Charles Leclerc secured the lead at the start and managed proceedings to head home team-mate Carlos Sainz in a Ferrari 1-2 at Formula 1‘s United States Grand Prix.
Leclerc coasted home with an eight-second gap over Sainz, while Lando Norris overtook Max Verstappen but lost third place due to overtaking outside of track limits.
George Russell’s crash at the penultimate corner in qualifying meant that he was resigned to starting from the pit lane and without Mercedes’ latest upgrade package.
The Briton’s loss was his team-mate’s slight gain as Lewis Hamilton, who endured an elimination in Q1, moved up one more place to 17th position on the starting grid.
Both Mercedes drivers were placed on the Hard compound to begin the race, alongside Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Williams’ Franco Colapinto and RB’s Liam Lawson.
The polesitter had not maintained the lead at the start here on F1’s previous three visits and that continued in 2022 as Norris lost out to Verstappen heading to Turn 1.
However, Verstappen moving up his championship rival’s inside allowed Leclerc, who had lined up fourth, to cut underneath them both to assume an unexpected lead.
Norris’ woes were compounded as Verstappen and Sainz both got through to demote the Briton to fourth, while Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren retained fifth place.
Verstappen split the two Ferrari cars, but Sainz was all over the Red Bull’s rear going down the back straight and he attempted a pass into the braking zone at Turn 12.
The Dutchman ran wide and retained the lead as the fight continued until Turn 15 when Sainz slotted in behind as Leclerc opened up a one-second plus lead out front.
Sainz would be all over Verstappen’s tail on the next lap, but the reigning F1 champion was more wise to the Spaniard’s antics this time around and retained the place.
Hamilton managed good progress to gain five spots to be running in 12th until he lost the car through the penultimate corner and beached his Mercedes in the gravel.
READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton spins out of F1 US GP on second lap
That prompted the Safety Car to intervene for the first time since the Canadian Grand Prix back in June, with Leclerc still leading Verstappen, Sainz, Norris and Piastri.
Norris was disgruntled with Verstappen’s manoeuvre on the opening tour, telling his race engineer Will Joseph that the Red Bull driver had “pushed me wide” at Turn 1.
The racing action resumed as the drivers headed onto Lap 5. Leclerc managed to protect first place over Verstappen, who resisted Sainz’s advances on this occasion.
Leclerc was beginning to stretch his legs as the race entered Lap 10, the Monegasque driver opening up his advantage over Verstappen behind to over three seconds.
Elsewhere, Zhou Guanyu was exasperated as his Sauber was tipped into a spin at Turn 1 when Colapinto attempted a pass which ended with the two drivers colliding.
Russell’s climb through the grid was made more complicated as he was deemed to have pushed Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas wide, landing him a five-second time penalty.
Yuki Tsunoda was bidding to help RB in its contest with Haas and the side elected to pit him from eighth on Lap 14 as he came under pressure from Nico Hulkenberg.
Sainz had closed up on Verstappen again and Ferrari used that as an opportune point to trigger an undercut attempt as the Spaniard switched to the Hards on Lap 21.
Meanwhile, Leclerc, mindful of the experience that lost him a race win in Baku, radioed his engineer to claim that he didn’t want to be “under pressure” when he boxed.
Verstappen was the next driver among the leading contenders to pit on Lap 25, but Sainz’s quick laps on fresher rubber saw the Ferrari man emerge a distance ahead.
Ferrari responded on the next lap with Leclerc next to discard the Mediums and move to the Hards. He returned to the track in third position behind the two McLarens.
Sergio Perez remained in points contention in the other Red Bull and he muscled his car past Haas’ Kevin Magnussen at Turn 12 on Lap 28 to take over ninth position.
Norris continued in the race lead past the mid-point on the Mediums to all but ensure that he was gambling on a one-stop race, as Leclerc closed on Piastri in second.
Leclerc utilised the DRS on the back straight on Lap 31 to ease his Ferrari down Piastri’s inside to seize second, which became the lead when Norris pitted on that lap.
Norris emerged 6.3s behind championship leader Verstappen, but with much newer rubber at his disposal to chase down the Red Bull driver, who held a 54-point lead.
McLaren wasted no time in also stopping Piastri as he ventured into the pits on the next lap. The Australian managed to hold the place over Russell, who hadn’t pitted.
Norris was straight into posting new fastest laps to cut Verstappen’s margin over him to under four seconds with 20 laps still remaining at the Circuit of the Americas.
Perez displaced Colapinto’s Williams on Lap 38 to move up another spot into seventh position, which was bound to become sixth once Russell made his sole pit stop.
Alpine had been unable to replicate the encouraging pace it had managed over a single lap as Gasly, who lined up sixth on the grid, surrendered 10th place to Lawson.
Tsunoda was angered that RB team-mate Lawson had overcut him and the Japanese driver’s anguish worsened as he locked up into Turn 1 and span without contact.
Norris had crept into DRS range on Verstappen on Lap 44, making a swap in positions between the two championship protagonists look inevitable in the coming laps.
However, Verstappen would remain unperturbed despite Norris menacing behind in his mirrors, allowing Leclerc and Sainz breathing room from the chasing McLaren.
With six laps to go Norris spied the opening through the winding section between Turns 13 and 16, but Verstappen again placed his car well to maintain third position.
Norris was much closer going down the back straight on Lap 52 and pulled to the outside to complete a move until Verstappen dived back down the McLaren’s inside.
The McLaren, though, used extremities outside track limits to claim third place, much to Verstappen’s anger as Norris was told that he was ahead at the corner’s apex.
But the stewards dictated that Norris had obtained a lasting advantage and he was slapped with a time drop which all but ruined his podium prospects there and then.
While the squabbling was happening behind, Leclerc dominated the race once he assumed the lead to saunter to a third win this season over Ferrari team-mate Sainz.
Norris’ overtake in the closing laps saw him cross the line in third spot, but a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage dropped him to fourth.
Verstappen inherited the last position on the podium to grow his gap in the standings to 51 points, as Piastri came home behind his McLaren team-mate in fifth place.
Russell passed Perez to bag sixth place in the standalone Mercedes still running at the end, while Nico Hulkenberg gave Haas more points with a strong run to eighth.
Lawson marked his return to the grid with a solid ninth place in the leading RB car. Williams’ Franco Colapinto took his second points finish in the sport with 10th spot.
