Freshly minted triple world champion Max Verstappen on Sunday completed a hat-trick of Texan victories when he claimed the 50th win of his career and record-equaling 15th of the season in a tense and strategic US Grand Prix, while Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from second after post-race checks.
The 26-year-old Verstappen, who started sixth on the grid in his Red Bull car, worked his way through the field to take control before he came home 2.225 seconds ahead of resurgent seven-time champion Hamilton, who was disqualified hours later when his Mercedes car failed a technical inspection.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished sixth, was also excluded for excessive wear of the mandatory wooden plank under the car’s floor.
Photo: AFP
“Others got it right where we got it wrong and there’s no wiggle room in the rules. We need to take it on the chin, do the learning, and come back stronger next weekend,” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said.
Hamilton’s exclusion meant McLaren’s Lando Norris moved up from third to second with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz completing the podium, even if the ceremonies were long over by then.
“Fifty wins is incredible and to do it here, I am very proud. Now we keep on pushing for more,” said Verstappen, after his third consecutive win at Austin’s Circuit of the America’s and equaling, with four races to spare, the record the Dutchman set last year for most wins in a single season.
His runaway lead in the drivers’ championship now stands at 228 points ahead of Sergio Perez, and his win was the first in Austin by a driver not on the front row.
“I think the whole race I was struggling with the brakes,” said Verstappen, who was booed by sections of the crowd as he stood on the podium. “You could see it was very close to the end.”
Norris, lining up on the front row, seized the lead from pole-sitter Leclerc into the first corner, but his hopes of a first win in his 100th start had faded by the half distance.
On the plus side, his points haul allowed McLaren to leapfrog Aston Martin for fourth in the constructors’ standings.
George Russell, also in his 100th race, finished seventh, but was promoted to fifth following the disqualification of Hamilton and Leclerc.
Verstappen was fifth by the end of lap one and used the drag reduction system to take the lead from Norris on the 28th of 56 laps.
He did not just disappear into the distance, as so often this season, instead complaining over the radio about the brakes and giving Mercedes hope that they might be able to reel him in with their upgraded car.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton provided excitement at the end as he chased Verstappen, starting the last lap only 1.8 seconds behind after being 5.3 adrift when he passed Norris with seven laps remaining.
“We were catching them towards the end and I was hopeful, but we needed some more laps,” Hamilton said before the summons to stewards.
Williams rookie Logan Sargeant celebrated a surprise first point, the first in 30 years for a US driver, after he was classified 10th due to the disqualifications of Hamilton and Leclerc.
The last US driver before the 22-year-old Florida native to score in a grand prix was Michael Andretti with McLaren in 1993.
“It’s amazing to score my first point in F1 on home turf after the challenging weekend I’ve had,” said Sargeant, who failed to finish the previous race in Qatar after suffering exhaustion in the heat.
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