As the lights went green, both drivers on the front row got off to good starts and were side by side heading to Turn 1. Neither was willing to back off and in the end, it was Max Verstappen who had to go wide when Lewis Hamilton did not let him pass. But the Dutchman recovered quickly and rejoined alongside team mate Sergio Perez.
The first vehicle contacts occurred when Wiliiams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi bumped into Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll at the start and the Canadian driver spun. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon also got hit by the Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovanazzi, resulting in the Alpine’s front wing being damaged and he had to head to the pits for a replacement. As he rejoined the race, he almost collided with a fast-moving Latifi who had also come in.
There was a lot of jostling for better positions in the first laps, and starting positions quickly changed. Williams Racing’s George Russell was able to move up to 14th from the back, while McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo moved from 7th to 5th after getting past Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
From lap 8 onwards, the switch to hard tyres had started for most cars, except for Valtteri Bottas and the two Aston Martin drivers. Verstappen came in on lap 10, and Hamilton was forced to do likewise next, The Red Bull Racing driver inherited the lead as Hamilton went into the pits and wasted no time opening up the gap which was almost 7 seconds when the Mercedes-AMG driver came out again.
On lap 16, Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri had suspension problems serious enough that he had to pit. The problem was serious enough that he did not leave and was the first retiree of the USGP.
Bottas had been struggling to improve on his position but did not make much progress until lap 20 when he finally got past AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda to move into 8th – only one position better than what he started at (he had incurred a 5-place penalty on the grid for a sixth engine change).
On lap 22, Alonso got past Giovanazzi but it had occurred off the tracks, and after clarifying with the Race Director that it was not permissible, he had to give back the 11th place he had acquired, while Giovanazzi’s team mate, Kimi Raikkonen, moved further ahead. A lap later, an angry Alonso again has a close encounter with Giovanazzi and this time it was the reverse as the Alfa Romeo driver was told to give back the place to Alonso,
The Virtual Safety Car appeared on lap 29 for a while as a marshal had to get onto the track to collect some debris left by one of the cars during a minor collision earlier. At that point, Hamilton had closed in to around 3 seconds from the leader with no worries from the next car behind (Perez) who was some 17 seconds away.
On lap 30, Hamilton moved into the lead as Verstappen came in for his second tyre change. As he rejoined, he was just behind his team mate but got past quickly and began closing in on his rival who was trying to open up a gap so that he could safely go for a tyre change. This time, the Mercedes-AMG team might get it right. However, Verstappen was not making things easy by steadily eating away at what started as a 16-second gap.
Hamilton finally came in on lap 37, spent 2.4 seconds in the pits to get another set of hard tyres and when he came out, Verstappen was almost 8 seconds in the lead. Not a big gap and still 19 laps left which meant an interesting fight ahead. The tyres should last but track temperatures were high too and could be an unexpected factor. Further back, Perez and Ferrari’s Charle’s Leclerc were reasonably safe in their 3rd and 4th positions, respectively, with wide gaps between them.
Ocon became the second driver to retire as his team radioed him to return to the pits. They didn’t seem to want to explain why but it was a disappointment as he was running well. Alonso, his team mate, was in 13th and trying to take home at least 1 point from the race for the team. But he too would retire 5 laps from the end with a wing problem.
With 10 laps remaining, Hamilton was 2.5 seconds behind Verstappen, pushing as hard as he could and collecting fastest lap along the way. It appeared that Verstappen was not going as fast as he could have, which may have helped the Mercedes-AMG driver close in.
On the second last lap, Vettel was able to slip into the points-paying 10th as Raikkonen spun off into the gravel.
The last lap provided the American spectators a thrilling dual as the gap was under 2 seconds between the leaders. Hamilton seemed to be pushing very hard and sliding round some corners. It was going to be tight and Verstappen had one last back runner – Haas F1’s Mick Schumacher – to get past. But Verstappen just made it across the finish line with less than a second’s gap from Hamilton to win the USGP for the first time.
Keyword: F1/Round 17: Highlights & Provisional Results For 2021 US Grand Prix