For the US Grand Prix, which takes place in Austin, Texas, we leaned into traditional Texas cuisine.
For Saturday night, we had Texas barbecue beef brisket sandwiches, corn and coleslaw. For dessert, we had chocolate Texas sheet cake with walnuts.
For Sunday night, we had Cowboy Stew from our Texas cookbook.
Brisket sandwiches, corn and coleslaw
Texas sheet cake
Cowboy Stew
This race felt like a really pivotal moment in which Max has now proven to the world beyond a doubt that he is, in every way, capable and worthy of the title "world champion". Hamilton and Mercedes threw everything they could at him this weekend, and still, Max won.
I am thrilled that Max won in America for the first time!! This is so much better than that time when they kicked him out of the cool down room on a technicality and said he wouldn't get a podium. That's a much-thought-about F1 memory I have.
I always try to watch as much of the US Grand Prix coverage live as I can since it's my home race. Unfortunately, I have a lot of problems with the way America is choosing to portray itself, but I am focusing on how much I am celebrating Mac winning here, especially when there was soooo much talk about how it's historically always been a Mercedes track.
Another standout moment to me was when Perez got involved in the scuffle between Max and Lewis at the start, but, seeing that Max was now behind him in the aftermath, yielded to him so that Max could have the best chance to go ahead and fight for the championship. I love Sergio Perez and we should keep him for as long as we possibly can. He is a treasure.
Free Practice 1
- wow it’s packed!!
- First time the reporters can be back in the pit lane in a long time
- It’s super hot out
- Perez is first out on track
- Apparently they have resurfaced the track to improve it but who knows if this will be better, embarrassing for us
- Alo goes out and immediately Alpine gets on the radio and tells him to stop the car and it’s really dramatic because he has stopped his blue car on the blue part of the Texas flag on track
- So there’s a red flag for Alo basically immediately
- Turns out something is dripping out of his car like it’s fuel dripping out so that’s concerning
- Charles has a spin into the gravel but gets away with it and is able to take it back to the pit without any real damage
- Apparently Vettel Russell and Bottas are taking engine penalties again which is very suspicious about Bot because he already has one over and so I think they’re trying to bluff Red Bull that Lewis would need another engine too
- I think they have Alex Albon in to coach Yuki
- Oops one of the Haas turns into Perez
- Kimi has an off
Free Practice 2
- there’s already 120,000 fans there on Friday!! And there’s going to be 140,000 fans there on race day!! Love it!!
- Hamilton pushed Max off a corner and then Max came back up the straight racing him head to head and then gave it back to Hamilton and laughed and said “stupid idiot” and I could not agree more. How dare Hamilton
Free Practice 3
- Alonso is going to take a rebuild engine penalty too
- Lots of people slipping around suddenly halfway through for no obvious reason
- This qualifying is going to be brutal with track limits cause there are things being deleted everywhere
Qualifying
- one of the Haas got majorly in Seb’s way in Q1 and surprise surprise it’s Mazepin
- Gio has a spin
- Out in Q1: Stroll, Latifi, raikkonen, lil Schu and Mazepin
- Oh noooo at the last minute GR has his time deleted
- Out in Q2: Ocon, Vettel, Gio, Alo and Russell
- With five minutes before the end of Q3, Max puts a fab lap to the top and then SERGIO PUTS IN A TOP LAP and the crowd roars!! Awesome!!
- MAX ON POLE AHHHHHHHHH THANK GOD
- Hamilton in second even though he tried to get pole back but Max stole it back again and then Perez in third!! Awesome!!
- So proud of Max for pole in the USA
- Charles starts 4th!
Race
- well this is a new low for the United States as far as pre race shows go. But at least Martin’s grid walk is back
- Hamilton gets a good start and pushes Max off and takes the lead so good thing the pre race show already set the bar as low as possible
- Max would have lost 2 places if Perez had not yielded to Max to let him go through to second to help the championship battle
- Stroll and Latifi hit each other in the back of the field and spin around to the back
- Ocon also got clipped by an alpha Romeo at the start
- There was some wiiiiild Ferrari vs McLaren stuff in the first lap
- Latifi basically almost hit six in on the way out of the pits, what is he doing today
- 11/56 Max pits early and first to do the undercut
- 14/56 Max has done it and undercut hamilton for the lead and everyone is cheering as he goes by!!
- Gasly reports a suspension problem and slows down
- 16/56 Alonso does to Kimi the exact same thing that Hamilton did to Max on the opening lap and Alonso reports it to the team and the stewards are looking at it even though they said no investigation necessary on the first lap when it happened to Max of course because these stewards are
- Stewards say no investigation necessary on Alonso and Kimi
- Okay now Alonso is fighting Gio, Alonso is just going wild today hahaha
- Martin says that Gio might be an alpha Romeo salesman by this time next week if he doesn’t get busy (passing Alo) and I think that’s hilarious
- 28/56 super brief virtual safety car for a Marshall to pick up a piece of debris but it’s super short so that’s good
- Perez’s drink system is not working, poor thing!
- Max has a good second pit stop thank God
- Sainz has a five second pit stop so thank God it wasn’t Charles
- Sainz and Ricciardo have a close call
- They keep trying to hype up that Hamilton could pass Max for the lead at the end but honestly the second half of the race has gotten pretty quiet
- Ocon has to retire
- Black and white flag for track limits for Stroll
- Awwww Alonso has to retire too after all that hard racing, so both Alpines are retirees
- With two laps to go Kimi has a big spin into the gravel but keeps it going
- MAX KEEPS HAMILTON AWAY AND WINS THE US GRAND PRIX
- Double Red Bull podium!! And all the Red Bull guys got in the weird longhorn car at the end under the podium!
