Leclerc leads Ferrari 1-2 at COTA as Norris, Verstappen clash for third

Charles Leclerc romped to victory at the United States Grand Prix ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz in a dominant Ferrari one-two after title rivals Max Verstappen and Lando Norris controversially clashed late in the race in the battle for the podium. Leclerc started fourth from the grid but set up his straightforward victory with a great launch to take the lead immediately from polesitter Norris and front-row starter Verstappen. Norris launched well from the line but failed to defend the inside sternly enough from Verstappen, who barged down his inside on the brakes, taking both drivers to the outside edge of the track. It earned Verstappen position on Norris but left the door wide open for Leclerc — whose strong start had already got him ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz — to claim the apex and pass both for the lead on exit. The Monegasque put more than a second on the field in just the first lap, aided in part by Sainz moving up to third and harrying Verstappen hard for position, and he had no trouble rebuilding that margin almost immediately after the safety car restart on lap six following Lewis Hamilton beaching his car at the exit of Turn 19. The Ferrari set a metronomic pace with the clear air of the lead. By lap 23 he had stretched his advantage to more than 10s, by which time a low-risk one-stop strategy came into view. With his tire change completed on lap 26, the road to the checkered flag was cleared of its final obstacle, and Leclerc was unhindered in his sprint to a dominant victory. “I’m very happy,” he said. “It hasn’t been a n easy weekend. Until now I have been struggling a bit with the feeling with the car, but I had the confidence in the race that the feeling would be better, and it was the case. “We had mega pace , then the second stint was all about managing behind. The pace of the car this weekend was really good.” While Leclerc put victory beyond doubt early, Sainz had to be more ambitious to secure second. He looked feisty early in his battle with Verstappen, but an engine problem after the safety car restart dropped him too far from the Dutchman to challenge him in the first stint by the time some switch changes restored his car to competitiveness. Ferrari rolled the dice on an early stop, bringing him in for a set of new hard tires on lap 21. It guaranteed the Spaniard a massive undercut advantage over Verstappen, and though the Dutchman had a four-lap tire advantage after his own stop on lap 25, Sainz was even faster on hard rubber in the second stint, putting second place beyond doubt to secure Ferrari’s first one-two finish since the Australian Grand Prix. The score puts Ferrari just eight points behind Red Bull Racing on the teams’ title table and 48 points behind leader McLaren. “Congratulations to the whole team and to Charles for an amazing result — a result that puts us exactly where we want to be in the fight for the constructors right now,” Sainz said. “I knew the race was going to be decided at the start. Unfortunately I got the worst of it and I couldn’t get the lead. “Even though the pace from then on was really good and I was all weekend really fast, track position was key, and I had to settle for P2, which anyway was a good race.” The battle for third went down to the wire between Verstappen and would-be title rival Norris, culminating in a controversial altercation at Turn 12 on lap 52 of 56. Norris was struggling with graining in the opening stint, but his rubber cleared up after lap 20, allowing him to extend his sole pit stop to lap 31, giving himself a six-lap tire offset on Verstappen. He rejoined 6s in arrears but closed to within reach of DRS on lap 44, setting up a grandstand finish. Verstappen had a clear pace deficit but was steadfast in defense. His car positioning was inch perfect in the key overtaking zones of Turn 1 and Turn 12 to negate the DRS advantage, tempting Norris only through esses, where passing is impossible. Twice, on laps 47 and 51, they diced side by side, with Norris setting himself up on the outside of Turn 12 to take Verstappen side by side all the way through the final sector, but both times he was rebuffed. It took until lap 52 for the McLaren to break the Red Bull Racing car’s advantage, a better exit from the Turn 11 hairpin to draw level with his rival down the back straight. Verstappen pinned him to the outside and ran deep into the corner, putting both cars off the track, but Norris kept his foot in and exited ahead. Verstappen argued he’d been passed off the track. Norris contended that he was ahead at the apex, with his team telling him not to hand back the place. Stewards sided with Red Bull Racing, penalizing Norris 5s for gaining an advantage off the track, reversing their positions after the flag and promoting Verstappen back onto the podium. “For me it was quite a difficult race,” he said. “I never really had the pace to attack. I was just understeering a lot, struggling on the braking, so that also made defending quite difficult, because if someone wanted to go for a move, I couldn’t really brake that late. “I tried everything I could to keep behind. At the end, to be on the podium is a great result.” Norris finished a dejected fourth, losing another two points to Verstappen in his increasingly forlorn drivers title chase. Teammate Oscar Piastri was classified fifth, 1.5s further back. George Russell completed a herculean recovery drive from pit lane to sixth, passing the lackluster Sergio Perez for the position on the final lap, with Nico Hulkenberg following in a lonely but lucrative eighth for Haas. Liam Lawson finished a superb ninth in his first race of the year for RB ahead of similarly excellent rookie Franco Colapinto, who scored the final point of the race for Williams. Kevin Magnussen was called to a late unscheduled stop, dropping him out of the points to 11th ahead of Pierre Gasly, who has also been on track for a top-10 finish only to find his car poorly suited to the hard tire in the final stint. Fernando Alonso finished 13th ahead of the frustrated Yuki Tsunoda. Lance Stroll finished 15th ahead of Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon and Zhou Guanyu.