In Pictures: USA 2021
WHAT A DRIVE! Max Verstappen wins a cracker United States Grand Prix!
It was Red Bull’s 200th podium in Formula 1 and the first win for a Honda-powered F1 car in the US since Ayrton Senna at Phoenix in 1991.
The weekend started with everyone expecting Mercedes to dominate at the Circuit of the Americas, and it was Valtteri Bottas who topped the charts in the first practice, but it was Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who ended up being the quickest in practices 2 and 3.
Then came Qualifying. It was a tense fight between the Mercedes and the Red Bulls. Valtteri Bottas had a change of engine, so a five-place grid penalty was upon him. Behind the battle out front, another one was brewing with Ferrari and McLaren very close together.
At the end, Max Verstappen came on top, beating Lewis Hamilton by 0.209 seconds. Sergio Perez, who delighted the cheering crowd, had held Pole a bit earlier finished third, just 0.015 behind Hamilton. Then came both Ferrari (Leclerc, Sainz) ahead of both McLaren (Ricciardo, Norris).
On Sunday, it was a beautiful but very hot day at COTA and all eyes were on the front row and when the race started, Verstappen desperately tried to cover a fast-charging Hamilton but couldn’t hold him back and lost the lead. A bit behind, Sergio Perez’s drinking system failed and started to fall back from the two leaders. To Mercedes’ surprise, Verstappen was able to stay close behind Hamilton, with him reporting "He's quicker than me right now”
On lap 11, and after complaining his tires were overheating, Red Bull called Verstappen in to undercut Hamilton. It is a decent stop and returned behind Ricciardo in fifth. A few laps later, Hamilton pitted, and although he lost less time than Verstappen, came out six seconds behind him, so the undercut did work for Red Bull, but the Mercedes was faster and started eating the time difference.
On lap 28, there was a brief VSC (Virtual Safety Car) as a Marshall retrieve a piece of debris from the track.
On lap 30, Verstappen pitted again, and after a so-so stop (2.8 sec) came out in third, behind teammate Perez, who let him pass by the next lap. 8 Laps later, Hamilton pitted, it was a fast one but came out almost 8 seconds behind Verstappen. Everything was set for a nail-biting finish, and that’s exactly what we had, with Verstappen beating Hamilton to the finish line by 0.8 seconds!
““It was exciting. The whole race the pressure was on because of not knowing how quick Lewis was going to get you. We went very aggressive on the first stop after losing the lead at the start. Then again during the middle stint, Lewis was within that undercut range so we had to respond. We had to go early again. And the last stint was very long, in this heat especially. Yeah, we managed to hang on at the end, with just enough in the tires to push. With two laps I had the Haas in front of me and going into the last sector he was in front and especially with worn tires it’s not easy to follow. Of course, luckily then he stayed in front, so he gave me that DRS, so whatever I lost I think it stabilized because of that DRS. The last lap was all about trying to have a good first sector and beginning of the second sector, but it wasn’t easy because the tires were really finished. But it’s incredible to win here.””
““We gave it everything we had, and they were just quicker than us this weekend, for whatever reason, I can’t pinpoint it. It looked like they had just a better rear end, a little bit less sliding than we had.””
““It was crazy, yes. I wasn’t feeling well this morning and from Lap 1 onwards I had no drink at all. It was extremely tough, already from Lap 20 I was completely gone, I had no strength, I was losing strength on my hands, strength on my feet, the vision as well as getting quite uncomfortable, and it was just a surviving mode: trying to keep up.
It was a time that if I had a bad moment, I wouldn’t be able to control the car, so it was the longest race of my life, no doubt about that, the energy from the people really kept me going, my family was here, I really wanted them to see me on the podium and yes I look forward to Mexico now””
On the podium: Max Verstappen (P1), Lewis Hamilton (P2), Sergio Perez (P3) and Honda’s Masashi Yamamoto.
