Verstappen takes Honda’s first stateside win in 30 years, Red Bull reach 200 podiums and Alpine suffer a double DNF. Here are the facts and statistics from the 2021 United States Grand Prix.
VERSTAPPEN VICTORIOUS AT COTA
Max Verstappen took victory in the 2021 United States Grand Prix, recording the eighteenth victory of his F1 career. He’s now finished on the podium 55 times, overtaking Niki Lauda in the all-time list of most F1 podiums.
Verstappen is the fifth driver to win at Circuit of The Americas – and the fourth different driver to do so in the last four races at the track.
Verstappen won the race by 1.333 seconds which, although a small margin, is only the third smallest recorded at this venue.
Red Bull became the second team, after Mercedes, to have taken multiple wins at Circuit of The Americas. Red Bull last won at the track in 2013. This was the first win for a Honda-powered car in the United States since Ayrton Senna won for McLaren at the 1991 United States Grand Prix.
Following his win, Verstappen now leads the title race by 12 points. It’s the largest lead held in the Drivers’ Championship since his 32 point lead at the Austrian Grand Prix.
ON THE PODIUM
Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez joined Max Verstappen on the podium. With both Verstappen and Perez in the top three, Red Bull became the fifth Formula 1 team to record 200 podium finishes. The team also finished with both cars on the podium at the previous race in Turkey. This is the first time Red Bull have scored double podium results at consecutive races since the 2017 Malaysian and Japanese Grands Prix.
Hamilton recorded his eighth podium finish at Circuit of The Americas. He has appeared on the podium every time that the United States Grand Prix has been held so far in the V6 hybrid era. The 52nd lap of the race was the 500th Grand Prix racing lap to take place at the venue – and Hamilton is the only driver to have completed every lap at the track.
Perez recorded his fourteenth podium finish, equalling the career tally of Richie Ginther. Ginther also scored his 14th career podium in car number 11, which was powered by Honda.
Perez’s podium is only the second in the United States for a Mexican driver. The last time a Mexican driver finished on the podium at the United States Grand Prix was in 1970, when Pedro Rodriguez finished second with BRM.
For the fourth time this year, the top three finished in the same order as they started. It’s the second time that the top three have started as they finished at COTA. It last happened in 2016. This is the first time the top four remained in the same order as they started at the circuit.
THE POINTS SCORERS
Charles Leclerc finished in fourth place for the third time in the last four races. Leclerc also finished fourth at the last United States Grand Prix.
With fifth place, Daniel Ricciardo recorded his best United States Grand Prix result since his podium finish for Red Bull in 2016.
Valtteri Bottas made up three positions from where he started to finish sixth. It’s the first time he’s finished outside of the top five at the United States Grand Prix since he finished sixteenth with Williams in 2016.
Finishing in seventh place, Carlos Sainz scored for a tenth consecutive race. As well as extending the longest active scoring streak in F1, Sainz also sets a new personal best for his longest scoring streak. He’s the 27th different driver to have picked up points at ten or more consecutive races.
Lando Norris finished eighth, maintaining his 100% points scoring record at COTA. He finished seventh on his first visit here in 2019.
With ninth place, Yuki Tsunoda scored for the sixth time in his F1 career. It’s the first time he has scored since the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Finishing in tenth place, Sebastian Vettel scored his first points since finishing fifth at the Belgian Grand Prix.
THE RETIREES
Pierre Gasly was the first retirement from the United States Grand Prix. It’s the fourth time that he has failed to reach the chequered flag in 2021. Gasly has never previously scored at COTA, but this was his first retirement at the venue.
Gasly’s retirement was only the second for the Red Bull junior team in Texas. Their only other retirement at the circuit came at the inaugural COTA race in 2012, when Jean-Eric Vergene was out of the race.
Esteban Ocon was the second driver to retire from the race. He recorded his third retirement of the season – his first since the Austrian Grand Prix. He was joined on the sidelines by team-mate Fernando Alonso, who recorded his first DNF since the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix; which was the last race at which Alpine failed to score. This was the team’s first double DNF since the 2019 German Grand Prix, when they were under their Renault guise.
Fernando Alonso has retired from all of his last three appearances at the United States Grand Prix.