And with that, farewell. It was a great Formula One race, really – filled with drama on the track rather than controversy, marred only by crash at the start that took out pole-sitter Carlos Sainz.
See you next time. I need new tyres.
Max Verstappen wins US Grand Prix for 13th victory of F1 season – as it happened
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Key events
Updated driver standings:
391 Verstappen
267 Leclerc
265 Perez
218 Russell
202 Sainz
198 Hamilton
109 Norris
78 Ocon
71 Alonso
46 Bottas
36 Vettel
29 Ricciardo
Interviews:
Charles Leclerc: “P3, starting from P12, is not bad.”
Lewis Hamilton waves to an appreciative crowd: “First, a huge thank you to the crowd. … I want to give a big shoutout to my team. We came here with upgrades, we closed the gap a little bit. Great race by Red Bull, and my condolences to the team.”
Max Verstappen: “It was a tough one. It was all looking good. The pit stop was a bit longer. … It was a difficult weekend for us, and this one is dedicated to Dietrich.”
More Max: “This is a great track for battling. If you’re passed in one corner, you can come back in the next.”
Andrew Benton: “Oh, maybe not.” Yeah. Hamilton has the experience. Verstappen had the tires and probably a better car.
Giles Horner: “I should clarify, Giles Horner (no relation).” That would be a reference to legendary US cyclist Chris Horner. Oh, wait, that would be Red Bull boss Christian Horner.
And Anne Williams thanks me for the commentary. Thank you for reading and the correspondence.
Alan Sampson: “Just to add to the debate, in Bulgaria a tyre is a gumi. In Turkey it’s a lastik. Language is wonderful. :-)”
The final top 10 …
1 Verstappen (Red Bull)
2 Hamilton (Mercedes)
3 Leclerc (Ferrari)
4 Perez (Red Bull)
5 Russell (Mercedes)
6 Norris (McLaren)
7 Alonso (Alpine)
8 Vettel (Aston Martin)
9 Magnussen (Haas)
10 Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
I’ll wrap up emails, then see if I can compile the updated season standings.
Max Verstappen wins the US Grand Prix
Even with a dodgy pit stop, the Red Bull driver just had the horses that the rest of the field did not, and Red Bull has claimed the constructors championship. A fitting tribute to Dietrich Mateschitz.
Norris does indeed pass Alonso.
Russell did indeed post the fastest lap.
Vettel has an epic battle with Magnussen and finally passes him for seventh.
Lap 56/56: OK, here we go with the thrilling conclusion. Will Verstappen let his tires dip off the track and suffer a five-second penalty that will hand Hamilton his first win of the season?
Probably not. The only drama here will be Norris chasing Alonso for sixth.
Lap 55/56: Verstappen is now 2.3 ahead. Meanwhile, Perez’s challenge to Leclerc has faded, and … Russell is pitting! Apparently a bid for the fastest lap. He comes out still safely in fifth.
Lap 54/56: “He’s off at Turn 20! And possibly Turn 9!” Hamilton has turned commentator as he can only watch Verstappen.
And now Hamilton is on a black-and-white flag. Please don’t broadcast his reaction to that news.
Lap 53/56: As mentioned earlier, Lando Norris has a good shot at P6. He’s within a second of Alonso.
But Russell is too far ahead for Norris to think about the top five.
Lap 52/56: Perez is within two seconds of Leclerc.
Vettel passes Albon for ninth.
Tsunoda passed Zhou somewhere.
Oh, but it’s a black-and-white flag for Verstappen! One more mistake, and it’s a five-second penalty. Can Hamilton stay within five seconds?
Lap 51/56: Andrew Benton writes, “Hamilton’s a shrewd biscuit (cookie), he’ll keep the big Verstappen at bay.”
The email arrives just after the overtake.
Hamilton says Verstappen is going off the track. That sounds like a desperate appeal, but Verstappen’s radio crackles with an alert that he needs to color inside the lines the rest of the way.
