Max Verstappen becomes the lone rider in Texas: The world champion in the Red Bull won the US Grand Prix with a real demonstration of power and is getting closer and closer to the weakening McLaren in the world championship fight.
Verstappen drove away from everyone on Sunday, ultimately relegating title candidate Lando Norris to second place. Charles Leclerc came third in the Ferrari, World Championship leader Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren drove a downright mediocre race and only ended up in fifth place.
“The chance is there, definitely,” said Verstappen about the World Cup fight: “We just have to deliver weekends like this until the end.”
Verstappen’s hunt for his fifth world title in a row has been a promising endeavor since Sunday at the latest. For the fifth time in a row (Grand Prix and Sprint) he finished ahead of both McLaren drivers, 40 points now separate him from Piastri, compared to 97 in August. Things are also getting more exciting internally at the Papaya team, Norris is only 14 points behind Piastri.
But the man of the hour is Verstappen, whose Red Bull has seemed transformed since the summer break. He still has five races left until the finale in Abu Dhabi (December 7th), including two more sprint weekends, so even more possible points. Verstappen also took advantage of this fact in Texas: He also won the sprint on Saturday, but the McLarens collided on lap one and came away empty-handed.
On Sunday they did at best damage control and struggled mainly with the Ferraris. Record world champion Lewis Hamilton finished fourth ahead of Piastri. Nico Hülkenberg achieved a success: the Sauber driver finished eighth and scored points for the first time since the beginning of July.
World Cup leader Piastri has no chance in Austin
When the cars rolled onto the starting grid, McLaren had a very exclusive handicap: both cars had been eliminated early in the sprint, meaning the team could hardly collect any race data before the Grand Prix – as usual on a sprint weekend, there had only been one free practice session. “It’s not helpful,” said McLaren boss Zak Brown.
Unlike the sprint, the start was without any major excitement. Verstappen got away excellently, behind him Norris lost his second position to Leclerc, and that was to become a problem: from then on he was stuck behind the Ferrari, making different attempts lap after lap – but Leclerc defended strongly, and Norris only got past after 21 laps. Shortly before the halfway point of the race, Verstappen was already within ten seconds of the lead.
Further back, Piastri had gained a position at the start and was running in fifth place, but soon complained about his left front tire. “It doesn’t look good and doesn’t feel good,” he radioed to the pits. And Piastri was actually unable to put any pressure on the competition in front of him.
Norris, however, lost his position again to Leclerc during a pit stop that was not ideally planned, and the command post also did not look up to scratch on Sunday. For the Englishman, the nerve-wracking game began all over again: he couldn’t find a way past the Ferrari for a long time, and it wasn’t until shortly before the end of the race that he secured second place.