Max Verstappen holds off Lewis Hamilton to win the US Grand Prix as world champion secures 15th win of the season despite brake issues

There was a point early in the American Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton dared to dream that he would finally win after 686 days of waiting. He should have done that too.

He was riding high in the groove, matching then-leader Lando Norris on a track he had mastered over the years, but two things happened. First, his Mercedes team tied a hand behind his back by overextending his first stint.

Second came Max The Machine.

And for the 15th time in 18 races and the 50th time in his career, Verstappen took victory, a hard-fought victory, but ultimately booed by fans of his Mexican teammate Sergio Perez.

It didn’t matter that Verstappen started sixth, he and his Red Bull talents made the right decisions. They invariably do that. If others try a different strategy, you can assume they are wrong.

Lewis Hamilton approached Verstappen in the closing stages, but he kept him at a distance

Verstappen had problems with his brakes throughout the race, but still managed to take the victory

Hamilton, who finished second, was asked if he would have won if Mercedes had played a different hand. “Yes,” he said.

‘We would have been in a position to fight Max. We made it harder today than it should have been for ourselves.”

Verstappen therefore had a 2.2 second lead, despite struggling with the brakes, to join the Half-Century Club alongside Hamilton (103), Michael Schumacher (91), Sebastian Vettel (53) and Alain Prost (51).

Hamilton secured his never-say-die second spot after passing third-placed Norris late with brio, and neither managed to get home with the one-stop strategy that represented their last hope of triumph. Both Britons expressed themselves well, but did participate in the Vase Competition.

Hamilton’s race was doomed because he ended up in a strategic no man’s land. That fate set in after he and Norris fought out the early lead.

The younger man’s margin hovered around two seconds over the elder before he was brought in to be re-shod after 17 laps and re-emerged in fourth. Hamilton now led.

‘Can you handle five more rounds? asked Peter Bonnington, his race engineer. “I’m not sure, man, it’s pretty heavy,” was the response.

Hamilton (left) and Lando Norris (right) took the remaining podium places after a good race

Prince Harry was present with the Red Bull team when Verstappen claimed victory

It soon became clear that he couldn’t do that and his times plummeted. Meanwhile, Verstappen had come in ahead of the rest of the leaders, with Hamilton using the undercut and putting himself to good use, and was within the seven-time champion’s pit stop window.

Hamilton was told the bad news and exclaimed, “No, I’m having a hard time.”

Hamilton had to pit after twenty laps after running wide on his worn rubber. The late call cost a lot of money.

Not only had he missed a well-timed two-stop, but he was also on a one-stop that turned out not to be possible. A tricky change to the front right slowed him down a fraction, and he fell behind… Verstappen out. Oh dear. It represented a 10-second swing.

“We lost too much time in overtime and fell off a cliff in performance,” Hamilton said. “When I came out, these guys were a long way away.”

This was partly determined by the fact that the Dutchman had just set the fastest lap – a massive 2.7 seconds faster than the rest.

Because Hamilton was hindered, Verstappen now only had Norris in front of him.

Verstappen celebrates with his team after his hard-fought victory on Sunday

The three podium finishers enjoyed it while drinking champagne after the race

That changed on lap 28, when Verstappen took the lead. Norris nibbled back, but the rising tide could not be stopped.

Hamilton meanwhile approached the two. He and Norris were on hard tires and at this stage were still hoping they would last. Verstappen knew on mediums that he had to stop again.

As it played out, the top three of course all had to pit a second time.

As we said: trust in Red Bull, trust in Verstappen. This is the hard truth of 2023.

Hamilton had been away quickly at the start, but was slightly displaced and fell back one place from fourth to third.

Yet you could sense a restless energy in his driving, and it was clear he had a car that was fast enough, aided by a new floor. Finally a Mercedes upgrade lived up to the name after countless false mornings.

Hamilton was all the way behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and once DRS was engaged he deftly passed the red car at Turn 12 and moved up to third. Two laps later, at the same spot, he passed Leclerc for second. He now had a four second lead over Norris. There was plenty of work to do, you know.

Prince Harry, minus his Duchess, sat in the Mercedes garage, thoughtfully watching the proceedings, with headphones on.

Even now we all knew that Verstappen was the only man who could ever be ruled out, even if his best time in qualifying was canceled for exceeding the track limits – a rare mistake and perhaps a sign that maintaining near-perfection is virtually impossible when the title has been won and the tension has disappeared.

Although he makes a good attempt, with a little help from the neighbors.