Lando Norris elected “Driver of the Day” in Austin

Author of a better start at the lights out than Charles Leclerc, poleman, he took the lead of the Grand Prix from the first bend. Very comfortable and immediately in the rhythm with his medium tires, he quickly widened the gap with the Monegasque driver.

Hamilton on a Mercedes, unleashed, with his batch of updates then overtakes Leclerc and sets off in pursuit of Norris to come back to less than 2 seconds at the start of the 15th lap of the race on the McLaren driver.

A second relay on hard tires more complicated

The McLaren driver returns to the pit for the first time at the end of the 17th lap, covering Verstappen’s strategy who had stopped a lap earlier. He then puts on the hard tires, and re-enters in 4th position. After the pit stops he regained his first place but with a Max Verstappen who was slowly catching up in his rear-view mirrors. A little more in difficulty with hard tires, the Brit saw the Dutchman come back within less than a second on the 26th lap before being overtaken 2 laps later. Surely surprised by the late braking of the triple world champion, he left a lot of space on the inside of turn 12, following the longest straight line of the Texan track. He nevertheless stayed 4 laps in the DRS zone of the Red Bull driver, allowing him to maintain a comfortable lead over the rest of the competitors.

An end of race “economically”

At the end of the 34th lap of the race, he was one of the first to stop for the second and final time. Then on hard tires, he left in 5th place, before climbing back to second thanks to strategies’ games.

Firmly settled on the podium, he gradually saw Lewis Hamilton, who was on an offset strategy, closing in on him. So much so that after 49 laps, he could do nothing against his compatriot, despite a strong defense at turn number 1. Looking back more than ahead, he even saw Sainz getting closer in the final moments, while still maintaining a comfortable lead, more than enough to finish on the podium.

Initially third, then second a few hours later

Fully optimizing the potential of his single-seater and tyres with a track that was rather “cold”, Lando Norris could hardly do better today. Even though overtaken in the race by Hamilton, Norris reclaimed this second place following the disqualification of the Briton for a minimum floor thickness non-compliance after the race (Charles Leclerc was also disqualified).

At the championship, he takes the 6th place of the drivers at the expense of the Monegasque. “Lando” is now on the heels of Carlos Sainz.

He achieves his best performance this Sunday in Austin, signing a 12th podium in Formula 1!