Lap 50/56 (still): Anne Williams hopes the leaders don’t take each other out. I doubt they will. The rivalry has faded a bit into mutual respect, and Verstappen is a smarter driver than he was.
And indeed, they go back and forth in a thrilling duel! But no, Verstappen has better tires. He pulls ahead. The postrace meeting at Mercedes will be interesting. Could Hamilton have picked up his first win of the season on medium tires?
Lap 50/56: Perez is gaining on Leclerc for third.
But it seems like a question of when, not if, for Verstappen on Hamilton.
Lap 49/56: Ocon has faded badly, and Zhou is now in 10th. Then it’s Tsunoda, then the resilient Vettel.
What else is going on? Oh, right. Verstappen has a faster car than Hamilton and is within a second.
Lap 48/56: Will Mercedes regret putting hard tires on Hamilton’s car instead of mediums? We’ll see. The gap is less than 1.5 seconds.
Lap 47/56: But Verstappen gets inside two seconds.
Have we mentioned that Hamilton hasn’t posted a win all season?
Lap 46/56: Meanwhile, Norris’ tires are considerably newer than those of the three drives ahead of him. Maybe a top-six finish ahead? There he goes past Ocon into eighth.
Hamilton is going strong, maintaining his lead for now.
Lap 45/56: Verstappen has cut the lead to 2.242 seconds. He’s on medium tires. Hamilton’s on hard tires. Ulp.
Lap 43-44/56: While we wait on Verstappen’s pursuit of Hamilton, let’s look at the rest …
Leclerc still has some designs on catching Verstappen, but more importantly, he has pulled away from fourth-place Perez.
Then it’s Russell, not likely to challenge for the podium but well ahead of Magnussen.
Alonso, Ocon and Albon have the next three, but Norris is very close to Albon … oh wait, he’s passed.
Zhou and Tsunoda are very much in contention for points.
Latifi has been penalized.
Lap 42/56: Vettel, racing on tires/tyres almost as old as he is, pits. And it doesn’t go well. He won’t be a factor the rest of the way.
That leaves open space between Verstappen and Hamilton. The gap is 3.3 seconds.
Lap 40-41/56: Replay shows Perez coming out of the pits and going side by side with Russell for a considerable distance, as if one man is asking the other for Grey Poupon. (Old US TV ad reference.) Perez comes out ahead.
Vettel is still out there, and it’s hard to see what he’s accomplishing other than adding to his career total of laps led.
But Hamilton pushes up and gets past the legend!
Lap 39/54: Verstappen goes after Leclerc, but Leclerc rises to the challenge! The crowd’s roar is audible over the engines.
Vettel leads but will pit at some point.
Verstappen goes again, and this time, he can’t be denied. He’s 4 1/2 seconds behind Hamilton.
Perez, who has pitted, is behind them but ahead of Russell.
OK, quickly:
Michael Holbrook asks me to stop talking rubbish please. You mean trash?
Jacques Roberge: “Fascinating to see a F1 race almost more about proper English words than the race itself. Just to add my grain of salt, the word for tire or tyre in Spanish is not tire but neumaticos, I think.”
Mark Woldin: “‘A gaggle of cars from 7th to 17th.’ And Beau fights back into a podium spot!”
Lap 38/56: I’ll get to all the grammar discussion shortly, but it’s all hotting up here.
“It’s a long way to go,” Verstappen’s crew tells him. “You don’t need to tell me that,” Verstappen replies.
Perez and Vettel are 1-2 but will surely pit. Hamilton is next, with Leclerc nearly five seasons back. Then it’s Verstappen, but the impetuous two-time champion has posted the fastest lap again.
Lap 37/56: “Beautiful,” Verstappen says with a hint of sarcasm. “(Bleep) beautiful.”
Resetting: Perez is in first, Russell second, and Russell is fighting to overtake. Why bother if you’re both going to pit anyway?
