Absolute Box Office! | The First Five Laps Of F1 Sprint IN FULL! | 2024 United States Grand Prix

And Formula One is sprinting to turn number one. George Russell with not the fastest launch off the line. Max Verstappen goes defensive, didn't really need to. And he maintains the lead into turn number one. Lando Norris trying to pinch ahead of all of them. Lando Norris will get up to second place if he can go wheel-to-wheel and beat George Russell to the apex. How brave is he feeling? There's the answer! Lando Norris on the attack and he is up to second. Max Verstappen leads. George Russell is down to third. And then the Ferraris are scrapping with Charles Leclerc down to place. Sainz maintaining fifth. And there's Carls all over the road there as we see the Ferraris try to put pressure on George Russell. Verstappen got the launch that he needed. What a brilliant start though from Lando Norris. Just aggressive on the start, making up for that small mistake and qualifying right off the bat as we see a big defensive move now from the Haas. Under pressure from the V-car. And that's Yuki Tsunoda getting racy. The Haas is off the road. And they apply the power now, going up through the gears. Lewis Hamilton gained a place. Kevin Magnussen went up a place. Hülkenberg got a poor getaway. He's down to ninth and out of the points as we see the Ferrari planning a late launch. A later launch still. And that is a fine way to take the pass if you can keep it on the road. George Russell has just enough momentum. But Charles Leclerc doesn't want to give it up. And this is the joy of these corners because they can go side by side, corner after corner, with Russell hanging on to third position just at the moment. A lot of over-under, back and forth. It's so difficult when you have a repaved racetrack, Alex, because the racing line grips up so much faster than anything offline. So super impressive they were able to stay side by side through that stadium section there as long as they were very heads-up driving. Russell settling now into P3. Every single point crucial for the World Championship. That's about as good as you could hope for for Lando Norris, who finds himself nine-tenths of a second away from Max Verstappen. Further down the order. Reminder, every single car is on the medium tire. So Russell lost a place. So did Charles Leclerc. Sainz remains in fifth position. Upper place went Hamilton in sixth. Upper place went Magnussen in seventh. And Yuki Tsunoda is currently the last of the point scorers. Hülkenberg, great qualifying, poor start. Down three. Yeah, pretty atypical there for Hülkenberg. He's so good on a Saturday, but he usually gets off the line pretty well, can be racy in those first laps. So that's going to be a disappointment for him to be falling out of the points. Tsunoda, on the other hand, up again. And this driver has never not scored points here in the Grand Prix, at least, in Austin. One of his best tracks had a very crucial time in the championship for that team, as they are battling the likes of Haas in the Constructors' Championship. OK, DRS now enabled. This is one of two DRS zones around the racetrack. And you can see that the Ferraris now are going to provide our entertainment. Down to turn number 12. Carlos Sainz knows he's racing his teammate. But this is a man leaving the team at the end of the year. And Charles Leclerc stays ahead for the moment. It's getting very tight in the background. We saw cars over the road. I think Hulkenberg was able to get up to eighth position past Yuki Tsunoda. Did he do it legally? Late lunge and position change for Carlos Sainz. We're getting so much entertainment today, but it doesn't stick. Charles Leclerc retakes the place back up to fourth. Couldn't get the power down on the exit of 15 tries. He might had to be mindful of track limits as well, when Leclerc able to just pull that over, under, get the position back. But these two absolutely going at it at this phase of the sprint race. I love this. They still got so many points up for grabs in the World Championship of 2024. We did see last year, Hinch, that when it got to the end of the season, it got more and more aggressive. And it's happening again. Sainz and Leclerc putting on a show. Sainz got to the apex first. But again, the up and under works for Charles Leclerc. So frustrating from the driver's seat when twice in a row, almost three times, you get that move done just to be passed back on the exit. Leclerc doing a great job of squaring off the entries, making sure he's nice and straight on those exits, can get that power down and pull back in front. But he cannot rest. He still wants to try to pull enough of a gap that Carlos can't make those moves. It's just costing both of them some tire life and a little bit of a gap to Russell in front. Magnussen has been noted for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. I can tell you that Yuki Tsunoda, who was momentarily behind Nico Hulkenberg, is now ahead. So we'll try and clear that up for you