The US Grand Prix gave the fans an epic, last-stage battle between Verstappen and Hamilton. This time, Verstappen came out on top. On the last lap, Hamilton was hot on Hamilton’s heels, but did not have enough pace to challenge his rival up-close.
US Grand Prix; Red Bull’s Violent Strategy
At the start, Lewis Hamilton took over the lead of the race at Turn 1. In a very similair move to 2016 in which Hamilton pushed out Rosberg, Verstappen was forced wide, and gave up the place. Verstappen, however, had plenty of pace in him as he kept within 1 second of his rival at all times. Eventually, DRS was available, and this only helped him keep in touch with the black silver arrow.
Red Bull learned from their previous mistakes, however, and pitted Verstappen extremely early. By doing so, they forced Hamilton to go long on his first stint, which gave Verstappen a 6.5+ second lead at the end of it.
Hamilton was able to eat into it, getting as close as 2 seconds to his rival, who then pitted again to under-cut the Mercedes. Hamilton was forced to once again go long on his stint, adding another 6 laps according to his engineers during the race. This, however, gave him a larger advantage at the end of the race; he would have had more life in his tyres than Verstappen.
Unfortunately for Mercedes, Hamilton did not have enough pace to overtake the Dutchman. While getting within DRS range on the last lap, it was simply not enough.
Super Sergio
This weekend Sergio Perez has been impressing in all sessions. Qualifying in P3, he was able to keep that position, making this Red Bull’s 200th podium finish. While still off the pace of his teammate and Hamilton, he was able to put enough pressure on Mercedes to ensure that tactics and strategy would go in favour of Verstappen.
After the race, the driver seemed extremely drained physically. The drink system that the drivers use in the race broke, and for the majority of the hot race he was unable to drink. This made an already strenuous race even more difficult. The Mexican pulled through in the end though, and made a good gap between him and Leclerc (P4).
‘Checo’ Perez is looking forward to his home race in Mexico in 2 weeks’ time.
Surprising Ferraris
The prancing horses were able to deliver this weekend, finishing P4 and P7, and closing the gap between them and McLaren, which now stands at just 4.5 points.
This was quite suprising to Leclerc, who shrugged the pace off in a post-race interview, and said that they cannot let this cloud the reality of where they are.
“We need to keep working hard. This will be a tough fight for us,” he said.
Carlos Sainz did not have as much luck, losing P6 to Bottas on the last lap. The Spaniard got close to Daniel Ricciardo multiple times, but had to back off after contact between the drivers. In his post-race interview, he was obviously disappointed and had hoped for more.
“We need to look at what happened. We should have been in front of both of the McLarens,” he said.
US Grand Prix – McLaren Off Pace
The McLaren’s have been slower than usual this race, however Ricciardo’s performance is only improving. He has said that while he is not completely there yet, he is ‘getting there’ and finally getting to grips with the car.
It is likely that his win in Monza gave him the confidence boost he needed. Overall, he is not the only driver to take a long time to get used to his new car; Sebastian Vettel looks to be in the same boat.
Norris had an uneventful weekend, and also commented on the physical toll that the race takes on him as a driver, especially in that heat. McLaren head off into the next round with just a 4.5 point gap between them and Ferrari.
Your Take – US Grand Prix
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