October 25, (THEWILL) – Red Bulls’ Max Verstappen held off a charging Sir Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes AMG Petronas to win the United States Grand Prix, a crucial race in the fight for the Formula One championship this year.
A huge crowd of around 160,000 people watched the race at the Circuit of the Americas, with 400,000 total over three days, and they were treated to a thrilling battle between the two title contenders that ebbed and flowed over the 56 laps.
After his second pit stop, the seven-time champion and Mercedes appeared to swing the race in their favour, as he proceeded to reel in the Red Bull driver on significantly fresher tyres.
Verstappen, however, managed to eke life out of his own rubber to win by just 1.333 seconds and extend his championship lead to 12 points, despite Hamilton having the fastest lap.
Given the previous incidents, the fact that Verstappen and Hamilton were on the front row for the seventh time this year raised the possibility of more fireworks between the two. After the five red lights faded, Hamilton had the better start, which has been an Achilles heel for him this season.
As they accelerated up the hill, Verstappen moved across Hamilton, and another collision appeared on the horizon. But it was Hamilton who had the momentum and the ideal line into the sharp left-hander, forcing Verstappen wide and putting Sergio Perez in danger for a brief moment.
The Mexican, on the other hand, may have realised that passing his teammate was not a good idea and backed out, allowing Verstappen to maintain a steady pursuit of Hamilton and a true cat-and-mouse chase to begin.
During the first ten laps, Hamilton radioed in to say that Verstappen “is quicker than me right now” as the Dutch driver sat within a second of his rival until the latter pitted first.
Verstappen was immediately faster after switching from the medium to the hard compound, but it was not until Perez pitted two laps later that Mercedes blinked and brought in Hamilton to cover the second Red Bull driver.
However, the damage had already been done, as the three laps between pit stops allowed Verstappen to carve out a 6.759s lead by the end of lap 14.
After seven laps, Hamilton had only clawed back a second of his rival’s lead before putting on a charge, cutting the gap to 2.793 seconds after five laps.
Red Bull brought in Verstappen for a second stop and another set of hard tyres with the lead down to 2.617s at the halfway point of 28 laps, allowing Hamilton to retake the lead.
With a 16-second lead after a few laps, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff took to the radio and told Hamilton: “Lewis, we’re racing for the win”, prompting a response of “Leave me to it, bro. Thanks.” The Brit pitted for his new set of hard tyres after 37 laps, his rubber being nine laps fresher than Verstappen’s RB16B.
Hamilton was 8.818s behind the leaders with 18 laps to go the next time around. He then took two seconds off Verstappen with the fastest lap on lap 40 and another 1.4 seconds on lap 41. Even Verstappen’s personal best laps on 44, 45, 46, 47, and 49 were not enough, as Hamilton was faster on each occasion, closing the gap to 1.946s.
When they crossed the line to begin the final lap, Hamilton was finally within DRS range, but Verstappen put in a last-lap flier to keep Hamilton at bay and claim his 18th – and arguably most important – F1 victory of his racing career.
Perez finished 42 seconds behind the leaders in third, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc a further ten seconds behind.
Daniel Ricciardo of McLaren took fifth place ahead of Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes, who went wheel to wheel with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on lap one and again 15 laps from the finish.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
