2025 F1 Round 19, United States Grand Prix: Verstappen dominates, Norris passes twice for second, Piastri fifth

The United States Grand Prix, round 19 of the 2025 F1 season, took place at the Circuit of the Americas in the early hours of October 20, China Standard Time (UTC+8). Verstappen (Red Bull) led all the way from pole position to claim a dominant victory by 7.959 seconds, while Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) repeated his Sprint result with another seventh-place finish.

The fiercest battle of the race was the fight for second. Leclerc (Ferrari), the only driver in the top 15 to start on soft tyres, made a rapid move at Turn 1 immediately after the start, passing Norris (McLaren) to take second.

From lap 13, however, tyre degradation became increasingly evident, and his pace began to suffer. Although he defended doggedly, keeping Norris less than a second behind him, he was eventually passed on the long straight on lap 21. By then, Verstappen had built a 10.8-second lead. Norris had also received a black-and-white flag on lap 20 for his third track-limits infringement.

Leclerc then became the first of the leading group to pit on lap 23, switching to medium tyres. Norris stopped for soft tyres nine laps later but was undercut, allowing Leclerc to regain second. Norris gave chase, only to report that his “tyres are finished” with as many as 15 laps still remaining.

But he found another burst of pace in the closing stages. After an intense battle, he beat Leclerc in a braking duel at Turn 12 with five laps remaining to secure second place on the podium and valuable points for his title challenge.

Leclerc took the final podium place in third, followed by Hamilton in fourth. Championship leader Piastri (McLaren), who had struggled for form since his Sprint crash, gained only one position to finish fifth, leaving the title picture increasingly uncertain.

Contrary to the pre-race simulations, a one-stop strategy of “mediums followed by softs” became the most popular choice, with the variety of strategies adding interest to the race.

It was a clean race overall, with the only accident occurring on lap 7: Sainz (Williams), fighting for seventh, attacked down the inside at Turn 15 and made contact with Antonelli (Mercedes). With his car badly damaged, he stopped before the pit-lane entrance and retired.

Antonelli, who had been hit from behind, spat out “What an idiot” over the radio and went on to finish 13th. The collision triggered the race’s only VSC, while Sainz was handed a five-place grid penalty for the next round.

Carrying his momentum from the Sprint, Tsunoda again displayed bold driving in the Grand Prix. He attacked from the start, passing three cars on the opening lap to move straight into the points. He then overtook Bearman (Haas) for ninth on lap 3 before taking advantage of the Sainz–Antonelli collision to move up to seventh on lap 7.

He maintained a steady pace approaching the middle of the race, but his speed dropped noticeably from around lap 20, and the gap to Russell (Mercedes) ahead gradually grew. Switching to soft tyres on lap 30 brought no improvement, and he came under attack from Bearman again on lap 35.

Bearman aimed for the inside of Tsunoda, but the door was closed under braking, leaving him nowhere to go as he ran onto the gravel and spun. Bearman complained over the radio that “He moved under braking,” but there was no investigation. Bearman dropped back to ninth, allowing Hülkenberg (Sauber) to take eighth.

Although Hülkenberg eventually closed to within 4.535 seconds, Tsunoda held his position and finished seventh, 19.258 seconds behind sixth-placed Russell. Scoring points on consecutive race days, he made his presence firmly felt.

Bearman held off Alonso (Aston Martin) to finish ninth.

Hadjar (Racing Bulls), who started at the back after crashing in qualifying, repeatedly exceeded track limits from the outset. He received his third warning and a black-and-white flag as early as lap 6, eventually finishing 16th.