WHAT A DRIVE! Max Verstappen wins a cracker United States Grand Prix!

It was Red Bull’s 200th podium in Formula 1 and the first win for a Honda-powered F1 car in the US since Ayrton Senna at Phoenix in 1991.

The weekend started with everyone expecting Mercedes to dominate at the Circuit of the Americas, and it was Valtteri Bottas who topped the charts in the first practice, but it was Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who ended up being the quickest in practices 2 and 3.

Then came Qualifying. It was a tense fight between the Mercedes and the Red Bulls. Valtteri Bottas had a change of engine, so a five-place grid penalty was upon him. Behind the battle out front, another one was brewing with Ferrari and McLaren very close together.

At the end, Max Verstappen came on top, beating Lewis Hamilton by 0.209 seconds. Sergio Perez, who delighted the cheering crowd, had held Pole a bit earlier finished third, just 0.015 behind Hamilton. Then came both Ferrari (Leclerc, Sainz) ahead of both McLaren (Ricciardo, Norris).

On Sunday, it was a beautiful but very hot day at COTA and all eyes were on the front row and when the race started, Verstappen desperately tried to cover a fast-charging Hamilton but couldn’t hold him back and lost the lead. A bit behind, Sergio Perez’s drinking system failed and started to fall back from the two leaders. To Mercedes’ surprise, Verstappen was able to stay close behind Hamilton, with him reporting "He's quicker than me right now”

On lap 11, and after complaining his tires were overheating, Red Bull called Verstappen in to undercut Hamilton. It is a decent stop and returned behind Ricciardo in fifth. A few laps later, Hamilton pitted, and although he lost less time than Verstappen, came out six seconds behind him, so the undercut did work for Red Bull, but the Mercedes was faster and started eating the time difference.

On lap 28, there was a brief VSC (Virtual Safety Car) as a Marshall retrieve a piece of debris from the track.

On lap 30, Verstappen pitted again, and after a so-so stop (2.8 sec) came out in third, behind teammate Perez, who let him pass by the next lap. 8 Laps later, Hamilton pitted, it was a fast one but came out almost 8 seconds behind Verstappen. Everything was set for a nail-biting finish, and that’s exactly what we had, with Verstappen beating Hamilton to the finish line by 0.8 seconds!

On the podium: Max Verstappen (P1), Lewis Hamilton (P2), Sergio Perez (P3) and Honda’s Masashi Yamamoto.