United States GP: Max Verstappen beats Lewis Hamilton for win before Mercedes driver disqualified from second

Max Verstappen held off a late charge from Lewis Hamilton to win the United States Grand Prix, before the Mercedes driver was later disqualified from second place when his car failed post-race technical inspection.

Hamilton finished right on Verstappen’s tail at the checkered flag, but lost second place in the hours after the race when it emerged that the brake pads under his Mercedes had worn too thin, in breach of F1 technical regulations.

Charles Leclerc’s car failed the same test after the race and he was also disqualified, causing the Ferrari driver to lose sixth place.

McLaren’s Lando Norris had finished third on the road but was promoted to second after Hamilton’s exclusion, while Carlos Sainz was third in the other Ferrari.

Earlier in the race, Verstappen, who has already clinched his third consecutive drivers’ title with five laps to go, appeared to be on his way to victory after coming from sixth on the grid and taking the lead halfway through the Grand Prix.

However, apparent braking problems with his Red Bull left Verstappen agitated and vulnerable as Mercedes’ Hamilton closed to within two seconds in the final stages, but the Dutchman clung on for the 50th F1 victory of his career.

Hamilton had already passed Norris’s McLaren, who faded in the second half of the race after taking the lead on the opening lap to boost his hopes of a maiden F1 win in his 100th race.

“I had a lot of trouble with the brakes throughout the race,” said Verstappen. “It was very close at the end and the tires of the stragglers have also run out, so that makes it more difficult.

“It is incredible to win my 50th Grand Prix here. I am of course very proud of it and we will continue to try to achieve more.”

Sainz finished fourth for Ferrari – which later became the last place on the podium – after he and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez made late passes to polesitter Leclerc, who dropped back after the Italian team attempted an ill-advised one-stop strategy.

George Russell could only finish seventh as he failed to match team-mate Hamilton’s pace after dropping from fifth on the grid at the start. But the disqualifications later saw him promoted to fifth place.

Pierre Gasly rounded off an improved performance from Alpine to take what was sixth, although teammate Esteban Ocon, along with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, faced early retirement after a first-lap collision took them both out of the race.

Lance Stroll claimed his first Grand Prix points finish since July after his Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso was forced to retire with floor damage, while Yuki Tsunoda took what had initially been the final point for AlphaTauri and doubled his total for the day with the fastest lap of the race.

But the late evening disqualifications of Hamilton and Leclerc moved everyone else up two places and promoted both Williams drivers into the points-paying top 10 from 11th and 12th.

Ninth place for Alex Albon and tenth for Logan Sargeant gave the team its first double top-10 since Belgium 2021. And more importantly for Sargeant, it was the American rookie’s first point in F1 at his home Grand Prix weekend.

Verstappen’s victory takes him to 466 points for the season and beyond the record he set last year, with the Dutchman set to rewrite the sport’s history books over the four remaining rounds of the season.

Updated United States GP result
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) Lando Norris, McLaren
3) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
4) Sergio Perez, Red Bull
5) George Russell, Mercedes
6) Pierre Gasly, Alpine
7) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
8) Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri
9) Alex Albon, Williams
10) Logan Sargeant, Williams

Strategic battles ensure an exciting finish

With Verstappen dominating from pole in Saturday’s sprint race, Norris and Hamilton were the only two drivers who had any chance of stopping him throughout the entire race.

To have any chance of doing that they needed a strong start, and Norris got just that as he passed Leclerc at the first corner before opening up an early lead.

Ultimately, Hamilton was perhaps decisively less successful. He lost a place to Sainz at the start, and although he passed both Ferraris to take second on lap six, he lost crucial time and tire life.

Verstappen gained a place at the start despite carefully navigating the opening lap, and surprisingly took considerably longer than Hamilton to avoid the Ferraris.

When he did so on lap 12, he was seven seconds clear of leader Norris, with Hamilton about halfway.

Any thoughts that Verstappen had been grooming his tires to set up a one-stop race were dispelled when the Red Bull pitted first of the leaders at the end of lap 16.

The fact that Red Bull chose to fit him with another set of medium tires on which he had started the race meant that he would certainly have to make another stop to use a different compound before the end.

McLaren responded by bringing in Norris a lap later, but put him on the hard tire and kept open the option of one stop.

Mercedes decided to keep Hamilton out as they seemed to be considering the one-stop option, but in the end they seemed to be somewhat between the two strategies.

Hamilton’s tires seemed to fall off a metaphorical cliff during his last few circuits before he retired on lap 20, with a crucial time loss occurring as he ran wide and off track.

A slow stop worsened the situation, allowing Hamilton to come out with the several seconds lead he had previously had over Verstappen after switching the other way, while Norris was in the lead.

Verstappen followed ominously behind Norris and passed the McLaren on lap 28, but he appeared uncomfortable as he described his struggles with braking in the class-leading RB19.

Norris activated the second round of pit stops when he came in on lap 34, closing back to just over a second behind Verstappen when Red Bull responded by stopping a lap later.

That played into Hamilton’s hands, as he was able to continue at a reasonably competitive pace for three more laps and had a new set of better-performing medium tires for his final stint, with the leading duo on hard tyres.

It soon became clear that it would be a matter of time before Hamilton would pass Norris, with the big question being whether he could track down Verstappen in the closing stages.

Despite having little hope of stopping Hamilton, Norris defended sternly in a series of corners that cost Hamilton a few crucial seconds and possibly a chance at victory.

The five-second gap that remained with seven laps to go initially looked out of reach, but the gap suddenly started to close, with Verstappen in the background repeatedly berating his race engineer over the radio for talking to him in braking zones.

The gap was less than two seconds going into the final lap, but ultimately Mercedes’ inability to optimize their strategy, sub-par pit stops and just about the only mistake Hamilton made during a great weekend for the Brit saw him fall agonizingly short for a first victory. since December 2021. Although, as it turned out, a victory would not have lasted due to the Briton’s subsequent disqualification.

“I think we probably should have stopped before Lando because I was in an undermined position,” Hamilton said before news of the post-race investigation into his car emerged. ‘I don’t know why we didn’t do that.

“Then I was another eight seconds behind and had to overtake. It was very difficult to overtake and then I was eight or ten seconds behind again (after the second stop).”

Despite taking a third consecutive win at Circuit of The Americas, Verstappen received a frosty reception from some fans as he appeared to be booed by a group of fans during the podium ceremony.

F1 heads straight to Mexico for the middle leg of the US triple header. Watch the entire Mexico City Grand Prix weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday, with Sunday’s race at 8pm. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW