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Red Bull back to winning ways and Ferrari with a somewhat surprise victory as McLaren faced adversity - the United States Grand Prix added more twists to the 2024 Formula 1 season.
Edd Straw analyses and then ranks the drivers' performances from best to worst after the gruelling Circuit of the Americas weekend.
How do the rankings work? The 20 drivers will be ranked in order of performance from best to worst on each grand prix weekend. This will be based on the full range of criteria, ranging from pace and racecraft to consistency and whether they made key mistakes. How close each driver got to delivering on the maximum performance potential of the car will be an essential consideration.
It’s important to note both that this reflects performance across the entire weekend, cognisant of the fact that qualifying is effectively ‘lap 0’ of the race and key to laying the foundations to the race, and that it is not a ranking of the all-round qualities of each driver. It’s simply about how they performed on a given weekend. Therefore, the ranking will fluctuate significantly from weekend to weekend.
And with each of the 10 cars fundamentally having different performance potential and ‘luck’ (ie factors outside of a driver’s control) contributing to the way the weekend plays out, this ranking will also differ significantly from the overall results.
Started: 2nd Finished: 3rd
Max Verstappen warmed up by executing the sprint component of the weekend superbly with a comfortable win from pole position.
The struggle to get the car into Turn 19 on his first Q3 run, combined with George Russell’s crash, cost him a likely pole position then his attempt to put that right with a forceful pass on Lando Norris at Turn 1 allowed Charles Leclerc to get ahead.
But the pace advantage of the Ferraris meant that Leclerc was always likely to beat Verstappen, as Carlos Sainz also did with an undercut, meaning hanging onto third place was as good as it was going to get - helped by his ability to play the racing rules to perfection.
Verdict: An important step towards the championship.
Started: 4th Finished: 1st
With the exception of only being fourth in the sprint race, where he couldn’t match team-mate Sainz’s incisiveness and almost hit trouble after being caught out by Norris’s defensive driving, Leclerc made the maximum use of the Ferrari.
Quick in qualifying trim and on race pace, he didn’t put a foot wrong after his inevitable path to the front was hastened by Verstappen’s pass on Norris at Turn 1.
Verdict: Sprint underachievement the only tiny blemish.
Started: 3rd Finished: 2nd
Sainz was a man on a mission at times, battling his Ferrari team-mate Leclerc hard in the sprint and finishing second then being on course for a potential front-row start in qualifying proper before the yellow flags intervened.
The Norris/Verstappen Turn 1 battle was a sliding doors moment for him as he could potentially have come out of the corner ahead of Leclerc had he not had to check up. As it was, he ran third and easily undercut his way to second place.
Verdict: At a similar level to Leclerc.
Started: 1st Finished: 4th
After taking a solid third in the sprint having run second initially following an incisive start from fourth, Norris produced a superb lap to take grand prix pole position. While the yellow flag that ruined the second runs ensured he hung onto that, it was a fine performance.
The race once again raised questions about his wheel-to-wheel sharpness compared to Verstappen, although given the McLaren wasn’t at its best, fourth was a decent enough result.
Verdict: Racecraft didn’t quite match his speed.
Started: 8th Finished: 11th
Kevin Magnussen was on form in the Haas, whether in its old specification (in the sprint) or upgraded form (for the main event).
After taking seventh in the sprint, having jumped team-mate Nico Hulkenberg at the start, he qualified well and held the same position early in the grand prix.
Unfortunately, the decision to stop early, then make a sudden second stop, meant he slid to 11th after being jumped by those on a more favourable strategy.
Verdict: His strongest weekend of the year
Started: 19th Finished: 9th
There were hints on Friday that Lawson’s underlying pace was strong, although he didn’t get it together in first qualifying (where he was 15th) and then spent the sprint battling over nothing with Fernando Alonso.
His Q1 lap - the fastest by an RB this weekend - was startling, but as he was always going to start at the back thanks to a grid penalty he didn’t make a proper attempt at Q2.
But his race pace was impressive and, with a favourable hard/medium strategy, he was rewarded with ninth place.
Considering his late start to the season, this was a fine foundation.
Verdict: The ideal (re)start to his F1 career.
Started: 6th Finished: 12th
After a solid sprint run to 14th, Gasly starred in main qualifying by reaching Q3 in the sole example of the upgraded Alpine.
He held sixth comfortably in the first stint, but his race was compromised by responding to Magnussen making a pitstop on lap 17 and meant he was jumped by cars running longer on the medium Pirellis.
Verdict: Only strategy denied him a great GP result.
Started: 11th Finished: 8th
Hulkenberg made good use of the Haas to bag points in both races, heading the ‘Class B’ field in the grand prix.
Only a so-so start meant he finished eighth behind Magnussen in the sprint, while strategic advantage allowed him to turn the tables on his team-mate in the main race.
Verdict: Did a good, professional job.
Started: 5th Finished: 5th
A track-limits violation left Oscar Piastri 16th on the sprint grid, although he fought back well to 10th despite a five-second penalty.
Qualifying for the main event went better, but ultimately he wasn’t as quick as Norris and was resoundingly fifth both in Q3 and the race on what was a subdued weekend by the standards he’s set.
Verdict: Solid but well short of his best.
