6 Winners and 5 Losers from the United States Grand Prix – Who left Austin with a spring in their step?

Ferrari reigned supreme at The Circuit of The Americas, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz securing a superb one-two. But while the Italian squad had plenty to celebrate in downtown Austin on Sunday night, others will already have switched their attention to Mexico. Lawrence Barretto picks out his winners and losers from the United States Grand Prix…
Charles Leclerc positioned his car beautifully at the start, taking advantage of a squabble between title protagonists Max Verstappen and Lando Norris to snatch the lead from P4 on the grid before going on to secure one of the most accomplished victories of his career.
This was his third victory of the season and eighth of his career and saw him close to within 22 points of Norris in the drivers’ standings.
READ MORE: Leclerc insists Ferrari are ‘still targeting the title’ after superb Austin triumph
It was also the second time in a row he’s won from fourth on the grid, having achieved the feat in Monza last month.
This was a weekend to forget for Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion getting booted out of qualifying in Q1 and then managing just a handful of laps in the Grand Prix before he uncharacteristically spun off into the gravel.
This was the first time Hamilton has failed to finish a race in the United States (one in Indianapolis, 11 in Austin, three in Miami and one in Las Vegas) and his shortest race (just two laps) since last year’s Grand Prix in Qatar.
READ MORE: ‘I’ve never spun in the race before’ – Hamilton brands his US GP ‘frustrating’ after rare spin ends race early
Ferrari came alive in the Grand Prix with impressive control of their tyre degradation to take a commanding one-two in what was their strongest performance of the year.
This was Ferrari’s first one-two in America since the 2006 event at Indianapolis and only their third in the last decade.
They slashed the gap to Red Bull in the constructors’ championship to just eight points with leaders McLaren only 41 further ahead. The fight for their first constructors’ silverware since 2008 is well and truly on.
Lando Norris delivered what he described as the best lap of his career to take an unlikely pole position for the United States Grand Prix, his McLaren having looked third-best behind Red Bull and Mercedes in terms of one-lap pace.
However, he couldn’t convert that into victory as the Briton lost the lead on the opening lap – dropping to fourth after the opening sequence of corners.
READ MORE: ‘I think I did the correct thing’ – Norris stands by approach to Verstappen battle in Austin after penalty
The 24-year-old managed his tyres well to have the pace to challenge Verstappen in the closing stages, but the decision not to give the place back after he overtook the Dutchman cost him third when he was penalised by the stewards for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
He now trails Verstappen by 57 points in the drivers’ championship with five Grands Prix and two Sprints to go.
Max Verstappen returned to winning ways for the first time since June’s Austrian Sprint when he triumphed in the US Sprint in the upgraded Red Bull RB20.
And while he couldn’t take the fight to Ferrari for victory in the Grand Prix (which would have been his sixth consecutive triumph in Austin across both formats), he still snatched the final podium. And by finishing 19.412s behind the winner, it is the closest he has come to victory on a Sunday since the summer break.
It’s also the first time since the Belgium Grand Prix – six races ago – that he has been able to extend his championship lead.
READ MORE: ‘I have my opinion’ – Verstappen reflects on ‘hard’ battle with Norris as McLaren driver penalised in Austin
The weekend started off encouragingly for Kevin Magnussen as he took a superb seventh in the Sprint – but he, like many drivers, was forced to back out of a qualifying lap (that he felt could have been P6) when George Russell crashed.
The Dane looked to be in the fight for points but when the team called him in for a second stop late in the race (boss Ayao Komatsu admitted post-race that there was some “messy communication”) it ruled him out of the fight for points.
Though Magnussen missed out on a score in Sunday’s Grand Prix – as Haas finished with a car in 11th, one place outside of the points for the eighth time this year – the American squad can take plenty of positives from their home race weekend.
Their haul of seven points helped them move above RB into sixth in the constructors’ championship while eighth for Nico Hulkenberg in the Grand Prix gave the team their best-ever finish on home soil.
FACTS AND STATS: Ferrari’s first US one-two since 2006 and a best-ever home result for Haas
The team have now scored in four consecutive races for the first time since 2018 – when they secured a career-best fifth in the constructors’ championship – and they can take plenty of confidence from the way their upgrade package performed so well in Austin.
Pierre Gasly couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he tied his and Alpine’s best qualifying of the season with P7on Saturday, while also replicating his performance at last year’s event in Austin.
However, while he ran inside the top-10 in the first stint, a slow stop cost him track position and he wasn’t able to replicate the speed he showed on the medium when he swapped to the hards, which ultimately dropped him out of the points.
Franco Colapinto delivered another striking performance to score his second points finish in four attempts and help his Williams team edge further away from Alpine (the gap is now four points) in their fight for P8.
READ MORE: What the teams said – Race day in the United States
The Argentine driver made up for losing a few places at the start, which dropped him even further away from the top-10, to make a one-stop work and claim the final points-paying position of the day.
He was on course to take the point for fastest lap, too, only for Alpine’s Esteban Ocon to snatch the quickest tour with three laps to go.
Sauber’s hopes of clawing their way into the battle for points were high after they brought an upgrade package forward to Austin, with Valtteri Bottas running the new parts throughout the weekend.
But while it did put them in a position to fight – rather than trail around at the back of the field – with Zhou Guanyu running as high as P13 at one point, they ultimately didn’t have the pace to convert over the distance.
They ended up one lap down and still pointless at the bottom of the standings with only five race weekends to go.
HIGHLIGHTS: Leclerc takes United States GP win as Ferrari seal glorious one-two finish ahead of Verstappen
Liam Lawson knew his return to Formula 1 (in place of Daniel Ricciardo) in Austin would be challenging given he was forced to take a suite of new engine components that triggered penalties that would confine him to the back of the grid.
But he didn’t know that he would show such strong pace on Sunday afternoon that he was able to not only make a one-stop work, but also score a superb ninth-place to limit RB’s losses in their fight for P6 with Haas.