The note: 2/5
Should we be content with an undercut as a change of leader, and an unfinished chase to classify this race as a success? Too bad for the 140,000 spectators, who helped beat the three-day entry record (380,000). Just for them, we would have liked at least one or two attacks from Lewis Hamilton at the end of the course.
United States Grand Prix
Radio silence, “little consolation” and big doubt: Hamilton accuses the blow
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AN HOUR AGO
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The winner: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
The Red Bull ace just fell on stronger than him at the start, then he played outfielder to get his eighth win of the season. “I thought I had a decent start but he (Hamilton) made a very good start, he told Ziggo Sport. You had to forget, but quickly I saw that I had good speed in ‘medium’. So we were very aggressive. “
Red Bull Racing’s stroke of genius was to bet on an undercut, whose margin turned out to be spectacular: all-in, MV33 gained 6 seconds in Hamilton’s three more laps on the track.
The rest was very intelligent management of the tire capital, as its boss Christian Horner pointed out. “At the end of each stint, I really didn’t have enough tires left. It just worked the way it should“, explained Max Verstappen.
The beaten: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
The Briton still has an amazing ability to create diversity in races. He had played and lost his third place in Turkey on a daring bet, he put it back offering a plan of staggered stops to try to cross paths with Max Verstappen at the end of the race. Unfortunately, the current regulations have held it back.
12 points behind, it is not the alert rating but the trend remains worrying, especially as the next trips, in Mexico City and Sao Paulo, do not look favorable to the Mercedes.
The loyal lieutenant: Sergio Pérez (Red Bull)
Yes, from twice in a row, it’s loyalty. Almost carried from Silverstone to Sochi (16 points in 6 races), the Mexican wakes up at the end of the championship, and it shows. Remaining wisely behind his leader at the exit of the first corner, he further spoiled Lewis Hamilton’s strategy by forcing the Mercedes driver to return to the 14th lap. Without that, the Briton would have extended his stint and created a larger and perhaps decisive gap in the final laps.
The wrongly accused: Mick Schumacher (Haas)
The German is not known to make waves in the peloton he was charged a little too easily by Max Verstappen, who accused him of having hampered him at the end of the penultimate lap. “The point is that I can’t disappear, justified the son of Michael, the seven-time world champion. I was also doing my race. I tried to be the least complicated or annoying for Max. And the fact that he was able to use his DRS balanced that out a bit. “Everything was indeed pinned down:” Schumi Jr “gave Red Bull the attack on the last lap, which MV33 took advantage of to distance himself from Lewis Hamilton.
The bonus: Ferrari
“A good bunch of points to close the gap“This is how the Scuderia aptly summed up its US group shot. The 12 points of Charles Leclerc (4th) and the 6 units reported by Carlos Sainz (7th) brought it closer to 3.5 lengths of McLaren, the third World Championship mark.
The penalty: The French
Zero points for Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) and Alpine. The winner of the Italian Grand Prix, already unsure of defending his chances because of the sensor problem on the grid, retired on lap 16 following a suspension problem. “For now, we don’t know the real cause, so we’ll have to look for it., explained the Rouennais. It’s very frustrating because we know that every point counts at this point (in the fight for 5th place in the championship). It would have been really good to go until the end of this race, because the atmosphere has been amazing this weekend, from the start.”
As for Alpine, Esteban Ocon’s explanations for his forced withdrawal are really unclear. “We will explain to you“, however told him his engineer, when he returned to dismount. The champion of the Hungarian Grand Prix, 17th, stumbled on Nicholas Latifi (Williams) when he was recalled, suggesting a retirement aimed at optimizing the mileage of its engine.
No doubt, however, for the showman Fernando Alonso, caught in fierce brawls with the Alfa Romeos, and forced to let go because of a damaged rear spoiler.
The tweet of excess
The number: 1 or 2
The series continues: all the winners in Austin since F1 returned to the United States of America in 2012 started from the front row.
The statement: Helmut Marko (Red Bull)
“As I said before, we need to win ten races if we are to win the title this year, so two more. Maybe we can hang around a bit on the circuits in the Middle East because they have straight lines. indecent where the Mercedes will really have an advantage. “
United States Grand Prix
Alonso is angry: “Three similar maneuvers, and three different decisions …”
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2 HOURS AGO
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United States Grand Prix
If Verstappen was “not sure it was going to work”, Red Bull totally did not believe it
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10 HOURS AGO
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