Max Verstappen won the US Grand Prix and set the record for most wins in a season

Max Verstappen added one more to his already impressive tally of achievements this season. The Red Bull driver, who had previously won his third consecutive championship title, won the US Grand Prix. Thus, the Dutchman repeated his own record for the number of victories in a season – he has 15. And this is four stages before the end of the championship. An equally discussed event at the American stage was the disqualification of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. After the finish, the cars of the leaders Mercedes and Ferrari were not tested for compliance with technical regulations. This played into the hands of Red Bull number two Sergio Perez. He will now have to try hard to lose second place in the championship. Whether or not the Mexican retains his vice-championship position will determine his prospects for continuing to work at Red Bull.

After Max Verstappen won the World Championship ahead of schedule (this happened two weeks ago in Qatar), the championship seemed to have lost any remaining intrigue. However, some questions still remain unresolved. Well, for example, will Verstappen be able to break his own record for the number of wins in a season? Or will the Red Bull team, which in addition to Verstappen’s title also has the Constructors’ Championship, also won ahead of schedule, be able to ensure that its representatives occupy the first two places in the final classification of drivers? By the way, the Bulls, who have seven championship titles to their credit (three with Verstappen in 2021–2023 and four with Sebastian Vettel in 2010–2013), have never achieved such success before. Note that, according to a report by the Brazilian media portal Globo, the future of Red Bull number two Sergio Perez in the team directly depends on whether he becomes second or not. At the same time, Perez himself did not directly refute this information, only recalling that he has a contract for 2024.

But in Formula 1, even having a contract does not guarantee a seat at the wheel of a car. However, already last Sunday in Austin, America, the answers to both of the above questions, one might say, were given.

For starters, Max Verstappen won the US Grand Prix. There was a moment when it seemed that the “bulls” arrived in America not in the best shape. This team, despite all its power, also makes mistakes. Such as in Singapore, where Verstappen was only fifth, because the champion Red Bull suddenly stopped driving as expected. In Austin, Verstappen misfired in qualifying, took only sixth place and seemed to give hope to other drivers. True, as he gave it, he took it back. Already in the Saturday sprint, the Dutchman showed that he has no equal – he “brought” almost a 10-second lead to his closest pursuer in the short, 100-kilometer race. With such a superior pace, it was not too difficult for him to turn his sixth place at the start of the main race into first at the finish on Sunday. Yes, he was only a couple of seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who arrived second at the checkered flag. But, as Hamilton himself later admitted, he had no real chance of catching Verstappen. Well, after the finish the Dutchman generally said that he could have gone faster if he had not had problems with the brakes. The American victory was Verstappen’s 15th of the season. This is a repetition of his own record, set last year. It is hard to imagine that Verstappen will not win at least one more time in the remaining four races (he himself is aiming for the maximum number of victories), which means that the record will be updated.

This victory was also Verstappen’s 50th in his career. The record here is very far away – it is held by Hamilton – the seven-time world champion won 103 Grand Prix. Verstappen was also beaten more often by Michael Schumacher (91), Sebastian Vettel (53) and Alain Prost (51). As you can see, the Dutchman can really beat both Vettel and Prost this year.

As for the fight for second place in the championship, at first everything was not very good for Red Bull. Hamilton finished second, and Perez only fifth. This means that the gap between the British and the Mexican has been reduced to 22 points. Quite a lot, but it can be won back, especially considering how unstable Perez is.

But a few hours after the finish, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) notified that the results of Hamilton, as well as Ferrari leader Charles Leclerc (finished sixth), were cancelled.

It turned out that the wooden control bar (a 10 mm thick board is attached under the bottom of the car and serves as an indicator of the correct suspension settings) was worn out more than allowed by the regulations. Its thickness after finishing must be at least 9 mm. On the cars of Hamilton and Leclerc, this figure was lower. By the way, Verstappen’s Red Bull was also subjected to testing, and it was not a complete one, but a selective one. But there were no questions for him. Hamilton’s disqualification meant Perez moved up to fourth place, and with Hamilton earning nothing in the United States, his lead over the Briton is now 39 points. Such a head start, if you do not allow outright failures, is no longer easy to squander.

Alexander Petrov