Started: 15th Finished: 10th
Franco Colapinto impressed by qualifying 10th for the sprint despite just one free practice session on his first visit to COTA, although he was disappointed only to manage 12th in the race.
He came alarmingly close to hitting Lance Stroll at Turn 12 on the opening lap of the main race while battling with Lawson, but survived that and took the early safety-car restart 15th.
Running long on hards helped him make gains, and he also overtook Gasly on his way to a well-earned point.
Verdict: A resilient showing on a tricky weekend.
Started: 7th Finished: 13th
While Alonso grabbed the most attention for his fury with Lawson in the sprint as they battled over inconsequential positions, what really impressed was getting the Aston Martin into Q3.
He turned that into seventh on the grid by getting in his sole run in between those who made two, so was helped by the yellow flag.
Inevitably, he couldn’t deny competitive gravity in a car that simply didn’t have the pace to stay in the top 10.
Verdict: Patchy but main qualifying was outstanding.
Started: 12th Finished: 18th
Esteban Ocon had the tougher brief of the Alpine drivers as he didn’t run the upgrade, a reverse of the way the parts had been allocated in China earlier in the season.
All things considered, he performed well, although being tipped into a spin by Alex Albon at the start of the main race shattered any optimistic illusions of fighting for points. A late stop sacrificed three positions, but allowed him to take fastest lap and deny Williams a point.
Verdict: Better than the results suggest.
Started: 9th Finished: 7th
Running the old-specification floor meant comparisons with Red Bull team-mate Verstappen had little meaning, while being on “the wrong side of the set-up in the sprint” made that part of the weekend pointless for Sergio Perez.
The car improved for qualifying, but his sole Q3 run was ruined by the yellow flags, leaving him 10th.
He came through to seventh, but probably should have beaten Russell.
Verdict: Old-spec car partially excuses lacklustre results.
Started: 16th Finished: 17th
Only Valtteri Bottas had the Sauber upgrade package, which appeared to work well and produced what the team called a “small step”. The Sauber was still slowest, but Bottas fought the good fight.
He finished last in the sprint after being passed by team-mate Zhou Guanyu on the last lap as he battled braking troubles that turned into a brake-by-wire failure at the last corner, then at least he could battle with the other stragglers at times in the race proper.
Verdict: Did what he could.
Started: 13th Finished: 15th
Although Stroll had a more anonymous weekend than his team-mate Alonso, this reflected the fact the Aston Martin really wasn’t a serious threat to the front of the midfield.
He lacked Alonso’s qualifying edge, but his race pace was good - although having made gains on the opening lap, a moment at Turn 9 that spat him through the gravel while running 12th hastened his slide.
Verdict: Solid enough in an unpromising cause.
Started: 10th Finished: 14th
Yuki Tsunoda’s sprint performance was strong, qualifying well in ninth and then only losing two places to far quicker cars in the race.
He was set up well for the main race, starting 10th. He was eighth in the first stint before stopping for hards on lap 18 of 56. That was a mistake, costing him positions, but a spin at Turn 1 ultimately ensured there was no chance of points.
Verdict: Strategic error and spin undid his good work.
Started: 18th Finished: 19th
Running without Sauber's latest upgrade, having the slowest car and a five-place grid penalty for the main event thanks to taking a fourth power unit energy store of the year meant Zhou was always condemned to spend the weekend at the back.
But his pace was good, with his deleted sprint qualifying time just 0.045s off team-mate Bottas and a deficit of 0.076s in Saturday’s session.
Having slipped past the ailing Bottas for 19th on the last lap of the sprint, a spin at Turn 1 after making great progress to run 13th ruined his race.
Verdict: Turn 1 error counts heavily against him.
Started: 20th Finished: 6th
Russell had a fine weekend despite the capriciousness of the Mercedes, save for one very significant error when he crashed at Turn 19 in qualifying trying to push harder than the car could take.
That led to him having to revert to the old-spec parts and start from the pitlane, recovering well to sixth place despite a five-second penalty for forcing Bottas off track.
That was prefaced by a solid fifth in the sprint, fading with tyre troubles.
Verdict: Qualifying shunt hits his ranking hard.
Started: 17th Finished: DNF
This was another one of those weekends that started well and got progressively worse.
In the hunt for sprint pole position, Lewis Hamilton's lap was heavily compromised by Colapinto’s yellow flag with a bearing failure in a front hub before the start then giving him massive oversteer on his way to sixth in the sprint.
But the grand prix proper was disastrous as he was eliminated in qualifying Q1 - and would have been even without his laptime being deleted - then spun into the gravel at Turn 19 on lap two after leaping to 12th at the start in the race.
Verdict: A weekend of misfortune and mistakes.
Started: 14th Finished: 16th
This was one of those weekends that never really got going for Albon. A spin in SQ1 after stiffening up the car and clouting the inside kerb at Turn 19 ruined the first part of the weekend.
The struggle to get the Williams in the sweet spot on softs, along with traffic, meant qualifying proper was so-so, before he found himself stuck in the ‘middle lane’ into Turn 1 and hit Ocon.
That forced a first-lap pitstop and front-wing change, but as he’d also sustained floor damage when Bottas hit him after the Ocon collision, he was on a hiding to nothing.
Verdict: Nothing quite went right.
