Written by Sofia Costantino, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
What a weekend we just relived in Austin, Texas. And now, we are headed towards the land of Sergio Perez: Mexico City, the location hosting the Mexico City Grand Prix!

In the United States Grand Prix, we witnessed a brilliant victory for Ferrari with the 1-2 of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Although the scarlet team’s performance didn't go unnoticed, it was overshadowed by the fight for position between championship contenders Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
The duo were locked in a battle for third place at the end of the race. The Briton, who had started from pole, lost his position when crossing towards the inside to prevent Verstappen's advance in the first corner.
Both were well off the track, facilitating the advance of Charles Leclerc, who took over first place from fourth on the grid, and with an extraordinary car, finished ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz, for the first 1-2 for Ferrari on North American soil in 18 years.

In a surprising one-stop for almost everyone on a hot Texan day, Norris stopped for hard tire compounds — like Verstappen — six laps after the Dutchman, managing to catch up with him and begin a relentless chase to try to overtake him, and recover the points lost in the Sprint race, in which he finished two places behind the Red Bull driver.
With four laps remaining in the race, Norris went wide at the tight turn 12 to pass Verstappen, moving ahead, but needing to go out of the limits of the track due to the presence of the three-time champion, who, by extending his braking, tried to prevent the McLaren from advancing, as he too overshot track limits.
However, there was no contact, and the Brit moved into third place and began to pull away. Several minutes later, as the drivers began their final lap, the race stewards notified the McLaren team that the British driver would be penalised five seconds added to the final time, as he’d left the track and gained a lasting advantage.

Despite being faster, he no longer had time to get those five seconds and secure the position, making up four seconds on Verstappen. For Andrea Stella and the rest of the McLaren team, this was incomprehensible, because for them, the exit was forced by Verstappen, with the consequences catastrophic for Norris if both drivers collided.
However, upon review of the video, the stewards followed the rules of the FIA Driving Standard Guidelines, according to which Norris did not have ownership of the curve as he was not level (front axles) at the apex of it.
Therefore, the driver defending does not have to give him space. Clearly, Verstappen braked late to have that advantage. A true master of defense attacking, just as he did in turn one, at the beginning.
If Norris had passed Verstappen before the corner, the Dutchman would become the attacker on the inside and would be penalised for taking the competitor off the track as he did not have the right of the corner.
It was the same case for the triple world champion on lap 1. As there is no right to appeal sanctions on the track, teams such as McLaren and Mercedes are calling for a review of the rules so that another “Verstappen rule” is introduced, as was done in 2016 to avoid moving under braking.
For others, it was simply a demonstration of extraordinary defence by a talented, tough and combative competitor.
“Norris' required rate of gains over Verstappen has now increased to an average of more than 11 points per race weekend. That average gain could be achieved per race by Norris, for example, by finishing first and Verstappen fourth (13 points difference), for instance.
"It works out as an average weekend gain of 11.6 points for Norris to finish the championship one point clear of Verstappen. An average gain of 11.4 points from the McLaren driver would see them finish the campaign tied on points when the title would then be determined on results countback between the pair through the season (with respective wins counted first).
"But Verstappen currently has seven wins to Norris' three and the latter can, at best, only now get to a maximum of eight wins for the year if he goes undefeated to the end of the campaign.” Source: Sky Sports F1.
With five races left and two Sprint races (Brazil and Qatar), Norris lost five points at Austin and is 57 points behind, instead of getting closer to Verstappen.
This weekend we race in Mexico City, with the possibility of revenge (anything is possible at this point), but a lot will depend on which car will be better balanced and faster at 2240 metres above sea level, taking into account the variability of circuit performance.
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