Windsor on Verstappen in sprint race: 'Showed great reflexes'

"He controlled the race beautifully, not particularly quick right at the start, just making sure that everything settled down," Windsor said about Verstappen's sprint race. "A few gusts of wind caught him by surprise. Great reflexes on display as well there. But then after four or five laps, he started to pull away from Lewis at approximately half a second and then a second a lap."

According to the F1 analyst, it was notable that Verstappen didn't really make the difference in the first and third sectors, where you might expect him to. "Just looking after the tyres, looking after the car, but using that top speed of the Red Bull to get away in sector two. So really nicely judged race for Max Verstappen. Very clean win, very clean race actually."

Hard tyre

Windsor is curious to see if Verstappen chooses to start on the hard tyre in Sunday's Grand Prix. If the Dutchman stays out on the track longer, he will automatically get free to drive his own pace and thus extend his stint. That advantage should then accrue to Verstappen later in the race.

"One of the reasons he might do that is because Red Bull on Friday were the only team that went through the proper sequence of get the car sorted, put in a full tank run," said the Briton, scrutinising Verstappen's lap times. "Look there at what Max Verstappen was doing on the hard tyre. He did a very good long run on that hard tyre. He has that information and if that tyre is the one on which he starts, look how consistent he is on that tyre."

Mercedes

Of the top teams, Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell was the only other team to drive several laps on the hard tyre. They did so on average two seconds per lap faster than Red Bull, so there seems to have been no real race simulation at Mercedes.

"Their lap times are suspiciously quick so they probably had nothing like the same amount of fuel on board. But nonetheless, Lewis and George looking pretty good and that was an indication of how good the Mercedes is in general around Austin. If you take out their top-line speed deficiency, it's obviously a very good car in terms of its agility, its balance, its drivability and its consistency in terms of looking after its tyres," Windsor concluded.