Verstappen does not bow to Hamilton’s pressure and takes his 50th F1 win in the USA
Max wins his 50th race in F1. / @RedBull
The sight of another champion like Lewis Hamilton in the rear-view mirror in the closing laps was not enough to stop the Dutchman from taking another victory, the 50th of his F1 career.
“Don’t talk to me anymore,” Verstappen said not once but twice over the radio to his track engineer. An uncharacteristically nervous tone for the Dutchman, who drove one of the most difficult races of the season, with a comeback from sixth place and Lewis Hamilton just 1.8 seconds behind him on the final lap, which did not prevent him from taking his 50th victory in Formula One, just one short of Alain Prost’s record.
It was a very strategic race in which all the teams had to calibrate their decisions based on their own possibilities, but also on the moves of the others.
Lando Norris stole first place from Charles Leclerc before the first corner, the first of the 6 positions the Monegasque would lose in the race, with a very risky strategy, with a single pit stop, which in the end did not bring good results, and the degradation of the hard compound meant that Leclerc had to give up the position to Carlos Sainz in the final part of the race, to avoid complicating the situation for the Spaniard as well.
Ferrari opted for a different strategy for Sainz, who started fourth, on the medium compound, which he was able to maintain at the end of the race thanks to two pit stops to change back to medium and then hard tyres.
Lewis Hamilton’s strategy in the Mercedes box was spot on as he easily overtook Lando Norris in the final laps, even considering a battle for the win with Verstappen, which failed to materialise with a few laps to go, leaving Hamilton in second place. Norris completed the podium in third.
ALONSO OUT ON LAP 51
Aston Martin are struggling to rediscover the pace of the early part of the season, with Alonso’s results in Austin well below expectations.
Friday’s qualifying saw Fernando out of Q3 for the first time this season, following a number of changes to his car ahead of AMR 2024. Disastrous changes led the Spaniard to ask to return to the previous floor, forcing a pitlane start, which seemed to work as the Spaniard was already in the points at the halfway point of the race.
However, on lap 49 the first problems with the suspension appeared and on lap 51 another problem with the floor forced Fernando to retire.
MCLAREN, FOURTH IN CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
With Alonso’s retirement, even Stroll’s two points were not enough to avoid losing fourth place to Mclaren in the constructors’ championship after the US Grand Prix.
The team, who started the season in contention for second place, are at one of their lowest times and a comeback looks impossible with four races to go.
