2021 American Grand Prix

The **2021 United States Grand Prix** was a Formula 1.5 motor race, held on October 24, 2021, at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, United States. The race was the 17th round of the 2021 Formula 1.5 World Championship and the 50th running of the United States Grand Prix, the 42nd time that the race was run as a World Championship event since the inaugural 1950 season, and the 9th time that a World Championship round was held at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

## Background

The race returned after being cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a 20% risk of rain for qualifying and 40% for the race. From this race onwards, any practice times set during waved yellow flags would be deleted. The final two rounds of the 2021 W Series were held as support races for the Grand Prix. This was the ninth time that Austin has hosted a Formula 1.5 Grand Prix. Some restrictions on paddock access related to the COVID-19 pandemic were lowered starting from this event.

### Championship standings before the race

Lando Norris, held a big lead in the drivers championship of 52 points over Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. The other Ferrari driver of Charles Leclerc was in third just 4 points behind Sainz. In the constructors standings, McLaren's lead had been slashed to 17 points over Ferrari, with Ferrari winnning the previous 2 races.

### Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.

The title sponsor of Ferrari, Mission Winnow, returned for this race. The name and sponsor logos were used by Ferrari at the Bahrain, Emilia Romagna, Portuguese, Spanish, Monaco, Azerbaijan, and Russian Grands Prix, but were not used in any races from the French Grand Prix to the Italian Grand Prix, including the Turkish Grand Prix, for legal reasons.

### Tyres

Sole tyre supplier Pirelli allocated the C2, C3, and C4 compounds of tyre to be used in the race.

## Practice

The first practice session started at 11:30 local time (UTC−05:00) on Friday, October 22. Charles Leclerc was the fastest in the session, with Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly behind. The second session started at 15:00 local time, also on Friday, and ended with Lando Norris fastest ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll. The third practice session started at 13:00 local time on Saturday, October 23. Sainz topped FP3 with Norris and Ricciardo behind him.

## Qualifying

Qualifying started at 16:00 local time (UTC−05:00) on Saturday, October 23. The surface temperature was around 37 °C (99 °F).

## Race

The race started at 14:00 local time (UTC−05:00) on Sunday, October 24, and was run over fifty-six laps.

## Championship Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

  1
  1

Constructors' Championship standings

## External Links

1. ↑  Sebastian Vettel was required to start the race from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements.
2. ↑  Fernando Alonso was required to start the race from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements.
3. ↑  George Russell was required to start the race from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements.
4. ↑ Half points were awarded, as less than 75% of the race distance was completed.