- This was also the post race where Simon snubbed Charles to talk to Toto and i won’t forget it
The race was damp and everyone was on inters the whole time, so it meant no DRS and people didn’t have a mandatory 2 tires to use, so they didn’t need to pit if they didn’t want to. But luckily Hamilton’s strategist messes up the trajectory and they give up some points. It’s a really great podium because there is no Hamilton on it, it’s Bot’s first win since Russia last year, and it’s a double Red Bull podium.
Free Practice 1
- no dry running last year so this is the first dry running we have seen here in the last ten years
- The Red Bull’s have special white livery, suits, and helmets as a tribute to Honda as their engine supplier which ends after this year. This was supposed to be the weekend we were going to be in Japan so it would have made more sense
- So last race Max took the penalty sending him to the back of the grid for the full engine new parts stuff and everyone was saying Hamilton would have to do that later in the year and so this race Hamilton takes a new engine and not the rest of the stuff so it’s only a 10 place grid penalty which is so stupid because how come Max had to start from the back and Hamilton gets to do the same thing as he did but in small parts and only gets a smaller penalty. I understand the logic but I hate it
- Sainz starts from the back of the grid for an “engine related” penalty. Okayyyyy ferrari
- Ferrari asked Charles why he didn’t do a mode like they suggested and Charles was like “your suggestion is not in line with what I feel” while going super fast
- Wow PDR just totally roasted Yuki and was like “Gasly is carrying the whole team, Yuki is doing nothing” which is honestly true
Free Practice 2
- part of the pit lane concrete is coming up in front of the Mercedes garage
- Already scary traffic problems and people stopping on track which is illegal
- Kimi does some classic roasting and swearing about his drink leaking in the cockpit and it’s hilarious
- Okay so who is this new Ferrari racing director now?? They showed this guy who seems to be named Lauren and didn’t say a thing about Mattia not being there so I am really confused, who is this now
Free Practice 3
- AHH ITS RAINING AGAIN after a nice day yesterday, it’s raining again just like last year
- Luckily the rain slows down and they can start getting the track dry
- Red flag for George Russell who is beached in the gravel after hitting a puddle and aquaplaning and a lot of people keep hitting the standing water
- Unsafe release for Kimi being released into the path of Lil Schu
- They’re speculating about who would get the Gio seat at Alfa Romeo if he doesn’t stay and they are saying that Andretti Autosport bought a percentage of Alfa Romeo and speculating about who would get the other seat and they mention Zhou and Colton Herta. HA no WAY Colton is coming here. But it was nice of them to say we need an American in F1.
Qualifying
- okay it’s going to be one of THOSE quali sessions where everything is chaos because there is an immediate threat of rain and so everyone just has to go out and get a lap in as fast as they can
- Bunch of people spinning and sliding including Hamilton, Max, Seb, Yuki, Mazepin and Carlos
- Yuki has a big moment taking down a sign
- Sainz knocked Daniel into 16th and out in Q1 even though Sainz has to start from the back anyway cause he’s got an engine penalty
- Out in Q 1: Ricciardo, Latifi, Gio, Kimi and Mazepin
- It’s Lil Schu’s first time in Q2! He’s so happy! Aww!
- Wow people are still spinning in these conditions
- It’s super close getting Charles to the line but he does get out of Q2
- Out in Q2: Vettel, Ocon, Russell, Schumacher and Sainz
- Hamilton gets pole but with his penalty he starts tenth and really Bot starts on pole and Max in second and Charles in third
Race
- Daniel also starting from the back for an engine penalty
- It’s super misty and foggy and rainy but there was a lot more grip here in qualifying yesterday than in last year
- Alonso spins at the first corner in the wet because he was on the outside and Gasly couldn’t avoid him
- Max is not able to get next to Bot in the first turn so it’s still Bot Max Charles
- Latifi spins and gets out in the back
- lil Schu spins from a hit from Alonso but still running
- Max reports gear shift issues
- Hamilton is stuck behind Yuki Tsunoda in 9th which is great
- Gasly gets a 5 second time penalty for hitting Alo on turn one
- Alo gets a five second penalty for hitting Lil Schu
- Sainz wobbles on a pass by Vettel and there’s contact into Seb
- Yuki spins out by himself. But keeps going. Now he’s in 13th. Ugh Yuki
- Lap 25 rain reported in one corner
- Ricciardo pits for a fresh set of inters.
- Mazepin as a back marker is shown the blue flag to let Hamilton by but Mazepin fights him and it’s obvious that he just was a jerk and didn’t let him by and everyone is like this guys a problem
- 35/58 Hamilton trying to get past Perez and Perez does a heroic job keeping Hamilton behind. During the battle Hamilton pushes Perez over the pit lane entry line
- Sainz has an inexplicable 8 second pit stop, maybe related to traffic but could just be badness
- Seb tries a medium as a gamble while everyone else is on inters and it’s just a nightmare and it’s so bad that he slides on the way into the pit lane and has to go back in immediately for inters
- Charles has a slide but keeps the lead
- 41/58 Charles asks if he can stay on that set of tires until the end because he’s in the lead and he can
- They order Hamilton to box and he says why and won’t go in for new inters
- 44/58 Max reports a problem with his steering wheel pulling left
- Charles has pretty good blistering after a couple of lockup’s
- 46/58 Bot passes Charles for first after Charles tires are gone
- 51/58 surprise, Hamilton pits
- Perez gets past Charles for third
- Bottas wins, Max in second and Perez in third. Charles in fourth and did an amazing job to stay up there
