Verstappen victorious over Hamilton in tense Texas showdown; Perez P3 for surging Red Bull

Sunday’s United States Grand Prix proved an exceptionally tense showdown between this year’s top two championship contenders, Red Bull’s sublime Max Verstappen and the seven-time and current World Champ. Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton. Running a two man race of their own far ahead of the rest of the field, Verstappen prevailed to take the win at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas in a welcome return to the USA after a year’s absence due to the COVID pandemic. With the grandstands and grounds of this beautiful, purpose built circuit completely packed with ecstatic fans, Verstappen was able to withstand Hamilton’s best efforts in the waning moments of this 56-lap contest, keeping enough life in his older Pirelli tires to hold off the hard charging Englishman. The Dutch phenom not only claimed victory in the Texas heat but also increased his lead in the Drivers’ Championship to twelve points with just five rounds remaining in the 2021 season. If the supremely talented Verstappen should go on to win his first F1 title, his masterfully poised and consistent effort in America could well be looked back on as the crucial turning point.

With Verstappen starting from pole and Hamilton lining up in P2 on the grid, and both on the Medium Pirelli tires they set their fastest lap in Q2 on as per the rules, Hamilton made a lovely and forceful overtaking maneuver on the opening Lap to take the lead. But he could not pull away from Verstappen in the ensuing laps and It quickly became evident that the majority of teams would be running a two-stop strategy and going to the more durable Hard tires for the final two stints. The only question was one of timing — who was going to pit first? In the event, it was Red Bull who called Verstappen in quite early on Lap 11 for his first change,deploying the undercut that seems particularly effective at this long, flowing 5.5 kilometer circuit. By the time Hamilton came in on Lap 14 and the rest of the pit stops cycled through, Verstappen was back in the lead and Lewis was behind in P2. And so it would remain, as Hamilton could never really get close enough again to make a move and the Mercedes brain trust were left hoping that going longer on his stints and having the fresher tires at the end would prove the decisive advantage for their man. So, while Verstappen made his second and final stop on Lap 30, Hamilton legged his out until Lap 37 of this 56-lap contest.

But the end result was status quo, with Verstappen leading and Hamilton pursuing. As the laps ticked down, Hamilton’s Silver Arrow was able to get within a tantalizingly close second and change. But it was never near enough to consistently get the DRS advantage and make a proper lunge for position. Verstappen handled the onslaught with aplomb and nursed his slightly older tires to the victory in front of the delirious throngs in Texas. Hamilton simply ran out of laps and had to settle for P2 on the day and the unfamiliar position of second place in the championship by a dozen points heading into the Round 18 of 22 and the Mexican GP in a fortnight. But if the remaining races are as enthralling and closely matched as they were today in Texas this could be one of the most memorable championships since 2008, Hamilton’s first F1 title when he pipped Ferrari’s Felipe Massa by a single point in the last race at Inerlagos while driving for McLaren.

It also ended up being a better day for Red Bull as a team than Mercedes. Their second driver, Sergio Perez, persevered through a broken drinks system on a very warm day, running a solitary race behind the leaders but well in front of the rest of the pack to take a podium finish in P3, which added up to big points in the Constructors for his team combined with Max’s win. Meanwhile, the second Silver Arrow of Valtteri Bottas struggled to overcome a five-spot grid penalty for engine changes that saw him start back in P9 on the day. The Finn, who had been on something of a surge the last several races, could only work his way back to a P6 finish despite pushing hard all race long. Those combined results saw team Red Bull move to within 23 points of Mercedes in the all-important Constructors’ Championship. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc drove a flawless race and maximized the improved potential of his Prancing Horse to come home P4, while teammate Carlos Sainz suffered a costly slow pit stop on Lap 30 that somewhat doomed him to a P7 finish. Daniel Ricciardo was the lead McLaren in P5, with teammate Lando Norris coming home behind Sainz in P8, making it a good day for the Scuderia in their quest to overhaul McLaren for third in the Constructors’ down the stretch. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda took P9 after teammate Pierre Gasly DNF’d early in the race with suspension damage, while Aston Martin’s wily old hand Sebastian Vettel hung tough all race long, biding his time before making a late move to take the last point in P10.

Top 10 finishers of the USGP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next title tilt is in two week’s time — the Grand Prix of Mexico from the quirky, high altitude Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. With the remaining races down to a mere handful and Verstappen’s lead over Hamilton in the points a solid but not insurmountable twelve, the finishing order between the two championship aspirates — and the respective engine performances in thin air — has never been more important. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!