Max Verstappen won the sprint race of the F1 United States GP on Saturday, the short event of the weekend, lost Carlos Sainz (2nd) and Lando Norris (3rd) with a sleeve full of emotions thank you to its great cheerleader, the number ’55’. The man from Madrid seems to have been releasedwith great speed that allowed him to climb from 5th place to second in this sprint event, beating title contender and his teammate Charles.
Max, more leader against a two-faced Norris
The Dutchman, leader of the F1 World Championship, increased his championship lead over his great rival, Lando Norris, by two points. Max took the 8 points awarded to the winner and Lando, who started in 4th place after making a short qualifying mistake on Friday (he slowed down in a corner instead of climbing), looked like he could cut losses by adding 7 points to 2nd position , but then Carlos came on the last lap to take another point away from the Briton. Thus, Verstappen increased his lead in the overall standings to 54 points with Sunday’s race and another 5 Grand Prix remaining until the end of the year.
The Briton clarified in just 19 laps part of the reasons why he could be a candidate for the crown, but also those that could prevent him from getting close to Max, which seems to reappear in the evolutions made of Red Bull in Austin. Norris is capable of the best, but also the worst.
Lando knew he had to keep attacking to avoid further complicating an already ascendant title. And he did it from the beginning. There, he was the smartest in the class. He chose the inside line in the always challenging Turn 1 while Russell acted as the stopper on the outside against the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz. If not for that, Carlos might have chosen to finish second, but that’s where Norris put himself. He rolled parallel to Russell on the next turn, without lifting his foot, precisely, to follow Max.
The Englishman then began to manage the tires as Verstappen seemed to start to get away and George even took a tenth from him to overtake him. He put in another gear on lap 8, with 11 to go, with a clear change of pace. He ended up 1″4 behind Max, but the Dutchman controlled the situation and gave him no choice.
Sainz was behind with better rubber, but Lando seemed to have enough car to defend himself. And on the last lap, when braking for Turn 1, Sainz showed him the car. It seems that Carlos has given up on that opportunity and will try it in a different corner. But at that moment, the other side of Lando arrived. He overbraked when Carlos was no longer attacking him and Sainz took advantage to take second.
Sainz, released: crush Leclerc and Norris
This year, the Ferrari was a car that struggled in qualifying but transformed the race with great speed and superb tire management. And after fine-tuning the car with the latest evolutions carried out from Monza, Carlos Sainz attacked from 5th place. After being blocked by Russell in turn 1, in 5th place he began to attack Charles with less speed. His Monegasque teammate didn’t make it easy for him, benefiting from the DRS offered to him by Russell. And Sainz didn’t give up. Carlos did not stop attacking. “We have to try to follow the others, if possible,” said Leclerc. on the radio to stop Carlos from attacking him. But the Spaniard continued what he was doing.
He did this up to 5 times: He tried it once in every turn in the first four laps. He put the car inside and Leclerc got out faster to make up the position. But he continued. And the fifth time was the charm, with his second attack on Charles on lap 4. He passed Charles on the inside, who had to leave the track. He returned parallel to Carlos, who on the outside did not lift his foot to pass Leclerc.
“Let’s get them guys. Let’s go.”said a shouted Carlos, very confident. He was in range of Russell and passed him. The next station seems more complicated: Norris. But he shaved more than 2 seconds off him with a blistering pace to pass him in the final turn.
Carlos said before this Grand Prix that he will give everything to add more podiums and a victory with Ferrari in his last 6 races wearing red. It started with a good podium in the sprint race and some messages of strength sent out on the track.
Leclerc was 4th, unable to overtake Norris on that final lap, with Russell in 5th position after melting down by running out front rubber. Hamilton was 6th ahead of Magnussen (7th) and Hülkenberg (8th), who added the last available points. Pérez was 9th and Piastri completed the Top-10 with a 5 second penalty.
Alonso, sprint to forget
Fernando Alonso started 14th and was deemed to have lost the points at stake in this round. His priority is to continue learning from the new package of pieces presented in Austin and prepare for the classification tonight (00:00h/DAZN). But the sprint race was not good. The Spaniard did not have a good start and dropped to 16th place. Lawson then closed on him in the middle of the straight and his battle with the debutant cost him a place with Ocon. Finally, Alonso finished 18th. Nothing is at stake and will be in the classification, although it seems, with worse weapons than his rivals and the settings of his car have not been maximized.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
