Charles Leclerc's Bold First Corner Move Secures Win at COTA

With six races remaining in the 2024 season, Charles Leclerc is forced to make bold moves to stay in the fringes of the World Driver's Champion race. Entering turn one at the Circuit of the Americas, Leclerc did just that Sunday afternoon in Austin when he used Max Verstappen and Lando Norris' battle on the front row to surge from fourth to the lead before entering the second corner.

This was Leclerc's first win at the circuit, third of the season, and eighth of his career. After pulling out to the lead, Leclerc dominated the race, only giving up the lead when he pitted on lap 27 of 56.

"We’ve had a really good launch," Leclerc told Sky Sports. "I knew that it was going to be really tight into turn one; yesterday, I was the victim of being in the wrong place and the wrong time. Today, I gained from it."

His teammate Carlos Sainz, who muscled from fifth to second in the Sprint race yesterday, was the one to fall victim to the first corner bottleneck in Sunday's race, getting caught behind Norris and Verstappen as they battled wide, leaving the inside line open for his teammate to burst to the lead.

"I knew the race was going to be decided at the start," Sainz told Sky Sports. "I knew Lando and Max were going to go hard into turn one. Unfortunately, I got the worst of it, and I couldn’t get that lead, even though the pace from there on was really good, and I was, all weekend, really fast. Track position is key, and I had to settle for P2."

Settling for second place means that Ferrari pulled off their first 1-2 finish in the States since 2006.

A safety car period was issued on the race's third lap when Lewis Hamilton's horrible United States Grand Prix weekend went from bad to worse when he spun off the track in turn 19, becoming the first and only retirement of the race.

Saturday, Hamilton failed to make it out of Q1 for the first time at COTA, and his earlier retirement marked the first time he finished outside the top five at a track where he dominated when it was first added to the calendar.

Max Verstappen was running in the final podium spot with four laps remaining, with Norris chasing him in fourth when both drivers went off the track, with Verstappen defending and Norris attempting to pass. Norris made the pass entirely off the track, and when he re-entered the racing surface, he did not give the spot back.

On the final lap, the stewards announced that Norris would be given a five-second penalty; Norris pulled 4.1 seconds ahead of Verstappen by the time he reached the finish line, just shy of the time penalty. Verstappen moved back onto the podium, and Norris settled on fourth.

Over the radio, Norris argued that both drivers were off the track.

Verstappen disagreed, still annoyed about it after the penalty was given.

"My god, that was a hard race, Verstappen said on his radio. "I tried everything with the defending; at least that was fun. It’s just a bit weird that you can overtake outside the track."

"Well you can’t, and the FIA put that right," Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase rebuttled.

Oscar Piastri finished in fifth, one position behind his McLaren teammate and in front of George Russell, who had to start on the pitlane after making changes to the car after his late accident in the closing minutes of Q3 on Saturday.

Sergio Perez finished seventh, followed by Nico Hulkenberg, who secured Haas's best finish at COTA with eight.

After starting in 19th place with a 60-place grid penalty, Liam Lawson advanced ten positions to score points in his first race of the 2024 season. Franco Colpinto completed the top ten, scoring a point for Williams.

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