Formula One: United States Grand Prix – as it happened

So while the anthems play (side note: quite a few Mexican flags in the stands), we’ll sign off. Thanks for following along with us today through a race in which first place was never in doubt but the intrigue up and down the standings was palpable.

Next week: A little ways farther south – Mexico.

To be clear – if Piastri can get back into form and average third or maybe even fourth place the rest of the way, he’ll likely hang on to the lead over Verstappen. Norris has less margin for error.

Tsunoda gained a few points on Lawson, which will certainly add spice to the conversations about who stays in F1 next season. (Yes, we hear you, YouTubers – you all want Stroll to lose his seat instead.)

Updated standings:

Piastri (McLaren) 346
Norris (McLaren) 332
Verstappen (Red Bull) 306
Russell (Mercedes) 252
Leclerc (Ferrari) 192
Hamilton (Ferrari) 142
Antonelli (Mercedes) 89
Albon (Williams) 73
Hulkenberg (Kick Sauber) 41
Hadjar (Racing Bulls) 39
Sainz (Williams) 38
Alonso (Aston Martin) 37
Stroll (Aston Martin) 32
Lawson (Racing Bulls) 30
Ocon (Haas) 28
Tsunoda (Red Bull) 28
Gasly (Alpine) 20
Bearman (Haas) 20
Bortoleto (Kick Sauber) 18
Colapinto (Alpine) 0

Max Verstappen: “It was an unbelievable weekend for us. I knew the race wouldn’t be straightforward. It wasn’t easy to manage the tires, but we kept it in the lead, and I’m incredibly proud of everyone.”

Lando Norris: “Finally. It took long enough. It was a good battle with Charles – he fought hard. I expected a slightly easier second attempt to get through, but it wasn’t the case. Charles ran a very good race.”

Charles Leclerc: “I was a little bit worried when I saw I was the only car on softs at the beginning. I’m very happy overall. It’s been a tough second part of the year. We recovered well. I enjoyed it – I had fun in the car.”

Now the big question to Max: Can he come all the way back?

“The chance is there. We just need to deliver these kind of weekends now until the end.”

The other storylines we were watching …

Tsunoda made a statement, leaving Lawson in his dust and finishing a strong seventh.

Pretty good day for Ferrari.

Mercedes had a disappointing run from Russell and an unlucky run from Antonelli, who was blazing fast but couldn’t make up the gap after Sainz spun him out early.

Colapinto’s late pass on Gasly might arouse some anger in the Alpine debrief, but will it help his case for staying with the team?

Leclerc tells his team he’s happy to be back on the podium. Perhaps he could’ve done a bit better?

Verstappen parks in his customary spot reserved for race winners. His left front tire looks like a relief map of the Himalayas.

Lap 56/56: Shaboozey will be waving the checkered flag.

Norris is now well more than five seconds ahead of Leclerc.

Russell is more than 3.5 behind Piastri.

Bortoleto might pass Gasly now – in fact, he just did.

Lap 55/56: Colapinto ignores team orders and scoots past Gasly.

Lap 54/56: Verstappen is now lapping people.

Norris is nearly 4.5 seconds ahead of Leclerc.

Colapinto (18th) is told to hold positions despite being 0.4 seconds behind Gasly, his teammate. He’s not happy with that. “But he’s slow,” Colapinto says.

Lap 53/56: The Norris lead over Leclerc is now 3.3 seconds. Verstappen is out of sight, of course – 8.5 seconds in front.

The only problem would be if Norris slides outside the track limit. If he gets another 1.5 seconds on Leclerc, a five-second penalty won’t matter.

And that’s likely the last action we’ll have aside from the back five. Alonso is holding on to 10th.

Lap 52/56: Leclerc radio says to keep the pressure on because Norris has three strikes.

But he’s already more than a second ahead. Make it 1.5. Leclerc is going backwards.

Norris passes Leclerc! It all looked so easy there.

And no, Russell still isn’t gaining on Piastri.

Lap 51/56: Norris takes a shot! He tries to get inside, but Leclerc slams the door, and Norris wisely backs off.

Lap 50/56: Reminder – if Norris goes outside the track limits again, he’ll lose five seconds. He can gamble because he has more than 12 seconds on the fading Hamilton, but if he goes for it, he’d better make it work.

