The 7 Best Moments From The Frantic United States Grand Prix

The Circuit of the Americas never disappoints when it comes to hosting the United States Grand Prix, and we were treated to another fun and frenetic race. Here were the best bits.

It was a pretty lively first lap of the race, with a few separate incidents. While Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Rosberg led the field away, there was contact between Valtteri Bottas, Nico Hulkenberg and Sebastian Vettel at Turn 1. Daniil Kvyat then tagged Sergio Perez into a spin at Turn 11, in an open lobby-esque move.

2. SURPRISE MOTHERFU...

Image source: F1/Twitter
Image source: F1/Twitter

Max Verstappen said over team radio he wasn’t there to fight for fourth place, but he didn’t help himself by turning up at his pit box unannounced. He thought the team had boxed him, but no. They hadn’t. He almost ran over a wheel gun from impatience, too.

Verstappen’s race went from bad to worse when a gearbox issue caused him to pull off track on lap 30. But he took his sweet time trying to find a parking spot and where he did stop caused a Virtual Safety Car, which mucked up his team-mate Ricciardo’s strategy…

Kimi Raikkonen had been having a pretty decent race but naturally Ferrari messed that up for him at his second pit stop. He was forced to park his car just after the pit exit, because the team was worried there had been a problem with a wheel gun and one of his tyres wasn’t on properly.

Bringing out the yellow flags, the Iceman didn’t know what to do and decided to roll his car back down the hill and into the pit lane (we’re not sure that’s allowed!). What do we think his response was? This:

The 7 Best Moments From The Frantic United States Grand Prix

A feisty Fernando Alonso caused a stir in the final laps. First, he put in an opportunistic move on Felipe Massa at Turn 16. They tagged wheels and Massa eventually picked up a puncture, but Alonso soldiered on and then passed Carlos Sainz Jr. on the penultimate lap for fifth.

It seemed to be the race of tetchy team radio in Texas. We had Alonso saying “behind the Renaults, what a disaster,” and Verstappen’s now infamous “I’m not here to finish fourth”, before his dejected “I thought you boxed me, sorry”.

We also had to put up with Jolyon Palmer moaning about being stuck behind his team-mate. But on a lighter note, Alonso’s “yeeeehaaaa” after passing Sainz and Vettel’s “Some? Good joke” about rear wing drop-outs made up for it.

7. Different kind of shoey

The 7 Best Moments From The Frantic United States Grand Prix

Actor Gerard Butler took to the podium afterwards to do the post-race interviews and - of course - it was painfully awkward. It was livened up though by Ricciardo making him do a shoey, but replacing the podium bubbly with Red Bull. Butler was a good sport and drank from Ricciardo’s sweaty shoe, livening up a bit of a weird podium.

What was your favourite bit of the race?

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Comments

Joostk26

Butler doing the shoey wins.

10/23/2016 - 21:29 |
12 | 1
Poke

Shoey is love Shoey is lyfe

10/23/2016 - 21:31 |
5 | 1
Joostk26

Verstappen stopped at the correct spot as seen by the orange marks on the wall. But the car would not go to neutral it seems. Thus having to be removed by a crane.

10/23/2016 - 21:32 |
61 | 3

Not to mention that he had team orders to carry on until then

10/23/2016 - 21:51 |
23 | 1
Black_Kookie 199

Kimi was finna knock the camera man out

10/23/2016 - 21:35 |
15 | 1
Anonymous

massa oh s*t alonso crashtor appears before massas eyes you know what to do

10/23/2016 - 21:36 |
1 | 1
pissoffftwat

what about palmer radio response?

10/23/2016 - 21:37 |
3 | 0

All of his team radio was him moaning, wasn’t it? He even apologised for it on Twitter 😂😂

10/23/2016 - 23:59 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

Its Nano not Nando, but by the way great post!

10/23/2016 - 21:48 |
0 | 3
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

10/23/2016 - 22:48 |
4 | 0
Jack Leslie

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Maybe it’s just preference, I’ve always known his nickname as Nando

10/23/2016 - 23:56 |
1 | 0
DL🏁

My favorite moment was when Lewis and Nico rushed to pour champagne over the poor lady in a white shirt from Mercedes… before even the music started playing
I wonder what Nico’s wife has to say about that

10/23/2016 - 21:49 |
8 | 1

I think she will wait till the end of season 😉

10/23/2016 - 22:58 |
0 | 0

Speaking of. I kinda missed that part, who was that girl ?

10/23/2016 - 23:01 |
0 | 0

Yeah was funny. She runs Marketing Operations, don’t often see people from those kind of departments getting to collect the constructors’ trophy so that was cool too

10/23/2016 - 23:58 |
4 | 0

Jack is she from marketing? i thought she was from some strategist team. Whatever it is Lewis for sure had something to do with that lady :p

10/24/2016 - 16:55 |
1 | 0
lukalukic1

Fernando is faster than you, can you confirm that! 🙌

10/23/2016 - 21:56 |
1 | 0
Anonymous

To the editor: Jack Leslie 🏁

“never fails to disappoint “ means it always disappoints, it always ends up disappointing.

10/23/2016 - 22:36 |
3 | 2
Jack Leslie

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Thanks for spotting that, meant the complete opposite. That’s what a lack of sleep does to you 😂😂

10/23/2016 - 23:55 |
0 | 0