MAX CLINGS ON FOR WIN AFTER THRILLING DUEL
Hamilton is forced to settle for second place
LEWIS HamIlton’S dream of an eighth world title wobbled here in texas, as max Verstappen took victory and a tighter grip on the championship’s destiny.
the Briton gave it his all, both with a lightning start and consistently pulverising laps, but the might of the Red Bull and its 24-year-old master racer was too much on this occasion.
Hamilton finished a very close second, hunting to the end, the margin vanishing to almost nothing, hearts-in-mouths, but he now trails his Dutch rival by 12 points with five races remaining in this captivating duel that refuses to die.
Ironically, it was Hamilton’s brilliance at the start, forcing his way ahead of his pole-sitting rival from second on the grid, that forced Red Bull into the aggressive strategy they deployed — a call their man executed to perfection to win a tense US Grand Prix, his eighth victory of the season, by a mere 1.333 seconds.
this battle encapsulated how ahead of their peers these two leading lights are performing, the prize at stake inspiring in them displays of real distinction.
‘Sheer class,’ purred Christian
Horner, Verstappen’s boss, when it was over.
Hamilton’s tangible consolation was a bonus point for setting the fastest lap.
the only time the pair went wheel-to-wheel was as the lights went out. Verstappen pushed Hamilton hard left as they flicked up to eighth gear climbing the hill.
to their right sat a vast expanse of fans on the bank next to turn one, with its wide entry and narrow exit. all colours of t-shirt stretched back, row on row. a yellow crane was poised on the middle of the corner. Just in case.
But Hamilton, just as he managed against nico Rosberg in 2015, gunned down the inside and emerged in front, aided by his faster acceleration over the first few feet of road.
Verstappen momentarily dropped to third as the opening bend unwound itself, but was soon up to second.
now they went at it hammer and tongs. less than a second, sometimes less than half a second, separated them. Hamilton kept his calm even as he could feel the Dutchman’s breath on his neck.
With 10 of the 57 laps complete Red Bull pulled Verstappen in — the undercut their best hope of regaining the initiative Hamilton had seized at the start. It was a smooth stop, 2.9 seconds.
out he went on hard tyres, putting him in fifth place before he zipped past mclaren’s Daniel Ricciardo. Verstappen then put his foot to the floor, his responsive machine perfectly equipped to give him everything he demanded of it. How should mercedes react? they could have brought Hamilton in the very next lap. that would hardly have been ideal, because the undercut had already been perpetrated against them, but it may have contained the damage.
Instead, they waited three laps. By the time Hamilton pitted, Verstappen had opened up a strong six second-plus advantage.
‘We pulled the trigger early, so we’ve got three more laps on these tyres compared to lewis, but max is doing a good job,’ said Horner from the pit wall.
‘It’s like a game of chess this race. You can rest assured there’s not much in it between the teams.’
Verstappen maintained his lead at 6.2sec for lap after lap in the warm sun, before cruising towards his second stop.
His lead stood at about three seconds as he took on another set of hard tyres. It seemed all over as a contest by then, with Hamilton also needing to be reshod a few laps later, at which point Verstappen would retake the lead all the way home.
mercedes team principal toto Wolff injected optimism. ‘You’re racing for the win,’ he told Hamilton over the radio. to which came the response: ‘Just leave me to it, bro.’ Which may be the first time the austrian has been so addressed.
Hamilton drove his heart out to come agonisingly close in the end, nearer than at one stage had looked possible. Both Horner and Verstappen, meanwhile, admitted afterwards that they had fretted whether their punchy strategy would pay off.
the late hunt delivered deserved excitement for the crowd to savour. all the build-up razzmatazz had heightened those expectations, with this splendid concoction of a track 15 miles south-east of downtown austin fuller than it has ever been before — 140,000 fans in yesterday and 400,000 over the weekend.
the atmosphere was electric in a sign that america, which has proved so resistant to Formula one’s charms, is finally warming to what they always perceived as a largely European diversion. the netflix series Drive to Survive, with its fly-on-the-wall footage of the sport’s politicking, has surely helped spread the gospel but nothing is better for business than a gripping title fight.
the winner’s trophy was presented by Shaquille o’neal, 7ft 1in of basketball legend. He dwarfed the smaller heroes he had come to watch.
as for the championship, Hamilton is still in the mix: 130 points remain on the table in mexico, Brazil, Qatar, Saudi arabia and abu Dhabi.
But it is very much advantage to the opposition. Verstappen can be buoyed by Red Bull’s unexpected pace here, contradicting the evidence of the previous race in turkey. mexico City’s high altitude has traditionally favoured his team, too.
For now, at least, Verstappen would not swap seats with anyone in motor racing.