Lap 49/56: Make it 1.2 seconds. My goodness. Have Leclerc’s medium tires suddenly fallen apart?

Verstappen is still more than seven seconds ahead.

The commentators have suddenly noticed that Russell is within three seconds of Piastri, but the gap is the same as it was several laps ago. He’s not “gaining.” Not yet, anyway.

Lap 48/56: Well, well, well … Norris is suddenly within 1.6 seconds.

We have five races left. Two of them have sprints. Verstappen could certainly get 120 points or so, for a total of 426. That means Piastri would need 81 – the equivalent of hitting the podium in each race and getting six more points somewhere.

You really can’t like Norris’s chances of holding off Verstappen in the least.

Lap 46/56: Points if these standings hold …

Verstappen 25 (306 on the season)
Leclerc 18 (195)
Norris 15 (329)
Hamilton 12 (142)
Piastri 10 (346)
Russell 8 (252)

Lap 44/56: That said – Verstappen was a little faster than Leclerc on his last lap. Norris is dropping farther behind Leclerc, but Hamilton’s on the same tires behind him and isn’t gaining.

Piastri’s quest to hold fifth is also looking solid.

The big contest coming up will be for 10th, where Alonso has Lawson and Stroll right behind him.

Lap 43/56: It appears Norris wasn’t bluffing. Replay shows him sliding around.

And Verstappen now says he is sliding around a lot.

Leclerc is on mediums. Would we see the rest of the top 10 pit to ditch these underperforming tires, leaving Leclerc to take his second straight win in Texas?

Lap 42/56: Norris says his tires are “gone.” That seems fishy. A bluff? But hew has dropped a bit farther behind Leclerc.

Verstappen is informed that Norris is complaining about his tires, so he should look after his. That 6.8-second gap will make that task easier.

Greatest collapses …

Ger Nugent: “Barça VS Liverpool champions league. Bayern Munich Vs Man U final.”

Mark Woldin objects to the Greg Norman comparison: “That was one day. We have to think of a season. There have been many. But McClaren is not collapsing. Max is great and his car is better than before.”

Nicola Wilson: “Newcastle United Football Club 95/96. McLaren’s antics have taken me back to my 10 year old self... although I’m actually enjoying it. Papaya Ruled too close to the sun.”

Paul Overtoom points out that this race is not done.

Lap 40/56: As you were.

Getting email now …

Lap 38/56: So our top 10, with the potential for changes …

1. Verstappen will win, barring mishap
2. Leclerc – the wild card here is that his medium tires may be better at the end
3. Norris is gaining on Leclerc, so that could be our most significant change
4. Hamilton is by himself
5. Piastri seems OK for now
6. Russell may yet have a chance of getting past Piastri, but he has work to do
7. Tsunoda has nearly wrappup up seventh
8. Hulkenberg has to hold off …
9. Bearman
10. Alonso is well back and may yet be challenged by Lawson, Stroll (medium), Ocon (medium) and the charging Antonelli, who clearly has a ton of pace today and would likely be in the top five if not for his unfortunate spin.

Everyone else is on softs.

Lap 37/57: It’s interesting that Hamilton has emerged nearly 10 seconds behind his teammate Leclerc. Before everyone pitted, he was on Leclerc’s rear wing.

Albon is pitting again. He had the early incident and pitted early, so that’s no surprise. Bortoleto is also pitting for some reason.

Antonelli is up to 14th.

Lap 36/56: Verstappen is pulling away again.

Norris is gaining on Leclerc.

Antonelli wound up 17th again after everyone pitted but has posted the fastest lap again.

Lap 35/56: Hulkenberg fans will be happy to see that he moved up to fifth, but that was pre-pit.

With that, every driver has pitted, and the situation is:

Verstappen – only 5.771 ahead of Leclerc now
Leclerc – medium tires
Norris
Hamilton
Piastri
Russell
Tsunoda
Bearman
Hulkenberg
Albon – medium

Everyone else in the top 10 is on softs.

Bearman tries to pass Tsunoda but locks up. He manages to keep going, and Tsunoda is lucky to have avoided the skidding Bearman. We’ll see if stewards take action against Tsunoda for dodgy defending.

Lap 34/54: Our new leader is George Russell. Don’t get too excited. He hasn’t pitted, while Verstappen has just zipped in and out of the pit lane.

