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Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has extended his lead as he charges towards the 2021 F1 Drivers’ Championship, after a nail-biting victory at the US Grand Prix last weekend.
The Dutchman now holds a 12-point lead over reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) as the 2020 constructor champions continue to struggle with engine reliability.
“It was an exciting race and it feels incredible to win here in front of all the fans,” Verstappen told reporters after the race.
“The pressure was on for the whole race and not knowing how quickly Lewis would catch up. I actually thought I had a decent start, but Lewis had an even better one. So we went for an aggressive strategy after losing the lead into turn one and we pitted early in the first stint.
“Then for the middle stint we were in that undercut range, so we had to respond and we went for track position which made the last stint very long, especially in this heat.
“The last two laps were definitely difficult on the tyres, there wasn’t much grip left. But, then with two laps to go, I had the Haas in front of me and I was able to benefit from the DRS, so we managed to hang on in the end. We definitely gave it our all today as a team and it was great to have Checo up there with me on the podium.”
The race came down to the wire with Verstappen winning by a mere 1.3 seconds on worn-out hard tyres and Hamilton hot on his trail.
Verstappen’s team mate Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez took the final podium spot, followed by Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Lando Norris (McLaren), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin).
“It was such a tough race, but unfortunately, we couldn’t convert it,” said Hamilton.
“Red Bull just had the upper hand, and we couldn’t match them. It looked like they had a better and more stable rear end on their car, with less sliding. The start was obviously great and closing the gap towards the end, but I got into the dirty air and the tyres overheated in the last few laps.”
The Mexican Grand Prix is next on the calendar, scheduled for November 7.
