World champion or not: Max Verstappen will not take his foot off the gas even for a moment this Formula 1 season. The Dutchman, who celebrated his third world championship after the sprint race in Qatar two weeks ago, also won the United States Grand Prix sprint race held in Austin due to force majeure.
After 19 laps at the Circuit of the Americas, Verstappen was more than nine seconds faster than Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes). Charles Leclerc finished third with his Ferrari.
Sergio Perez couldn’t get past fifth place, allowing Hamilton to inch closer to the fight for second place in the world championship.
Fastest qualification
Verstappen qualified fastest for the sprint race and defended that top spot brilliantly in the first lap. Hamilton and Leclerc followed the Dutchman closely at the start.
Behind Leclerc, Carlos Sainz played the Ferrari team game strongly. The Spaniard was the only one to start the race on soft tires (the rest were on mediums) and used them in the early stages to give his team-mate Leclerc some more room.
Hamilton put pressure on Verstappen, who was having difficulty keeping the car under control on the hilly Austin circuit. Hamilton slowly but surely began to lose time as the British driver started complaining on the team radio that Verstappen was exceeding the track limits.
Punish Russell
George Russell, who had already been penalized while qualifying for the sprint race and only qualified eleventh, was penalized for leaving the track, which ultimately cost him one place.
Oscar Piastri, the surprise winner of the sprint race in Qatar, also faltered with three warnings. If he did the fourth thing, he wouldn’t be able to avoid punishment. In the end it didn’t matter much, as Piastri finished in a miserable tenth place and was therefore out of the points.
need for speed
In fact, Verstappen needed to do his best to keep Leclerc at bay in the first round. “Luckily there was enough room in the first corner and everything went well. We were able to control it later and even push it a little towards the end. The speed of the car was good. I’ll need this too because then I’ll be starting from sixth place. But there’s a lot of ground to cover, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Source: NOS
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