And Russell does so now.
Lap 36/56: Andrea Brewster asks if Lewis and Max are still in the race.
They are indeed, but Verstappen is having a horror pit stop!
Lap 35/56: Now Verstappen says the strat changes are affecting his drivability. Maybe he should switch to a Les Paul. (Guitar nerd humor.)
Hamilton pits. Everyone else probably will follow suit in the next 5-10 laps.
Lap 34/56: Verstappen is still complaining about the wind. Maybe if he’d let some other cars get closer to him?
Hamilton’s only 1.358 seconds back, so maybe it’s not over.
Anne Williams agrees that it’s “bollocks.”
Lap 33/56: Giles Horner writes, “Further is also the name of the bus used by Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, not that I would think LSD would be helpful driving an F1 car.”
That would explain the name of the “Further Festival,” which I believe involved a gaggle of Grateful Dead-adjacent acts.
Lap 32/56: Can Russell also pass Perez? He’s getting closer.
Lap 31/56: Andrew Benton writes: “But you could have asked, in modern parlance, how will these safety car laps ‘impact’ the tires? This is really where these two branches of the English language come together again, because its total bollux to use impact like that, yet it happens all the time and all over the place, in both Britain and in America, I do believe, and further afield too. So, thanks for using affect, a proper word used well.”
I thought it was “bollucks.” Can I say that?
Anyway, the race for seventh has been impacted by a five-second penalty to Gasly, apparently affected by being not further enough from the safety automobile.
Lap 30/56 (still): Leclerc goes to the inside this time, and he passes! Brilliant overtake, and he zips away from Perez with third place in hand.
Lap 30/56: Leclerc goes to the outside of Perez! He goes off the track, though, and he avoids a penalty by letting Perez retain third place. For now.
Verstappen has just posted the fastest lap of the day.
Lap 29/56: Speaking of Star Wars, Lando Norris has some damage from all the debris. He’s running ninth. There is a gaggle of cars from seventh to 17th.
Lap 28/56: Verstappen is pulling away from Hamilton. Hamilton is more than a second ahead of Perez. The most interesting battle will be between Perez and Leclerc for third.
Leclerc says, “They are so quick down the straight.” Sounds like the immortal words of famous driver Darth Vader, when he said, “The Force is strong in this one.”
Lap 27/56: Verstappen says his drivability is (bleep).
“Drivability” is apparently a word.
Brad Pitt is here.
The top six has not changed.
Lap 26/56: Should Verstappen hold back Hamilton so Perez can pass? That sounds a bit dodgy, given that Hamilton could theoretically pass Verstappen. That’s allowed, right?
The safety car is off the track. No one has crashed or spun yet.
Lap 25/56: So how will these safety-car laps affect the tires?
No, seriously, I’m asking.
And note that the verb form is “affect.” Not “effect.” There, see? I speak anglais très bien.
Lap 24/56: My apologies for skipping a thrilling lap of safety-car racing.
The top five won’t change yet: Verstappen, Hamilton, Perez, Leclerc, Russell. Then Vettel.
Stroll will bow out of the race. Alonso will continue to run.
Mark Woldin writes: “Pieces fly FARTHER. Farther is real distance; further is figurative: He came further in his career than he imagined. Come on! Let’s keep the aspiditra flying!”
I spent the first several years of my career as a copy editor. Or, as I believe the English call it, a “sub-editor.” Or perhaps a lift. Or a tyre. Or football.
Anyone from Australia care to weigh in?
Lap 22/56 (still): The safety car is out, and we might get a red flag to clear a considerable amount of material that is no longer attached to a car.
A replay shows what happened. Alonso tried to pass Stroll but wound up running over Stroll’s left rear tire. Alonso flew over and bumped the wall. Stroll was sent into a 540-degree spin.
Both drivers report over race radio that they’re OK. Then some profanity and complaining.