until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League

Formula 1

Verstappen fends off Hamilton to win United States GP

by Matt Beer
8 min read

Max Verstappen resisted heavy pressure from Formula 1 title rival Lewis Hamilton to take a very hard-earned United States Grand Prix victory.

The advantage swung between them repeatedly in a race of strategic intrigue before Verstappen did enough to keep Hamilton at arm’s length and win by just 1.3 seconds.

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Hamilton had made the better getaway at the race start and squeezed down the inside to take the lead away from Verstappen at Turn 1, with the Red Bull going very wide on the corner exit after trying to hang on around the outside.

But both acknowledged on the radio that the Red Bull seemed to be the faster car in the first stint as Verstappen casually lurked on Hamilton’s tail.

Diving in for an early first pitstop on lap 11 gave Verstappen an undercut shot and three laps on fresh tyres were enough to jump him past Hamilton and into a 6.5s lead by the time the Mercedes rejoined from its own stop.

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Hamilton chipped away at that through the next stint and perhaps spooked Red Bull by getting within 3s after a dozen laps.

Verstappen came in for his final stop with 25 laps still to go, and Hamilton was left out a full eight laps longer.

Though Verstappen closed in on the Mercedes during that period and Hamilton was a full 8.8s after his own stop, the reigning champion would now have much fresher tyres for the crucial run to the flag.

After a cagey start to the stint, Hamilton unleashed a run of laps 1.3s to 1.9s quicker than Verstappen and began to obliterate the Red Bull’s lead.

But then the rate of closing began to reduce and the outcome looked like less of a foregone conclusion. Verstappen had even managed to save enough tyre life to inch away again at one point.

Hamilton closed back within DRS range going into the final two laps but just couldn’t manage to attempt a pass and had to settle for second place and fastest lap.

Sergio Perez stayed close enough to keep Hamilton on his toes at first then drifted away after a slow first stop. He still notched up a second straight podium, albeit not very far ahead of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.

The Ferraris and McLarens had spent much of the opening lap wheel to wheel – three-abreast at one point – before Leclerc left the rest of that quartet behind.

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Daniel Ricciardo ended up fifth for McLaren, having been under heavy pressure from Carlos Sainz for a while before the Ferrari had to focus instead on Valtteri Bottas’s Mercedes in the closing laps.

After his grid penalty, Bottas spent the first stint failing to pass AlphaTauris – having to hand a place to Pierre Gasly after going off-track to overtake him at one point – and then actually lost ground to Yuki Tsunoda by running long before his first stop.

But Bottas was more competitive thereafter, finally dismissing Tsunoda, jumping Lando Norris’s McLaren for seventh at the second stops and then grabbing sixth from Sainz on the penultimate lap.

Tsunoda drove one of his best F1 races yet to take ninth.

Kimi Raikkonen was on course for the final point before spinning his Alfa Romeo at the first corner with four laps left and falling to 12th.

That meant Sebastian Vettel was able to come through from 18th on the grid to 10th for Aston Martin.

Gasly retired early with a rear suspension problem and both Alpines dropped out too – Esteban Ocon having had a tail-end race after first-lap front wing damage and Fernando Alonso, having had a slightly comical series of battles with Alfa Romeos and associated radio rants about off-track passes.

Race Results

Pos Name Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 56 48 1h34m36.552s 1m39.096s 2 25
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 56 8 +1.333s 1m38.485s 2 19
3 Sergio Pérez Red Bull-Honda 56 0 +42.223s 1m39.566s 2 15
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 56 0 +52.246s 1m39.303s 2 12
5 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren-Mercedes 56 0 +1m16.854s 1m40.345s 2 10
6 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 56 0 +1m20.128s 1m40.147s 2 8
7 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 56 0 +1m23.545s 1m40.377s 2 6
8 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 56 0 +1m24.395s 1m40.228s 2 4
9 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Honda 55 0 +1 lap 1m41.151s 2 2
10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin-Mercedes 55 0 +1 lap 1m40.481s 2 1
11 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 55 0 +1 lap 1m41.145s 2 0
12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 55 0 +1 lap 1m41.189s 2 0
13 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 55 0 +1 lap 1m41.34s 2 0
14 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 55 0 +1 lap 1m41.12s 2 0
15 Nicholas Latifi Williams-Mercedes 55 0 +1 lap 1m41.818s 2 0
16 Mick Schumacher Haas-Ferrari 54 0 +2 laps 1m41.395s 2 0
17 Nikita Mazepin Haas-Ferrari 54 0 +2 laps 1m42.886s 3 0
Fernando Alonso Alpine-Renault 48 0 DNF 1m40.067s 4 0
Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault 39 0 DNF 1m42.194s 3 0
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri-Honda 13 0 DNF 1m42.015s 2 0
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