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Red Bull Racing and Verstappen trump Hamilton in the United States
- GPblog.com
The 2021 United States Grand Prix was a fine battle between title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. The Dutchman eventually walked away with victory due to a strong strategy by Red Bull Racing.
Verstappen versus Hamilton
With a six-point lead in the championship, Verstappen travelled to Texas where he hoped to increase his lead. However, Mercedes had made great strides in development and the pace in Turkey and Russia was impressive. Red Bull had to come up with an answer and it came at the Circuit of the Americas.
Indeed, in qualifying, Verstappen proved to be the fastest driver. With a time of 1.32.910, Verstappen beat Hamilton by two-tenths. Sergio Perez could also play a role in the race from P3, where Valtteri Bottas could not. He qualified on P4, but still had a grid penalty of five spots on his trousers.
Sunday's start went disastrously for Verstappen. On the inside, Hamilton got away much better and as a result, Max was unable to maintain his leading position in turn one. As he went wide at the first corner, he even came under pressure from behind. Fortunately, Perez was the one behind him and was smart enough to let Verstappen keep the position.
Red Bull outsmarts Mercedes
This made it a battle between Verstappen and Hamilton. Red Bull opened the ball early on lap 11 with an undercut for Verstappen. Hamilton came in three laps later and was condemned to chase from then on. On lap 30, Verstappen, now from the lead, came in first again. Hamilton now stayed out longer, to open the hunt for Verstappen with eight laps of fresher tyres.
Whereas this strategy had worked great in Spain, in America he could not get past Verstappen. The Dutchman fought hard for his position but was briefly cornered at the end when Mick Schumacher did not move aside in time. Verstappen stayed ahead of Hamilton, however, and scored 25 valuable points.
Hamilton did take the point for the fastest lap and as a result, Verstappen was only six points off. The championship difference was therefore 12 points in favour of the Red Bull driver, who would also win a race later in Mexico, before the dominant run came from Hamilton in Brazil, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.