Now Russell will pit.

Lap 33/56: Norris pits. The stop takes nearly four seconds. He comes out nearly four seconds behind Leclerc. Things are shaping up horribly for McLaren here.

Lap 32/56: Hamilton pits. He re-emerges in sixth, once again ahead of Piastri.

Antonelli pits. He did a masterful job of recovering from his early spin.

Leclerc has posted the fastest lap.

Lap 31/56: Piastri pits. He’ll be on soft tires, which will surely be better than the mediums that were letting him down – but for how long?

Russell goes about a mile outside track limits, so maybe his tires are starting to fail.

Lap 30/56: Leclerc gets past Tsunoda into sixth. Tsunoda duly pits.

Piastri tells McLaren he thinks it’d be difficult to go the rest of the way on soft tires. He’s still out there ahead of Russell, but the gap is dropping. The team asks him about undercutting. The nerves in Piastri’s voice are noticeable.

Lap 29/56: Tim Brosnan has a contender for biggest collapse – Greg Norman at the Masters. Good choice. I should be able to come up with a soccer equivalent at some point, but it’s escaping my brain so far.

Lap 28/56: We’re at the halfway point, and Russell is slowly gaining on Piastri. Can McLaren hold out a little longer before changing tires?

The only driver in the top 10 who has pitted is Leclerc, who is ninth. Oops – eighth. Make it seventh, as he passes Bearman.

Verstappen’s team tells him to make his tires last a bit longer. Must be nice to have a 10-second cushion.

Lap 27/56: Standings at the moment …

1. Verstappen
2. Norris (more than 11 seconds back)
3. Hamilton (more than five seconds back of Norris)
4. Piastri
5. Russell (still nearly two seconds back)
6. Tsunoda
7. Bearman
8. Leclerc (just passed Hulkenberg)
9. Hulkenberg
10. Alonso
11. Lawson
12. Stroll
13. Gasly
14. Antonelli
15. Colapinto
16. Albon
17. Hajduk
18. Bortoleto
19. Ocon
(Sainz is out)

Lap 25/56: Leclerc doesn’t seem to be pushing too hard on his new tires, perhaps hinting that he’ll stick with a one-stop strategy and nurse those tires until the end of the race.

Lap 24/56: Leclerc comes out of the pits in ninth. Norris has nothing but clean air ahead of him because Verstappen is more than 10 seconds in front, but how long with the tires hold?

Hamilton is third but isn’t gaining ground.

Lap 22/56: McLaren’s pit crew gets on the radio to let Norris know about the track-limits warning. “I know, I know, I know,” says Norris.

Now someone else is trying to pass Leclerc, and it’s his teammate, Lewis Hamilton! Leclerc defends with near-reckless zeal, and Ferrari has seen enough, telling him to pit so he can get rid of those soft tires.

And as I type that, Norris whips past Leclerc on a straightaway and leaves Leclerc nothing going into the turn.

Lap 21/56: Norris pulls within a car length of Leclerc, but he’s clearly chastened by his track-limits warnings – now one away from a five-second penalty – and doesn’t make a serious effort to pass.

Lap 20/56: Again, Leclerc defends well, and Norris gets another track-limits warning. Seems like Leclerc should get one as well.

Verstappen’s lead is now nine seconds. Pretty soon, he’ll be able to stop and sign autographs.

Lap 19/56: Russell may think Piastri is slow at the moment, but he’s dropping farther behind the championship leader.

Here goes Norris again …

Lap 18/56: Norris stays close to Leclerc. Verstappen pulls farther away.

Can Antonelli charge back from his spin to get into the points? He races past Hadjar into 16th.

Lap 17/56: Norris now has two warnings for exceeding track limits, and Hamilton is getting a little closer to the McLaren driver.

Russell has Piastri in his sights.

Nervous moments for the constructors’ champions here.

Lap 16/56: Norris and Leclerc have an epic battle through several turns, but Leclerc hangs on for now.

If Norris can get past, he’s gone. He’s clearly faster.

Meanwhile, Verstappen is more than six seconds in front.

Lap 14/56: Russell to his team: “Piastri seems slow.” The response is that he’s having trouble with his front left. Yeah, we know.

