MAX INCREDIBLE WIN IN AUSTIN, TEXAS

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen fended off intense late race pressure from title rival Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes AMG to claim a well worked United States Grand Prix win at the Circuit of the Americas. Sergio Pérez doubled Red Bull’s celebrations by taking third place and the Team’s 200th podium finish.

When the lights went out at the start Hamilton was quickest off the line and though he was forced to take a deep inside line on the run up the hill to Turn 1 as Verstappen defended, the Mercedes AMG driver held firm and as the title rivals went through Turn 1 the Red Bull driver had to go off track on the outside, handing the lead to Hamilton.

Behind them Pérez held third place ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc but McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo passed Carlos Sainz at the start to take fifth position. Sainz ended the first lap in P6 ahead of Lando Norris in the second McLaren and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who had risen to eighth from P10 at the start.

Vertsappen shadowed Hamilton for the first 10 laps but unable to get close enough in the turbulent wake from the Mercedes AMG. And with his starting medium tyres overheating, the Dutchman pitted at the end of lap 10 to take on hard rubber. He rejoined in P5 behind Ricciardo but soon passed the McLaren driver.

Pérez made his first stop on lap 12 taking on medium tyres and Mercedes AMG reacted to the Red Bull stops by bringing Hamilton in at the end of lap 13. The Briton’s move to hard tyres was clean and quick but as he left his pit box Verstappen powered down the start-finish straight to take a 6.7s lead.

The leaders then settled into the second stint, with Verstappen carefully trying to managed the gap. Hamilton though showed greater pace and he edged to within three seconds as the race headed past half distance.

On lap 29 Verstappen went into the pits for another set of hard tyres. He weas followed a lap later by team-mate Pérez, with the Mexican this time taking hard tyres. Verstappen now found himself just over 16.5s behind Hamilton who was being told to extend his second stint.

Armed with fresher tyres, Verstappen closed to within 13 seconds of Hamiltin and after 37 laps the Mercedes driver eventually made his second stop for more hard tyres. When he emerged he was 8.7s behind Verstappen but with tyres that were eight laps newer.

With 10 laps remaining, Hamilton was within three seconds and Verstappen was warned by his pit wall to save rear tyre life to fend off attacks through the DRS zones.

With three laps remaining, it looked like his efforts might be in gain. Hamilton closed to within 1.2 second and then broke into DRS range of the Red Bull. Verstappen, though, had done a good job of preserving tyre life and he was able to keep Hamilton at bay.

And when Hamilton made small mistake with a lap left and the gap expanded back to 1.7s, the race was won. Verstappen crossed the line to take his eighth win of the season. The victory means he extends his Drivers’ Championship lead. He now has 287.5 points, 12 more than Hamilton.

Hamilton finished second, 1.3s behind the Dutchman, and soon after Pérez crossed the line to hand Red Bull a double podium finish. Pérez’s podium, allied to a sixth place finish for Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes AMG, means that Red Bull close the Constructors’ Championship gap to Mercedes AMG to 23 points.

Behind Pérez, Charles Leclerc claimed fourth place for Ferrari ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Bottas. Seventh place went to Carlos Sainz Jr. in the second Ferrari, with McLaren’s Lando Norris eighth. Yuki Tsunoda scored two points for AlphaTauri with ninth place and Sebastian Vettel finished tenth to take a single point for Aston Martin.

UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX 56 laps, 308.405km., Weather: Sunny.
CLASSIFICATION:
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME/GAP
1.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1h34:36.552
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	+ 1.333
3.	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	+ 42.223
4.	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 52.246
5.	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	+ 1:16.854
6.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	+ 1:20.128
7.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	+ 1:23.545
8.	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 1:24.395
9.	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	+ 1 lap
10.	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	+ 1 lap
11.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	+ 1 lap
12.	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1 lap
13.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo	+ 1 lap
14.	George Russell	Williams	+ 1 lap
15.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	+ 1 lap
16.	Mick Schumacher	Haas	+ 2 laps
17.	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	+ 2 laps
FASTEST LAP: LEWIS HAMILTON - 1:38.485
NOT CLASSIFIED:
18.	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	technical
19.	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	technical
20.	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	technical
HYBRID ERA - COTA 2014 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h40:04.785 2015 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h50:52.703 2016 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h38:12.618 2017 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h33:50.991 2018 Kimi Räikkönen - Ferrari - 1h34:18.643 2019 Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes AMG - 1h33:55.653 2021 Max Verstappen - Red Bull - 1h34:36.552 @МкФормула1 - Република Македонија @MkFormula1 - Republic of Macedonia

CLASSIFICATION AFTER 17/22 RACES
DRIVERS:
1.	Max Verstappen	287.5
2.	Lewis Hamilton	275.5
3.	Valtteri Bottas	185
4.	Sergio Perez	150
5.	Lando Norris	149
6.	Charles Leclerc	128
7.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	122.5
8.	Daniel Ricciardo	105
9.	Pierre Gasly	74
10.	Fernando Alonso	58
11.	Esteban Ocon	46
12.	Sebastian Vettel	36
13.	Lance Stroll	26
14.	Yuki Tsunoda	20
15.	George Russell	16
16.	Nicholas Latifi	7
17.	Kimi Räikkönen	6
18.	Antonio Giovinazzi	1
19.	Mick Schumacher	0
20.	Robert Kubica	0
21.	Nikita Mazepin	0
CONSTRUCTORS:
1.	Mercedes AMG	460.5
2.	Red Bull	437.5
3.	McLaren	254
4.	Ferrari	250.5
5.	Alpine	104
6.	AlphaTauri	94
7.	Aston Martin	62
8.	Williams	23
9.	Alfa Romeo	7
10.	Haas	0