Lewis Hamilton had a late scare where he thought he had puncture in F1 US GP finish, as Charles Leclerc says podium came at right time amid rumours.
It was a bit of a turnaround for Ferrari pair from the F1 sprint race in US GP to secure a good result, especially against Mercedes and partly Red Bull. There was some luck in the sprint after the Lap 1 incidents, but they had a better qualifying finish on Saturday evening to set up the race.
Leclerc made a bold choice to start on the soft compound, which actually worked in his favour as he could jump on Lando Norris at the start. He resisted him in both the stints, but the Brit had more pace than the Monegasque. The Ferrari driver had to settle for third, as he got back on the podium.
His soft tyre choice eventually helped the rest of the field to switch to a medium-soft combination than medium-hard after the runners on the hard compound complained of tyre performance. The result also answered some of the critics with all the rumours leading into the F1 weekend.
On the side of Hamilton, he managed to clear George Russell on the line to move up a place as well. He was comfortable throughout the race sitting behind Leclerc and Norris, while stretching away from Oscar Piastri and Russell. He was slightly letdown on the strategy side, but it didn’t matter.
He had a scare towards the end when he encountered a problem on the last lap, which seemed like a puncture. The gap to Piastri trimmed to around one second when they crossed the line. He sees progress in terms of being comfortable in the car, even though the elusive podium is still away.
The hope is to be consistent enough in order to beat Mercedes and Red Bull in the F1 constructors’ fight to be second behind McLaren. The Brit will make way for Antonio Fuoco in FP1 of Mexico GP, as part of the mandated FIA rookie running. It will be first of the two on his side of the garage.
Race, turnaround in pace –
Leclerc: “I’m very happy. I’m very happy because obviously we had the gearbox problem in FP1, which cost us a little bit of laps, which then meant we were a little bit on the back foot, trying to recover in the Sprint Qualifying and Sprint Race. And then in qualifying we did some fine tuning, we found a lot more performance. And today was a really good race for us. So it’s a good thing, especially considering the whole situation.
“The second part of the season hasn’t been easy. There is completely unfounded noise and rumours around the team. And I think to demonstrate that in those kinds of situations we can stay focused on the job and be rewarded with a podium is a really nice feeling.”
Hamilton: “Yeah, it definitely felt better today. I think after P1, we kind of went somehow the wrong way setup-wise, and just didn’t have the pace that I had in P1 for the rest of the weekend. But yeah, there are lots of positives to take from today. Strategy left me out, I ended up 10 seconds behind [Leclerc], so it was a bit frustrating in that respect, but great points for the team.
“So close but yet so far [off podium]. Definitely a trend moving forwards, going in right direction. I’m definitely feeling better in the car, and I’m definitely going to deep dive in these next couple of days, try and figure out how I can extract more performance in the car, get the car in a slightly better place. But overall, pretty decent. The team did a great job today.”
Vasseur: “I think if you compare between SQ3 and Q3, you have a big shift of performance for us and Mercedes compared to McLaren Red Bull, I don’t know if they did a step backwards. I think we did a step, a positive step if you compare it with Williams and so. The sprint race was OK, the pace was good, we were stuck behind Carlos but the pace was good. The podium was OK, the pace was OK. I think it’s really tricky from the beginning of the season.
“Everybody is struggling to put the tyres in the right window and to get the best from the tyres and it’s really up and down. Probably a bit more for us and probably a bit less visible for McLaren and Red Bull now because they have a kind of advantage in terms of pure performance. When they are not doing well, they are still P2, P3. When we are not doing well, we are P10. But it’s true that it was a very good recovery from the team after Friday evening.”
Strategy, soft tyre –
Leclerc: “I knew it was an aggressive strategy. My plan was to be first after the first corner. I didn’t quite make that, but at least I gained a position, which helped me a little bit with free air. And that definitely helped our race. Again, I knew it was aggressive but considering the feeling I had on the Hard in FP1, I was quite convinced I didn’t want to touch that tyre. So yeah, I was just a little bit worried when my engineer got on the radio on the grid and I was the only car on Softs, basically. So I thought, ‘OK, maybe there’s something I didn’t feel right’.
“But in the end, it ended up a good choice. I mean, Lando had four, five laps cooling down the tyres, and then I knew that when he would come back it would be very difficult to keep him behind. I tried because I managed to do so for quite a few laps, but then towards the end the tyres were starting to struggle a bit more.”
Vasseur: “It is a bet more than gamble, I am not sure about others that they are going for medium-hard or medium-soft but it is true that when you start with soft, you put a little bit in every corner because of the strategy of medium-hard but on the other end, it was best option for us to be P1 in the first corner and we tried to do it, it worked at 50% but I think it was a good bet, I don’t know what it was. It’s not a gamble because it was under control.”
Late scare of brakes/puncture –
Hamilton: “I’m not really sure. I went into Turn 5, and it felt like I hit something, and all of a sudden, I had massive understeer. I thought that I had a puncture, so I braked into Turn 11, the thing wouldn’t stop, and I was like, ‘Geez, what’s going on?’ Somehow, I managed to hold on in the last few corners. I had huge understeer, I thought the front wing was broken or that something happened with the tyre, it was so close to Piastri coming past.”
What can be done –
Hamilton: “Just consistency, if I can finish there or even get a podium, just finish ahead of Mercedes is the goal and the team secures second in the constructors’ championship, that’s going to be a good result at the end. It is really difficult [to assess]. Mercedes won in Singapore and they are behind us in Austin, so it is really difficult to know why that is and why there is a swing like this, I really hope the car is better next week.”
Hamilton’s run –
Vasseur: “He had a very strong pace from the beginning of the weekend except perhaps SQ3, but the pace was there from the beginning. The pace was there the last couple of weekends also. It’s the first time that we are doing a decent weekend, putting everything together, other mistakes and so on. It’s paying off. Still one or two steps to go. It [soft tyre] was a challenge for everybody [and Hamilton].
“If you look at Lando, he has to push to slow down. They went for a quite long stint on the soft. We didn’t know if we were able to go to the end. You have to imagine that when we were doing the race, we didn’t long stint at all the soft. It meant that we needed to have the right prediction on the way. He was a bit conservative at one stage of the race, but then when he pushed at the end, the pace was back.”
Here’s fight between Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-united-states-grand-prix-leclerc-snatches-p2-from-norris-on-the-race-start.1846439089823431926
Here’s Lando Norris on chasing Charles Leclerc
Here’s how F1 US GP panned out