Russell’s still well more than a second back.

Leclerc tattles on Norris exceeding track limits. How would he have that great of a view in his rearview mirror?

Norris is within a half-second now.

Lap 13/56: Norris is slowly reeling in Leclerc. Most of the rest of the field is spread out, especially in the top 10.

Verstappen is more than four seconds in front of Leclerc.

Lap 12/56: Antonelli rebounds from being spun out by posting the fastest lap time so far. Might be a question of having no traffic around him – he’s 18th, well behind Hadjar and well ahead of the unfortunate Albon.

Reminder of the question of the day: If Verstappen rallies to win the championship (or, from another point of view, McLaren collapses), it’ll be the biggest rally (or collapse) since …?

Lap 11/56: Piastri tells his team the front left doesn’t look great. He’s comfortably in fifth at the moment.

New wrinkle: McLaren teammate Norris says the same thing.

Radio tells Norris to go to Plan B. We’ll see what that is.

Lap 10/56: Stewards will take a closer look at the Sainz-Antonelli incident after the race. Sainz is more likely the guilty party, and he’s out, so it’s not particularly relevant.

Chatter is that the hard tires are not doing well, which means it’ll be difficult to pit early and still make it a one-stop race.

Lap 9/56: The only driver to pit under the Virtual Safety Car is Albon, who was left behind at the start after bumping tires with Bortoleto and spinning 180 degrees.

Tsunoda worked his way up six places to seventh. Can he hang on? Move up?

Lap 8/56: Antonelli on race radio …

“He took me out.”

“Saw that mate.”

“What a ****ing idiot.”

Sainz on race radio says Antonelli turned into him.

Stewards will certainly look at it, but Sainz is out anyway.

Lap 7/56: Kimi Antonelli has spun out! He remains stationary for a few moments as the entire field passes him. He gets going again.

Sainz has apparently hit Antonelli, and now Sainz is stopped.

Virtual safety car is applied.

Lap 6/56: Current standings

Verstappen
Leclerc
Norris
Hamilton
Piastri
Russell
Antonelli
Sainz
Tsunoda
Bearman
Hulkenberg
Alonso
Lawson
Gasly
Bortoleto
Colapinto
Stroll
Ocon
Hadjuk
Albon

Lap 5/56: Verstappen is more than three seconds ahead already, benefiting from the three-way battle for second behind him but also benefiting from posting the fastest lap. Brad Pitt’s character in the F1 film was right – Verstappen’s pretty good.

Lap 4/56: Norris is sandwiched between the two Ferraris, but Hamilton is bidding to change that up by having a go at Norris.

Lap 3/56: Norris has a run at Leclerc. Maybe a bit impatient? Leclerc has the soft tires and may be able to stay ahead for that reason.

Lap 2/56: DRS, which helps drivers overtake, is only in effect is a driver is within a second of the preceding car. Verstappen already has more than 1.5 seconds on everyone.

Albon apparently bumped into Bortoleto in that start and got the worst of it.

Lap 1/56: Yellow flag waves briefly but is put away. Albon had a horrific start and is well back.

Verstappen is just pulling away already.

Russell has dropped two spots behind Hamilton and Piastri.

Tsunoda is up three and is three ahead of arch-rival Lawson.

Formation lap is underway. Get your popcorn …

Tire choices: Medium tires all around except for Leclerc (3rd on the grid, soft) and the last five on the grid – Bortoleto soft, Ocon hard, Albon hard, Stroll soft, Hadjar hard.

Interesting strategic choice by Ferrari to put their two drivers on different tires. How soon will Leclerc come in for a change?

The race is 56 laps.

Brundle notes that the drivers aren’t on the grid right now because it’s too hot. It’s Texas, after all.

Martin Brundle is doing his grid walk alongside Glen Powell, an actor who’ll be on Saturday Night Live next month. (I don’t watch a lot of movies.)

While Brundle usually chats with team personnel and celebrities, he’s spending most of this walk explaining tire strategy to Powell, who interjects to note that a lot of Europeans are wearing cowboy hats, which makes him happy.

TV coverage is now showing how things look from the 251-foot tower overlooking the track. We’re told that the wind is so strong that the tower is moving, which makes me wonder how quickly I could run down 419 steps.

Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s a look back at yesterday’s qualifying.