Hamilton led from the start, but Verstappen undercut him at the first round of pitstops.
Although that gave Verstappen the lead, it always meant he’d be vulnerable on tyre life in the closing stages.
Hamilton chased him down, but was unable to get close enough to attack and he came up just short after a charging drive.
2021 US Grand Prix race results
Cla | Driver | Laps | Time | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Max Verstappen | 56 | 1:34'36.552 | |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | 56 | 1:34'37.885 | |
3 | Sergio Perez | 56 | 1:35'18.775 | |
4 | Charles Leclerc | 56 | 1:35'28.798 | |
5 | Daniel Ricciardo | 56 | 1:35'53.406 | |
6 | Valtteri Bottas | 56 | 1:35'56.680 | |
7 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | 56 | 1:36'00.097 | |
8 | Lando Norris | 56 | 1:36'00.947 | |
9 | Yuki Tsunoda | 55 | 1 lap | |
10 | Sebastian Vettel | 55 | 1 lap | |
11 | Antonio Giovinazzi | 55 | 1 lap | |
12 | Lance Stroll | 55 | 1 lap | |
13 | Kimi Raikkonen | 55 | 1 lap | |
14 | George Russell | 55 | 1 lap | |
15 | Nicholas Latifi | 55 | 1 lap | |
16 | Mick Schumacher | 54 | 2 laps | |
17 | Nikita Mazepin | 54 | 2 laps | |
Fernando Alonso | 49 | |||
Esteban Ocon | 40 | |||
Pierre Gasly | 14 | |||
View full results |
How the US Grand Prix unfolded
From pole position Verstappen got wheelspin off the start line and Hamilton rocketed past him into Turn 1, holding the inside line from P2 on the grid to lead. Behind them, Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin got punted into a spin by fellow Canadian Nicholas Latifi’s Wiliams at Turn 1.
Hamilton led Verstappen, Sergio Perez (Red Bull) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), while Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari) and Lando Norris (McLaren) fought hard over fifth. Eighth-placed Yuki Tsunoda held Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) at bay, and his AlphaTauri team-mate Pierre Gasly managed to pass Bottas on lap 3.
Hamilton couldn’t pull away from Verstappen, who noted that Lewis was “sliding a lot”, while Perez fell away by 5s on lap 10. Verstappen pitted early on lap 11 for hard tyres, putting him back behind Ricciardo but he quickly dealt with the McLaren on the back straight. Perez pitted for mediums on lap 13, but it was a relatively slow stop.
Hamilton pitted on lap 14, opting for hard tyres, and Verstappen took the lead with a 6.7s advantage but with three laps less on his similar-compound tyres.
As the race approached half distance, Hamilton carved into Verstappen’s lead, cutting it to under 3s by the time Max pitted for a second time on lap 30 – giving him a 26-lap run to the finish. Red Bull feared it would get undercut by Hamilton like Verstappen had done to him after the opening stint.
Mercedes opted to run long, with Hamilton pitting on lap 37, rejoining 8.8s behind Verstappen.
Verstappen lost a chunk of time behind Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, who’d earlier clashed with Fernando Alonso (Alpine), for which Raikkonen received a black and white flag.
With 10 laps to go, Hamilton got to within 3.4s of Verstappen with his tyres that were seven laps fresher. He got the gap under 2s with six laps remaining, and the gap briefly got under 1s with two laps to go, but crucially not in the DRS detection zone.
Verstappen clung on to win by 1.3s over Hamilton. Behind the lead battle, Perez finished a clear third (although he struggled physically with no drinking water in the car), ahead of Leclerc and the battling Ricciardo and Sainz. Bottas got ahead of Norris for seventh and closed in on their fight, passing Sainz in the closing laps for sixth.
Behind Norris, Tsunoda finished ninth, ahead of Sebastian Vettel, whose Aston passed Raikkonen when the Finn spun with four laps to go.
Gasly slowed with a suspension issue and retired, while both Alpines also retired.
2021 Formula 1 US Grand Prix fastest laps
Cla | Driver | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 41 | 1'38.485 | 201.521 | ||
2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 52 | 1'39.096 | 0.611 | 0.611 | 200.278 |
3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 41 | 1'39.303 | 0.818 | 0.207 | 199.861 |
4 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 32 | 1'39.566 | 1.081 | 0.263 | 199.333 |
5 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 46 | 1'40.067 | 1.582 | 0.501 | 198.335 |
6 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 41 | 1'40.147 | 1.662 | 0.080 | 198.176 |
7 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 41 | 1'40.228 | 1.743 | 0.081 | 198.016 |
8 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 43 | 1'40.345 | 1.860 | 0.117 | 197.785 |
9 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | 40 | 1'40.377 | 1.892 | 0.032 | 197.722 |
10 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 40 | 1'40.481 | 1.996 | 0.104 | 197.517 |
11 | George Russell | Williams | 36 | 1'41.120 | 2.635 | 0.639 | 196.269 |
12 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 44 | 1'41.145 | 2.660 | 0.025 | 196.221 |
13 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 47 | 1'41.151 | 2.666 | 0.006 | 196.209 |
14 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 36 | 1'41.189 | 2.704 | 0.038 | 196.135 |
15 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 43 | 1'41.340 | 2.855 | 0.151 | 195.843 |
16 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 36 | 1'41.395 | 2.910 | 0.055 | 195.737 |
17 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 46 | 1'41.818 | 3.333 | 0.423 | 194.924 |
18 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 12 | 1'42.015 | 3.530 | 0.197 | 194.547 |
19 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 28 | 1'42.194 | 3.709 | 0.179 | 194.207 |
20 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | 42 | 1'42.886 | 4.401 | 0.692 | 192.900 |
View full results |
2021 Formula 1 US Grand Prix tyre history
Cla | Driver | Chassis | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | M | 13 | H | 19 | H | 27 | ||
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | M | 16 | H | 24 | H | 19 | ||
3 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | M | 15 | M | 21 | H | 26 | ||
4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | M | 15 | H | 20 | H | 24 | ||
5 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | M | 14 | H | 19 | H | 26 | ||
6 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | M | 18 | H | 19 | H | 22 | ||
7 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | S | 14 | H | 18 | H | 27 | ||
8 | Lando Norris | McLaren | M | 13 | H | 20 | H | 26 | ||
9 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | S | 12 | H | 23 | H | 23 | ||
10 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | M | 19 | M | 23 | H | 17 | ||
11 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | M | 8 | M | 21 | H | 29 | ||
12 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | M | 18 | M | 16 | H | 21 | ||
13 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | M | 12 | M | 19 | H | 24 | ||
14 | George Russell | Williams | M | 9 | H | 22 | H | 24 | ||
15 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | M | 5 | H | 20 | H | 30 | ||
16 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | M | 11 | H | 23 | M | 20 | ||
17 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | M | 1 | H | 23 | M | 13 | M | 18 |
Fernando Alonso | Alpine | M | 7 | H | 21 | H | 11 | M | 10 | |
Esteban Ocon | Alpine | M | 6 | H | 22 | M | 18 | |||
Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | M | 13 | H | 4 | |||||
View full results |