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US basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal (center) presents Max Verstappen with the trophy, Lewis Hamilton only remains in second place
Photo:
SHAWN THEW / EPA
Excitement to the end:
It's the penultimate lap in Austin, Lewis Hamilton chases Max Verstappen, last lap, the Mercedes driver briefly enters the DRS window, suddenly Mick Schumacher appears in the Haas between the two opponents, Verstappen breathes himself again and reaches the goal - and converts a risky and clever Red Bull strategy into a lead of 1.3 seconds.
The result:
Hamilton was able to win the US Grand Prix in Austin five times, this year it was only enough for second place.
With the victory, Verstappen expanded the World Cup lead from the Briton to twelve points.
Verstappen's team-mate Sergio Pérez was third.
Read the race report here.
The start: It was a
turbulent one, Hamilton got off better than Verstappen and pushed past the inside of turn one, the Dutchman had to leave the track for a moment and could have been conceded by Pérez, but Pérez let his team-mate go. As a result, Verstappen was less than a second behind his competitor, Pérez was already more than four seconds behind after nine laps.
Perfect undercut:
But the audience couldn't sit back and relax. Verstappen no longer saw any point in following Hamilton and came into the pits on lap eleven. After a standstill of 2.9 seconds, he came back on the track in fifth behind Ricciardo, and one lap later he conceded Leclerc in the Ferrari. Hamilton stayed outside, only when Red Bull called Pérez into the pits (13th), Mercedes also reacted - but Hamilton had lost too much time. After his stop (14th), he came back on the track behind the now leading Verstappen - 6.7 seconds behind.
Because it was so beautiful, let's repeat:
But the lead melted. Hamilton took his opponent's time lap after lap on hard tires and thus approached the possibility of an undercut revenge. Red Bull reacted on lap 30 with the second tire change at Verstappen. Hamilton stayed outside at first, only making his second stop on lap 37. Although he now had fresher tires for the end, he was also 8.8 seconds behind Verstappen.
Hamilton and the radio:
In Turkey, Hamilton reacted indignantly to instructions from his team via radio. When Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff switched on over the radio in lap 33 with the words “Lewis, you can win”, the latter simply replied: “Please leave me alone, thank you.” (“Leave me to it bro «). And that's what he did. Race engineer Peter Bonnington announced that it only depends on the last three laps. With ten laps to go, Hamilton was almost 2.7 seconds on Verstappen, but he could not start an attack until the end.
"It was really fun":
"I lost the start and then we had to try something different," said Verstappen after the race.
“The tires break down quickly here.
The strategy was very aggressive and I wasn't sure that it would work, "he added, and:" The last few laps were really fun. "
30 degrees and nothing to drink:
His team-mate would probably not subscribe to this statement despite his podium place: “It was madness, from lap four on I had no water at all and couldn't drink anything.
I think that was my toughest race, physically, ”said Pérez.
Tinned meat and Shaquille O'Neal:
Formula 1, which was shaped in Europe, had a hard time in the land of NASCAR and the IndyCar series, but the racing series has the lucrative US market in its sights.
For the coming season, the US owner Liberty Media is planning a record calendar of 23 races - with Florida there is another Grand Prix in the USA.
The audience in Texas seemed to have gotten a taste for it, around 400,000 people are said to have been on the track over the weekend.
They were offered a tinned meat contest, numerous cowboy hats, actor Ben Stiller stopped by and basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal was driven up with the trophy in a several-meter-long vehicle with horns.