A United States Grand Prix with a controversial late entry added further twists to a fascinating 2024 Formula 1 season.

There were also many winners and losers. Here are the Race F1 team's tips:

Winner: Liam Lawson

What a return to Formula 1.

There was a lot of talk in the lead-up to the weekend that Liam Lawson's huge grid penalty would allow him a soft restart to Formula 1.

Lawson obviously didn't see it that way. His third-fastest time in the first qualifying was a warning sign of what he was capable of, and he delivered an excellent performance in the race.

In the first lap he gained five places and took 14th place. He then seemingly easily beat several cars – including his sparring partner on Saturday, Fernando Alonso.

He managed to overtake his teammate Yuki Tsunoda and finished ninth, only behind Nico Hülkenberg in the faster Haas among midfield competitors.

While this was partly due to RB making some much-needed progress, Lawson has straight away scored more points since the summer break than either Tsunoda or Daniel Ricciardo.

Given the looming penalty of 60 places on the grid, he could not have expected that his return to Formula 1 would go any better. -Josh Suttill

Winner: Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen tested the limits on Sunday; An attack on Lando Norris, leaving him a gap at Turn 1, could have been seen as pushing his rival off the track. Then he (almost) went off the track and stayed ahead of Carlos Sainz to secure second place early on.

Because he pitted later than Sainz, he was duly undercut by the Ferraris for second place in the race, but crucially, McLaren left their drivers out later than the championship leader.

The tire offset seemed to pay off as Norris gave way with 10 laps to go, but Verstappen defended masterfully. He made no mistake as the finish line approached.

The Dutchman played the game and allowed Norris to overtake him outside Turn 12 in the closing stages. After penalizing others for going off track and gaining an advantage, the race stewards had no choice but to hand Norris a five-second penalty when he decided not to relinquish the position.

This gave Verstappen the final podium spot and further consolidated his championship lead – with victory in Saturday's sprint race giving him a better lead over Norris. – Samarth Canal

Loser: Lando Norris

Norris' pole position lead was quickly erased when he left the door open for Verstappen at Turn 1 – something Verstappen failed to do at the start of the sprint.

One could argue that the McLaren driver was hit hard as he was pushed wide on the exit of Turn 1 and Verstappen got away with this maneuver.

Due to a tire misalignment with Verstappen, he caught up with the Red Bull late, but was forced to overtake outside Turn 12, which resulted in a five-second penalty.

One could also argue that this was harsh as Norris was forced off the track – but this penalty could have been avoided if McLaren had forced Norris to give the seat back to Verstappen. However, had McLaren asked him to relinquish the position, there would have been no guarantee that Norris would have reclaimed third place ahead of Verstappen.

Oscar Piastri also drove a lonely race to fifth place, with McLaren's gamble to stop late not paying off. It was surpassed by Ferrari on Sunday as the Scuderia barely held its own in the race for the constructors' championship. – SK

Winner: Ferrari

If Ferrari has a downside, it is that the confident victory was completely overshadowed by the events behind Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Not that it would matter in the slightest – race winner Leclerc insisted he “didn't take it personally” that he wasn't featured too heavily in the race as all attention was focused on the battle between Norris and Verstappen.

Simply put, no one else could live with the Ferrari on Sunday – look at Verstappen's inability to chase Sainz's SF-24, which had managed to finish second.

A chance at either title now seems a little too far-fetched for Leclerc or the team – Azerbaijan has dealt a serious blow to those prospects – but the Ferrari review is one of the factors that promises a great end to the 2024 season . -Jack Cozens

Loser: Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton's recovery from his Q1 exit got off to a perfect start as he gained five places to take twelfth on the first lap.

But then it was all over at Turn 19, with a violent crack in exactly the same spot that had bitten George Russell in the sister model W15 in qualifying.

“Lewis Hamilton doesn’t lose a car like that on lap five,” team boss Toto Wolff told Sky Sports F1 after the race. He is 100% sure the car was responsible, even though Hamilton apologized after the incident.

Either way, it was an inglorious end to a turbulent weekend to forget for Hamilton. -JS

Winner: Haas

Haas took another midfield victory, with Hulkenberg helping to extend its lead in the constructors' championship from zero to two with four points for eighth place.

This helped Haas achieve a points streak in four consecutive Grand Prix races for the first time since 2018.

This is a sign of the impressive development Haas has ahead of him after completing his most successful seasonal development program ever. -JS

Loser: Haas too

…But it could have been even better, right?

Kevin Magnussen's second stop was so unexpected that one might think it was due to a puncture or the need for urgent technical repairs.

Instead, it was part of an ill-fated two-stop strategy that cost Magnussen both Lawson and Franco Colapinto places.

If Haas maintains his car advantage it won't matter, but if he slips before the end of the year he could miss out on the two extra points he should have taken. -JS

Winner: Franco Colapinto

Austin provided another case study for the ever-popular theory that Franco Colapinto deserves a permanent spot on the 2025 F1 grid.

Williams had an unremarkable qualifying, but Colapinto changed his race prospects with a long, strong first stint on hard tires. The switch to medium tires brought a lot of speed – so much so that rival Alpine had to put Esteban Ocon on soft tires just to stop Colapinto from taking the bonus point for the fastest lap.

The fact that Colapinto came so close to getting the bonus point in a Williams based on his performance says a lot about the quality of his Sunday drive.

You can't make a fair comparison with teammate Alex Albon because he suffered ground damage from the hit on Ocon's Alpine, but Colapinto looked like a team leader on the way to F1 point number five. -JS

Loser: Sergio Perez

In Formula 1, the most important thing is good gaps, and if Perez had finished one position higher, he might not have ended up in the losers' group. Sixth place, the other side of the McLaren to teammate Verstappen, might have been an appropriate result given his starting position.

But the loss to pit starter George Russell (who also received a five-second penalty) towards the end of the race brought Perez's drive into focus: in the first stint he was behind the midfield cars and ended up almost 40 seconds behind to Verstappen, in one of the rare occasions these days when the Red Bull appeared to be the equal of the McLaren, was simply not good enough.

Even if one benevolently assumes that sixth place was the best possible result for Perez, he didn't achieve it.

With that in mind, it wasn't exactly an encouraging sign considering how well the driver did in the bid for his 2025 Red Bull seat. -JC

Winner: George Russell

Russell's accident in the third quarter resulted in Mercedes mechanics working late into the night and past curfew to repair his car and install the parts to Singapore specification. That led to a pit start.

Nevertheless, he got off to a quick start on hard tires and was already well into the top 10 when he switched from hard to medium tires.

Russell then continued his solid pace and overtook Hülkenberg and – very late – a beleaguered Perez to take sixth place at the finish.

This was one of the best rides of Sunday, amid some outstanding performances from riders like Leclerc, Lawson and Colapinto. – SK

Loser: Alpine

Pierre Gasly's lead over sixth place on the grid may have caused Alpine to dream of a big number of points in order to be able to keep up with Haas, RB and Williams in the constructors' championship.

That he failed to score a single point – thanks to an agonizingly slow pit stop and a five-second time penalty for Gasly – and that towards the end it didn't look like he would, while all three of his nearest rivals did had was particularly annoying.

It has now been four races in a row where Alpine has failed to crack the top 10, and since their last success at Zandvoort in August, only Sauber, who have yet to score points, have scored fewer points.

Further evidence that Formula 1's worst-performing manufacturer is facing a humiliating finish in the constructors' championship. -JC