.8s and was quite quick for Mercedes standards, but he lost the lead to Verstappen. Hamilton was now on P2 and 5.5s behind the Dutchman.
In lap 15 Pierre Gasly was the first who retired because the rear suspension had failed on the AlphaTauri. Bottas pitted in lap 16 and dropped from P5 to P11.
Halfway the race Hamilton had closed down the gap to Verstappen to 5s. Perez on P3 was 8.5s behind Hamilton and Ferrari driver Leclerc was more than 11s behind Perez.
Alonso and Antonio Giovinazzi had a great fight for P11. Alonso first passed him outside the track at turn 12 and had to give the position back. A few laps later Giovinazzi did the same to Alonso at turn 12 and had to give back the position to the Spanish driver.
In lap 28 there was a short virtual safety car period used to clean up some debris from the track. In lap 30 Verstappen pitted for second set of hard tyres. His stop was done in 2.8s. The Red Bull driver came back to the track on P3 only 1 sec. behind. Verstappen now was 17 sec. behind race leader Hamilton. Perez did his stop for a new set of hard tyres one lap later.
Perez clocked the fastest lap in lap 33 and set it to 1:39.566 min.Hamilton didn't do his pitstop yet and was trying to extend his stint with 6 laps. Verstappen was only 13.3 seconds behind Hamilton with 20 laps to go. Verstappen now as almost 1 sec. quicker a lap and was hammering down Hamilton quite quickly. Hamilton pitted in lap 37 for a new set of hard tyres and now was 7.8s behind his title rival.
With 15 laps to go Hamilton scored the fastest lap for the extra point with a 1:38.485 min and decreased the gap to 6s. Esteban Ocon had to retire the Alpine with an engine problem. Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz also had a good fight for P5. Both even collided when Sainz tried to pass the McLaren. Because of the fight Bottas also was able to get closer and damaged the right side of his front wing end plate.
Max Verstappen wins the F1 Grand Prix of USA at Circuit of The Americas on October 24, 2021 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images)
Hamilton was flying and with 10 laps to go Hamilton had reduced the gap to Verstappen to 3s. The Dutchman now started to speed up his pace to try and stay in front of the British driver.
Alonso had to retire the car with a few laps to go when his rear wing broke down. Hamilton had closed the gap with 3 laps to go to 1.5s, but wasn't able to get close enough to use DRS. Both drivers pushed everything about their cars and Verstappen kept the lead to win the race.
Classification 2021 USA GP
| P | No | Driver | Team | Time | Laps | Grid | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 33 |  Max Verstappen |  Red Bull | 01:34:36.552 | 56 | 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 44 |  Lewis Hamilton |  Mercedes | 01:34:37.885 | 56 | 2 | 19 |
| 3 | 11 |  Sergio Pérez | Red Bull | 01:35:18.775 | 56 | 3 | 15 |
| 4 | 16 |  Charles Leclerc |  Ferrari | 01:35:28.798 | 56 | 4 | 12 |
| 5 | 3 |  Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 01:35:53.406 | 56 | 6 | 10 |
| 6 | 77 |  Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 01:35:56.680 | 56 | 9 | 8 |
| 7 | 55 |  Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 01:36:00.097 | 56 | 5 | 6 |
| 8 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 01:36:00.947 | 56 | 7 | 4 |
| 9 | 22 |  Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 01:35:10.081 | 55 | 10 | 2 |
| 10 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 01:35:12.119 | 55 | 18 | 1 |
| 11 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi |  Alfa Romeo | 01:35:21.613 | 55 | 12 | 0 |
| 12 | 18 |  Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 01:35:35.793 | 55 | 13 | 0 |
| 13 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo | 01:35:39.194 | 55 | 15 | 0 |
| 14 | 63 | George Russell | Williams | 01:35:41.751 | 55 | 20 | 0 |
| 15 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 01:36:13.510 | 55 | 14 | 0 |
| 16 | 47 | Mick Schumacher |  Haas | 01:34:42.164 | 54 | 16 | 0 |
| 17 | 9 |  Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 01:36:09.665 | 54 | 17 | 0 |
| DNF | 14 | Fernando Alonso |  Alpine | Rear wing | 49 | 19 | 0 |
| DNF | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | Rear | 40 | 11 | 0 |
| DNF | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | Suspension | 14 | 8 | 0 |
Fastest lap: 1:38.485 min by Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes (no.44) in lap 41
| 2021 US F1 GP Results |
| FP1 2021 USA F1 GP |
| FP2 2021 USA F1 GP |
| FP3 2021 USA F1 GP |
| Quali 2021 USA F1 GP |
| Start grid 2021 USA F1 GP |
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Class act Max, well done Checo, happy days ....
Good on Max. Some fine driving under pressure. 👏
hypocrite
Lol. You don't know what hypocrisy is huh?! I'm not supporting Max, but I can congratulate him. Something a hater brain can't grasp it seems. 😏
Now this was some race... Max won it with a slower car, longer pit stops, and tires that wore out quicker.
What does that tell you?
it says the most popular driver in F1 drove a great race, start to finish with the correct tactics in a great all round car
Actually MVs car was faster, as it has been thoughout most of the season, except for the last 15 laps or so, MV also had a better strategy.
Yes, yes, of course... whenever Max wins it's because he had the better car + Mercedes somehow let down Lewis. And how do I know that? It's what Lewis always says after the race!!!
You've got it, whenever LH wins a WDC, a race it's the car BUT when anyone else wins it's pure talent. Anti LH sentiment knows no bounds
Now don't feel that way F1Award. Lewis will surely go down in history as one of the greatest of all times. And Max probably as the only one who was capable of beating him.
And, to all Max fans: his time or reckoning is coming also... so be careful what you say!
What is it with this constant need for Lewis fans to accuse others of all sorts of insults? I enjoyed Sunday's race more that any other in years, all around!
Must say Max and Red Bull have stepped it up a notch well done !!! It is very sad to admit though, Lewis and Mercedes have dropped the ball persuing outside extraneous interests and it shows. I predicted this and I now believe this is the beginning of the end for Lewis, his mojo hunger and determination have waned.
.hopefully its the end for him.you cant serve 2 masters and he is trying to serve 3.just like to add danika was a breath of fresh air even if sky mannequin muppet mercedes fan commentry team were doing their best to put words in her mouth all show long.at least she had relevant experience unlike the two sky bints
You are some soothsayer indeed!
Fact is, all drivers slow down in time, if they survive...
Good luck with all your predictions, you are very gifted.
RB's strategy proved superior. Perhaps Merc should've pitted earlier both times to avoid getting undercut, but judging is easy in hindsight.
Alonso's battles with Alfa Romeos were good & funny.
Bottas again struggled in overtaking slower cars.
Great drive from MV, anyone know why LN didn't stop near the end to get the fastest lap?
Could it be he uses a Merc engine and that would have taken a point from Lewis? Naaaaaahhhh.
Looks like Sainz had a problem in the last couple of laps and LN thought he could be caught, almost did, from around 30 seconds to 1 second at the line. All missed by Sky, oh and True Post
When your right, you're right!
Lando is the next Max!!!
Couple more wins from Max are needed now, surely Merc must change Hamishes engine soon.....triple header mmmmm going to need a strong engine for that
Either way I hope this season isn't decided by covid or a break down in the remaining races, both brilliant drivers and I'd hate to see sour grapes at the end of the season.