The nice shot: Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won the United States Grand Prix on Sunday in Austin, accentuating his lead at the top of the Formula 1 World Championship over the usual master of the house, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) who he followed him to the 2e square.
After this 17e round out of 22, the Dutchman, whose first success in Texas, is 8 wins this season (18 since the start of his career) and now has 12 points better than the Englishman, who will wait to add to his CV a 6e victory on the Circuit of the Americas. The latter, looking at 36 years old for a record eighth crown allowing him to overtake the Hall of Fame of pilots Michael Schumacher, will have to pull himself together in Mexico in two weeks, so as not to let his young competitor of 24 years who dreams escape. , him, to be sacred for the first time.
The Dutchman, who started out in a leading position just in front of the Englishman, and who had assured the day before not to “worry about what is going on behind”, should however have, because Hamilton, who had announced that he wanted to do everything to take the lead. best start, kept their word.
And although Verstappen tried to lock him inside, the Briton was able to pass the corner first, forcing the Dutchman to have to step aside, out of bounds. Better launched, Sergio Pérez could have taken advantage of it, but he logically prohibited himself from overtaking his teammate.
Under the eyes of 140,000 spectators, who will have been 380,000 in total since Friday according to the organizers, the 3e place went to Sergio Pérez.
Paid strategy
“As I lost a place at the start, we had to try something [en s’arrêtant le premier aux puits], I was not sure it would work. The last laps were nice, full slide on the fast corners, but it was really nice that it worked, ”commented the winner of the day hot.
Verstappen has indeed changed tires twice, at the 11e and 30e laps, that is each time before Hamilton, passed to the refueling stop at 14e and 38e turns. A strategy that paid off since, in the end, the Dutchman managed to retain his leadership, despite the sharp rise of his competitor, who followed him to one second in the last two laps.
“Congratulations to Max, he’s doing a hell of a good job, it was a really tough race. I got off to a good start, we made the right decisions [sur les arrêts aux puits]but they were the best today, I gave it my all, ”said Hamilton.
Half an hour earlier, when he was chasing Verstappen, the tone was much drier with his team manager Toto Wolff on the radio. “You’re running for victory, Lewis,” his team manager had reminded him, to which his pilot replied: “Let me do it, brother, thank you. “
140,000 fans present
Contested under a less intense heat than the two previous days, with a sun appearing just at the start after a light morning drizzle quickly dried on the track, the race was thus intense at the very beginning and at the very end, but not subject to friction.
Friday, during the 2e free practice session, Verstappen had called Hamilton a “kind of idiot” and handed him his middle finger, after his rival refused to let him pass after a near wheel to wheel of several seconds, demonstrating that ‘neither was ready to ease off even in a no-stakes lap.
With two drivers on the podium, Red Bull is enjoying an almost perfect weekend in their fight for the constructor’s title with Mercedes, whose second rider, Finland’s Valtteri Bottas, finished 6e. The Silver Arrows are now only 23 points ahead.