with the replays in a few moments. We're into the DRS zone once again. There is your race leader, Max Verstappen, back out in front in Formula 1. Lando Norris finding himself 6 tenths of a second away. And the never-ending story continues between the two Ferraris who are scrapping, like we saw in the Chinese Grand Prix, the sprint race at the Chinese round earlier in the year. When it got so close, it turned into contact. It's like there's a bungee cord on the back of Leclerc's car that's just hanging on his side, pulling him forward, giving him a shot at a pass. Just unable to make it stick so far. Let's listen to what Leclerc has to say. We've got to try and come back on the others if possible. Copy. Do you want to translate that from driver to viewer? A little strategery caught there. I assume that. I'm not sure exactly what he means by that. I'm assuming it's probably a coded way of saying, hey, let's stop racing each other and focus on the cars in front. As Verstappen takes the fastest lap of the race so far. But Norris just hanging on to that DRS range. 9 tenths of a second behind. It's oh so close to being broken. And then I fear Verstappen will just be able to sort of run off into the distance on a bit of a Saturday afternoon stroll. Let's go back to the start of the sprint when the five red lights went out. This is what it looked like off the line. George Russell did not get the best reaction, but it was a defensive move there from Max Verstappen. Watch the papaya McLaren of Lando Norris. Inside of a three wide situation there with the Ferraris. But Russell just very slow off the corner. Sainz on the outside behind him was just balked. He had very good momentum. Probably could have gotten around Leclerc right then and there had it not been for the Mercedes just getting a slow launch off of the corner in turn one. It wasn't an aggressive move from Norris by any stretch. If anything, Leclerc was pushing his teammate out a bit. It made it nice and easy. Gave him lots of room. Held it on the outside there of turn two. And then it was advantage Lando into the SS section. This is his teammate Oscar Piastri further back. Started down in 16th. You just see it's like a moving parking lot going into that first corner. Three wide. So easy to just have a little bit of contact. Maybe breaking in fence, cut a tire. Everybody playing nicely though in this sprint race. Whilst Hinch was expertly talking you through the start replays. Oscar Piastri got up to 13th position. And if Charles Leclerc wanted the lunges to stop, they did not. Carlos Sainz again at turn number 12. Able to get ahead. And Charles is like, I'm trying to catch the guys in front. But this is racing. This is Formula 1. And we've seen some great entertainment so far. At the start of the sprint, we talked about the DRS gap. We talked about Max Verstappen trying to break the momentum of Lando Norris. He's done so. That gap is now over a second. Yeah, it's going to be important for Max. It doesn't let him relax by any stretch. But it does just take a little bit of that pressure off. Going into turn 1. Going into turn 12. Knowing that Lando doesn't have the massive speed advantage that DRS gives you. I just love watching a Formula 1 car through this section. So fast. So committed. The change of direction. Absolutely incredible at the speeds they're carrying. All the way from turn 3 to turn 9. Absolutely no rest for the driver. No rest for the tires. As a section, you can easily overheat the Pirellis. Now, let's go on board with Sergio Perez. And this is going to be on lap number 2. That was so close between Sergio Perez and contact. And hearing that Kevin Magnussen had to give the position to Yuki Tsunoda. The Ferraris are at it again. Once more, Carlos Sainz has the ability to stay within DRS. Has the ability to make that late move. And has the ability to do it lap after lap after lap. And look at George Russell. He had set the first. And once again, Sainz finds himself trying to be slow on the apex. Trying to force his teammate off the road. Is that the moment for Carlos Sainz to get through? They will increase their speed. And this time, Sainz will get ahead. And if Charles Leclerc was miffed before, and he was. It's going to be far worse the next time we hear from him on the radio. Carlos Sainz is up to fourth. George Russell is putting pressure on Lando Norris for second. That was brilliant driving. It was this beautiful mix of aggression, but calculated. He knew if he did the same thing down into Turn 15 he did last time. Leclerc was just going to pull the over-under once again. As now Charles looking to fight back on the inside of Turn 1. But instead, he parked the car up a little more. Forced Leclerc to go around the outside. And made sure that he was off the racetrack. Poured traction out of there. But still had to hang on pretty aggressively on the outside of that triple apex right-hander. So the mixture of, like I say, bravery. But a calculated approach. That was a beautifully executed pass.