Formula 1 2021 United States was held at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. This was the 17th round of the 2021 F1 season, and the 9th time the US Grand Prix was held at the circuit built in the Lone Star State. It was also the 50th running of the United States GP and the 42nd time the race was run as a world championship round.
Max Verstappen came into the weekend on the back of a win in Turkey and reclaimed the championship lead from Hamilton, which he lost in the Russian Grand Prix. He then took a surprise pole position on Saturday when Hamilton was the guy to beat after an impressive show of speed on Friday.
Perez qualified third behind Lewis, giving Red Bull a strategic advantage going into the race. Max won the race ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who might have overtaken him if he had two more laps. Perez made it two Red Bulls on the podium to shrink the gap in the constructors' championship.
Preparation & Practice for the F1 2021 US Grand Prix
Thursday Pre-Race Preparation
The weather outlook finally looked more normal than it had been in the last two events. The teams and crowds would get plenty of sunshine for the perfect Grand Prix racing weather. Pirelli brought the three compounds from the middle of the range. C2(White) was the hard tyre, C3(Yellow) was the medium tyre and C4(Red) was the soft tyre.
Friday Practice FP1 & FP2
Mercedes finished 1-2 in the FP1, staying true to the predictions that it would be the team to beat for this round. In FP2, the Red Bull of Sergio Perez finished the session fastest ahead of the McLaren of Lando Norris and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen failed to get a clean lap in on the soft tyre run and was only 8th quickest.
In both simulations, Mercedes was slightly ahead of the Red Bull, indicating a great weekend of close racing between them. Ferrari looked like the 3rd quickest team behind the top two teams. The engine upgrade Ferrari introduced seemed to have pushed them ahead of McLaren in the pecking order.
Lance Stroll was the 6th quickest in the FP2 session and looked like they had a good chance to fight for the minor points along with Alpha Tauri and Alpha Romeo. Bottas will take another ICE engine and a corresponding 5-place grid drop on Sunday.
Saturday Practice FP3
Sergio Perez continued his excellent form and finished the only practice session on Saturday in the P1 position. Sainz managed to split the Red Bull pair and finished P2 ahead of Verstappen, Norris, and Bottas. Lewis was 6th quickest behind his teammate and seemed to have lost some pace compared to Friday. Ricciardo was 7th ahead of Gasly, Leclerc, and Ocon.
US Grand Prix Qualifying – Verstappen Grabs P1
Leclerc was the fastest man at the end of Q1 as Red Bull looked slightly quicker than the Mercedes. After showing decent pace on Friday, Lance Stroll failed to reach Q2 and was eliminated along with the two Haas drivers, Latifi and Raikkonen.
Everybody went for medium tyres during the Q2 session to avoid starting the race on soft tyres. Verstappen was the quickest ahead of Lewis, while Ricciardo and Perez had to go again after their lap times were deleted due to track limits. Giovinazzo, Ocon, Vettel, Alonso and Russell were knocked out at the end of Q2.
Mercedes went out early for their first run, and it was Bottas who was quickest ahead of Lewis Hamilton by less than a tenth of a second. However, Red Bull grabbed the provisional front row from Mercedes after Perez went quickest ahead of Max at the end of the first run.
Lewis was on course to set a faster time, but a mistake in the sector cost him two tenths on the final run, giving Verstappen an opportunity to grab P1 for the race on Sunday. Lewis was 2nd ahead of Perez, Bottas, Leclerc, Sainz, Ricciardo, Norris, Gasly and Tsunoda.
Sunday Race
Hamilton jumps Verstappen to regain P1
The race was attended by a full house, with Hamilton making the better start. He jumped pole-sitter Verstappen, running him wide enough on the exit of turn 1 to regain the lead of the race. Perez slotted into 3rd place behind his teammate. In the midfield, McLaren and Ferrari had a great battle on the opening lap of the race.
Lewis was in the lead but did not have enough pace to open a gap to Verstappen. Max pitted on lap 11 and switched to hard tyres, coming out in P5 behind Ricciardo. He quickly passed him for P4, and after Leclerc and Perez pitted on lap 12, Max was back up to P2.
Max leads after Lewis pits
Lewis pitted on lap 14 and joined 6 seconds behind Verstappen in the P2 position. Sun was shining bright, and high track temperatures meant it was going to be a two-stop race. Max pitted again quite early for his second stop of the race and bolted a set of hard tyres.
Lewis would stay out and pit on lap 37 and switch to hard tyres as well. The gap to Max was 11.5 sec which became a deficit of 8.8 sec after the pitstop. With 15 laps remaining, the fight for the race win was indeed on.
Ten laps from the end of the race, only 3 seconds separated the pair from each other. The backmarkers came at regular intervals, and the gap was down to 1.7 secs. Verstappen managed to stay calm and found some much-needed pace in the final few laps to hold charging Hamilton.
2 Red Bulls on the podium for a 1-3 win
Verstappen won a very calculated race from the defending champion to extend his lead, with only five races remaining after this. Perez finished 3rd to give Red Bull some hope of beating Mercedes in the constructor’s championship.
Behind the leading trio, the midfield teams had no answer to the leaders' pace and finished the race somehow behind the leaders.
Leclerc finished the race in P4 after starting in the same place ahead of Ricciardo, who started P6. Bottas finished P6 after starting from P9 due to an engine-related penalty. Sainz finished 7th ahead of Norris, Tsunoda, and Vettel.
F1 2021 Mexican Grand Prix
F1 teams head to Mexico, a home race for local hero Sergio Perez and a track which will be very much suited to the Red Bull chassis.