Verstappen extends his championship lead, Perez becomes the first Mexican on the podium in America in over 50 years and Hamilton continues his impressive COTA form. Here’s a statistic from each driver’s 2021 United States Grand Prix weekend!
Though Lewis Hamilton was unable to add to his impressive COTA win and pole tally in 2021, he recorded his eighth podium finish in Texas. 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.
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.
Max Verstappen took pole position for the 2021 United States Grand Prix, recording the first non-Mercedes pole at Circuit of The Americas since 2013. This was Verstappen’s ninth pole of the 2021 season, meaning that he has now recorded three times more poles this season than he did in total before 2021. On Sunday, Verstappen became 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. 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.
After qualifying third – his best Saturday result since the Austrian Grand Prix – Sergio Perez went on to finish on the podium at the United States Grand Prix. 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.
With fifth place, Daniel Ricciardo recorded his best United States Grand Prix result since his podium finish for Red Bull in 2016.
Lando Norris finished eighth in the United States Grand Prix, maintaining his 100% points scoring record at COTA. He finished seventh on his first visit here in 2019.
Sebastian Vettel recorded his first Q2 exit at the United States Grand Prix. He recorded a Q1 exit here in 2014, but has never previously been eliminated in Q2 at the track. This was Vettel’s fourth consecutive Q2 exit of the 2021 season. Finishing the race in tenth place, Vettel scored his first points since finishing fifth at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Lance Stroll recorded his fourth Q1 exit of the 2021 season – his first Q1 elimination since the French Grand Prix. This was Stroll’s third Q1 exit at Circuit of The Americas. It sees him tie with Marcus Ericsson as the driver with the most Q1 exits at the circuit. This was the first time that Stroll has been out-qualified by a team-mate at the United States Grand Prix since his rookie season in 2017.
Fernando Alonso failed to finish the United States Grand Prix, recording his third consecutive DNF at Circuit of The Americas. This was Alonso’s his first retirment since the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
Esteban Ocon was the second driver to retire from the United States Grand Prix. He recorded his third retirement of the season – his first since the Austrian Grand Prix. With both Ocon and team-mate Fernando Alonso retiring, this was the first time since the Bahrain Grand Prix that Alpine failed to score. It was also the team’s first double DNF since the 2019 German Grand Prix, when they were under their Renault guise.
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.
Finishing in seventh place at the United States Grand Prix, 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 race weekends.
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.
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.
Kimi Raikkonen qualified only eighteenth for the United States Grand Prix. It’s his worst qualifying result at Circuit of The Americas. Raikkonen’s result means that an Alfa Romeo driver has now qualified in eighteenth place for all of the last five races. Raikkonen’s Q1 exit took the former Sauber team’s total of Q1 eliminations to 200 since the system was introduced in 2006.
Antonio Giovinazzi finished just outside of the points in eleventh place for a second consecutive race. It’s his best result to date at COTA, having finished fourteenth here on his first visit in 2019.
Mick Schumacher finished the United States Grand Prix in sixteenth place – the same position as his father finished the only time he raced here at Circuit of The Americas in 2012.
In qualifying for the 2021 United States Grand Prix, Nikita Mazepin recorded the Haas team’s 100th Q1 exit since they joined the sport at the start of the 2016 season.
George Russell reached Q2, becoming the first Williams driver to do so at Circuit of The Americas since Felipe Massa in 2017. His lap time was deleted in Q2, meaning he qualified fifteenth.
Nicholas Latifi finished fifteenth in the 2021 United States Grand Prix. It was the first time a Williams driver has finished in fifteenth place at Circuit of The Americas.
Read more statistics from the 2021 United States Grand Prix in our Post Race Statistics article!