Race 19 - United States GP 2024 - Circuit of the Americas

[Nitrodaze]

That was a good race.
I don't think Max pushed Lando as it looked like Max had the corner.

What a win by Charles. Will they be even better next year?

If you get a chance to watch the footage from the overhead camera, you would see that he did not make any attempt to go around the corner with the intention of staying ontrack or giving a cars width to Norris. He intentionally ran Norris wide and clean of the track causing himself to exit the track as a consequence.
The issue here is the very clear inconsistency of how the Stewards apply the rules. Over the sprint and main race, they were consistent in applying penalties to other drivers that caused similar outcomes that resulted in other drivers being run off-track. Max does twice in the same race and there was no action from the stewards. Makes you wonder, are they scared of Redbull or are they in Redbull's pocket?

How l see that incident was that firstly, there was fault of running a driver off the track which should have been looked at and penalized according to the rules; as was done for Russell Vs Bottas. Secondly, there was track violation by both drivers. Thirdly, overtaking while being off-track should only apply if the driver being overtaken is on track while the overtaking is happening. Where the driver being overtaken takes the fight off-track and is overtaken while he is off-track, it should be viewed as fair racing, since the driver being overtaken would be getting a double unfair advantage by racing off-track and getting the benefit of not being overtaken while off-track. A driver should not be entitled to the protection of the rules while they are committing an infraction of the rules. Simple!!!

That said, what a robust defending by Verstappen for 15 laps. This race shows that the opportunity of winning the driver's championship by Norris may slip away from Norris due to a lack of aggression while defending as we saw from Verstappen. Norris is fast but in my view not in the league of Hamilton, Alonso and Verstappen. That may come in the future, but time is running out.

[N. Jones]

I'll have to try and watch a replay of the move.

[Nitrodaze]

I'll have to try and watch a replay of the move.

2021 all over again buddy.

[airshifter]

Overall an interesting weekend, and the new sprint format seemed to make things better.

Leclerc was rock solid in the race. Once he got into clean air he kept his margin without issue. I kinda feel bad that he didn't get hardly any coverage... it was a lonely race up front. Carlos did well to get Max and consolidate the 1-2 for the team. Everyone else brings updates, Ferrari didn't and then walks away with the 1-2 finish.

Plenty of good mid field action throughout the race. With things tighter and everyone fighting for points, it made for some good viewing. I'm still not quite sure why 'Nando had issues with Lawson, but in the end Lawson didn't back down and had a good finish. Another good race by Colapinto as well, and he is making a name for himself fairly quickly I'd say. Perez was his usual lately... finishing behind George that started in the pits. All things considered George did well to move up to 6th. A bit of a lonely race for Piastri as well, solid but seemed to spend much of the race running out by himself with no real challenges to speak of.

Lando once again came alive once on the harder tire, but just can't attack in a quick and decisive way. Losing at the start didn't surprise me, as COTA has that wide turn one that leaves the door open for cars behind. But later in the race he got schooled, and Max showed him how to defend against a faster car. Until Lando ups his wheel to wheel game he is going to suffer at times. Not to say that he's bad at it, but he's just not matching the best on the grid yet.

As for the penalty, another nothingburger in my opinion. Max knows the rules well, was ahead at the apex, and drove Lando off. And despite all the hand waving and whining of the detractors, he is allowed to do it. I'm not sure if McLaren are actually just clueless enough that they thought Lando had the apex first, or just towing the party line in hopes that Lando could pull enough time to overcome the penalty. In the end it didn't work out for them and Lando lost a podium finish.



On to Mexico!