Red Bull’s Max Verstappen defends a long-distance challenge from rival Lewis Hamilton to win the United States Grand Prix.
With the victory of Max Verstappen, who had a fairly good team and a fierce battle under
control, his competition has expanded to twelve points with five races to go. Hamilton had his first chance, losing it when Verstappen made his first pit stop and tried a plan designed to fight for victory on the final lap.
Mercedes have two places to go behind Verstappen but that’s not enough.
It was a fun fight in front of 140,000 people at a busy American circuit in Austin, Texas, and Las Vegas over the weekend where Formula 1 felt its popularity in the United States had reached a new level.
Hamilton crossed the line just 1.3 seconds from one of the toughest races ever in the Grand Prix season.
“This is really class, Max,” the Red Bull team leader said over the radio as he lay on his lap. “It was great then. But he was certainly one of the biggest winners at Verstappen, under intense pressure from Hamilton and Mercedes.
How fast is the race?
Verstappen started from a wooden level but lost his head in the corner as Hamilton did well and ran to challenge him.
Going to Hamilton in the early minutes, Max Verstappen seemed to have a quick lead and Red Bull decided they should try to take over the road and keep him there.
They led Verstappen to close their first hole in the top ten, leaving Hamilton and Mercedes with no choice but to try to move on and return to Verstappen at the end of the race.
They couldn’t kill their first-half stoppage for as long as they wanted, and Verstappen teammate Sergio Perez near Red Bull only had two chances when the Dutchman forced Hamilton into the hole.
But the second half of the race turned into an immediate fight between Verstappen and Hamilton, where Perez crashed quickly and spent the rest of the race watching Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who ignited a brilliant race behind the top three.
Verstappen is known against each other again on lap 29, where he will complete 27 laps, and with Hamilton in the next eight minutes, Mercedes are looking to give him the greatest possible medal lead at the end of the tournament.
When he restarted after stopping on lap 37, Hamilton was only nine seconds behind. He measured his speed on the first lap of last season, defended his tires, and lost ground, finishing from 8.4 seconds to 3.9 in just five legs.
With six steps to go, Hamilton was only 1.5 seconds ahead, but for the first time in his final season, Max Verstappen was 0.2 seconds ahead and the win seemed far ahead for Hamilton.
With just two minutes to go, Hamilton hit a finish line in under a second, but time ran out and he kept a dramatic win.
Driver today
Every winner must have it, but celebrities are awesome in their own way. But Max Verstappen deserves it for his mature approach to tire measurement and speed control from the front as soon as he’s at the forefront of his team’s plans. Title of honor also to Leclerc, a rider entirely of his own.
What happened next?
Mexican Grand Prix in two weeks – usually a happy place for Red Bull hunters, Mercedes fears another death. If that happens, Hamilton will have the upper hand in the last four tours.
