Max Verstappen wins after beautiful catch-up race and equals record of Schumacher and Vettel | formula 1

By Marijn Abbenhuijs

The United States Grand Prix started after a tribute to Dietrich Mateschitz. The co-founder and owner of Red Bull died this week at the age of 78, which naturally caused a lot of grief for Max Verstappen and his team boss Christian Horner, among others. Horner said on Saturday afternoon that he was very keen to secure the 2022 constructors’ title for Mateschitz in Austin.

From P2, Verstappen had to hunt for that constructors title and his thirteenth victory of the season on behalf of Red Bull. Diagonally behind Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, he stood. But he was past that very quickly at the start at the Circuit of the Americas. Verstappen got away much better than the Spaniard and entered the first corner well ahead of him.

There Sainz not only lost his leading position, but immediately lost the entire race. Because the Ferrari driver collided with George Russell of Mercedes and therefore gets off the track. Sainz even had to give up shortly afterwards.

As a result, Verstappen seemed to be able to cruise to his thirteenth victory of the season unthreatened. Because Lewis Hamilton, who moved to second place due to the crash of Sainz, slowly but surely lost sight of his Dutch rival.

Behind that, the battle for second place in the world championship seemed to be in favor of Red Bull driver Sergio Pérez, at least today. The Mexican, like his competitor Charles Leclerc, was put back on the starting grid due to the exchange of the combustion engine. Pérez received a five-place penalty and started from nine, Leclerc also had a new turbocharger, received a ten-place penalty and started from P12.

But where Perez moved quickly in the field, Leclerc lingered for a long time. The only advantage of Ferrari’s Monegask was that he was able to keep his yellow medium tires intact and was the only one at the front of the field not to have made a pit stop when a safety car arrived.

Watch the final phase of the race.

That was caused after eighteen laps by Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas. The Finn lost control of his car and ended up in the gravel. Leclerc took advantage of the situation, made a pit stop that took him much less time due to the safety car and was back in the race.

But even before that race was properly resumed, another safety car arrived. This time by a tough collision. Canadian Lance Stroll and Alpine driver Fernando Alonso, teammates at Aston Martin next season, collided when the Spaniard tried to overtake Stroll on the straight and the Canadian suddenly swung to the left. However, Stroll himself was the biggest victim of this, while Alonso was still able to finish the race and even managed to take the points.

In the meantime, Leclerc had completely fought himself back in the fight for victory. He initially fought with Pérez for third place. The Ferrari driver needed two overtaking attempts to pass the Mexican. Where he first tried unsuccessfully outside, his overtaking action succeeded when he attacked Pérez on the inside of the corner.

Watch Verstappen’s dramatic pit stop.

At that time, Verstappen still seemed to be riding effortlessly to his third victory in a row in the United States. Until a failed pit stop knocked him back. A rare sight at Red Bull, his mechanics didn’t get his left front wheel off properly and then the new one didn’t immediately lock in place. It took 11.1 seconds before the two-time world champion was able to continue. He fell back behind Hamilton and Leclerc. ,,Beautiful…”, Verstappen said cynically over the on-board radio.

But even a dramatic pit stop couldn’t stop the unapproachable Verstappen. It didn’t take long before he had already caught up with Leclerc. He then quickly closed the gap to Hamilton to overtake the Brit with six laps to go. And in doing so, he claimed his thirteenth win of the season, equaling the record of Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. Moreover, with three races to go, he still has every chance of getting his hands on the record single-handedly.

In Texas, however, another milestone was more important. Verstappen’s victory finally gave Red Bull the constructors’ title. And that success was there, on the weekend in which Mateschitz passed away, one of unbelievable value. “Max Verstappen, you are world Champion, we are world champion, thank you very much,” Horner said on the radio when Verstappen crossed the line. To then address the word tellingly to Mateschitz. And Dietrich Mateschitz, thank you very much for everything you have done for us. These titles are for you.”