Red Bull were racing in the late Dietrich Matechitz‘s honour today – and the whole Formula 1 grid paid tribute to the Austrian, with just a few minutes ahead of the start of the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, where everybody was expecting action from all areas of the pack today, including an enticing battle between the front two rows.
Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz started the race from pole position, while his Maranello teammate Charles Leclerc had a grid penalty and therefore began the United States Grand Prix from P12, as the Monegasque driver was informed by his Ferrari race engineer that the top 10 was starting on mediums and that no driver is on softs for the first stint of the Austin race. In fact every driver was on the medium tyre – apart from Magnussen (13th), Fernando Alonso (14th), Mick Schumacher (16th) and Esteban Ocon (pit-lane).
Unfortunately Max Verstappen got away better than Carlos Sainz and took the lead after the first corner, while the Spanish driver’s race was completely compromised when he was hit and spun around at the first corner. Things went from bad to worse for Carlos, who suffered a puncture after the spin. He was back in the garage and his race was over. George Russell was found guilty for that Carlos Sainz contact – although a five-second time penalty is rather lenient considering the Ferrari is out of this race!
He was fourth behind Lance Stroll. Lewis Hamilton was second behind Max Verstappen in the other Mercedes. Further back, and partly thanks to Carlos Sainz’s misfortune, both Sergio Perez (P7) and Charles Leclerc (P10) gained a couple of places at the start.
A heartbreaking moment for Scuderia Ferrari and Carlos Sainz, who was hoping to fight for his second Formula win today. The Maranello team’s race now focused completely on Charles Leclerc, who was moving closer and closer to Sebastian Vettel ahead of him as he looked to work his way through the field to the front of the pack.
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On lap 12, the Monegasque driver passed his former Ferrari teammate to go fifth, while we were starting to hear some complaints on the radio from the front runners. With Max Verstappen +4.660s ahead of him, Lewis Hamilton was unhappy with his tyres. With Max Verstappen’s lead rapidly growing, Mercedes decided it was time to bring Lewis Hamilton in at the end of lap 12: he came out on a set of hard tyres in seventh, with a bit of clear air in front of him. Red Bull chose to match Lewis Hamilton’s strategy, and the Dutchman came in the following lap, returning back on track in second, crucially ahead of Stroll, Charles and Vettel, which meant he did not lose any time getting past them.
On lap 18, Valtteri Bottas went off and was stuck in the gravel at Turn 19, as the Safety Car was deployed: this gave Charles Leclerc a cheap pit stop from second, and allowed Lewis Hamilton to close back up on Max Verstappen. A 3.5-second stop from the Maranello team meant the Monegasque returned on track in fourth place, behind Sergio Perez but ahead of George Russell.
Max Verstappen backed up the pack and then made his move, executing it well as he maintained a solid lead over Lewis Hamilton at the restart. The top five positions held with Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and George Russell trailing the Dutchman and the British driver. But after just a few moments there was a high-speed collision between Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, and we had another Safety Car! The former Ferrari driver was able to make it back to the pits despite heavy damage to his car, while Lance Stroll was left parked on track, but the Aston Martin driver got out of his car and appeared to be fine.
It was another well executed restart from Max Verstappen as he maintained his advantage over Lewis Hamilton. The top five positions held once more. DRS was enabled, but could any of the top five take advantage of it?
The gaps between each of them were all around a second, with only Charles Leclerc the right side of that margin as he chased Sergio Perez. The Ferrari drives came on team radio to say how quick Red Bull were on the straights, but that DRS kept him close. After coming very close to passing Sergio Perez around the outside at Turn 12 a lap earlier, the Monegasque pulled off the move with a daring dive up the inside. The Ferrari was up to third and chasing Lewis Hamilton in second. Perez complained over radio that Charles went off track to complete the move, but replays showed the Ferrari stayed in bounds.
Lewis Hamilton made his second pit stop at the end of lap 34, while Max Verstappen came in to pit, along with Charles Leclerc, the following lap, but there was trouble for Red Bull: the Dutchman was held stationary for what seemed like an eternity, and Charles Leclerc got past him in the pits. Meanwhile, Hamilton was about seven seconds clear of the world champion. Lewis Hamilton put on another set of hard tyres, while Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen went for mediums.
Unfortunately, Max Verstappen made it past Charles Leclerc. He tried at Turn 1, but the Monegasque got back past on the way out of the corner. However, later in the lap Verstappen makes the move stick, and was now free to chase Hamilton.
After a few strong laps, Max Verstappen closed the gap on Lewis Hamilton to under 2.5s. Meanwhile, the Dutchman was able to pull out a two-second advantage over Charles Leclerc in third. The Red Bull man was closing on Lewis Hamilton all the time, as the gap was under two seconds and continued to drop. Ferrari’s tyre degradation issues were clear once again, with Charles unable to match the pace of his rivals in the last ten laps.
Max Verstappen had too much speed for Lewis Hamilton, and despite the Brit’s best efforts, pulled off an overtake at Turn 12. Lewis Hamilton was on his radio to make it clear to everyone that he felt Max Verstappen was off the track. Max Verstappen then had his final warning for exceeding track limits, and would have received a five-second penalty had he committed another infringement.
In the last five laps of the race, Charles Leclerc tried to nurse his tyres while managing the two second gap to Sergio Perez and in the end the Ferrari driver succeed in defending his third place, scoring a solid podium finish for the Maranello team after a great recovery drive.
The result also confirms Red Bull’s constructors’ championship victory, ending Mercedes’ eight-year streak of titles.
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