1 Max vs Lewis all over again
Lewis Hamilton fell just over six laps short of extending his incredible streak of winning at least one race in each of his 15 seasons in F1. Instead, Max Verstappen achieved a new milestone – after passing the Mercedes driver on lap 50 of 56 in Austin, Max won his 13th grand prix of the season. Only Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel have managed to do so before.
It wasn’t the easiest weekend for the lead Red Bull driver. Max lost out to both Ferrari drivers in qualifying, but still earned the right to start from the front row thanks to Charles Leclerc’s penalty for PU-element changes. After overtaking Carlos Sainz on the way up to the first corner right at the start of the race, Max was initially able to forget Ferrari was even involved in the grand prix – Sainz spun after contact with George Russell. But the main challenges were still in store.
After the first third of the race it seemed to be following a familiar pattern in which Max pulled away from his rivals and went on to win comfortably. Hamilton, thanks to the aid of his team-mate in taking out Sainz, was second, but couldn’t keep up with Verstappen. By lap 11 the gap to the two-time world champion amounted to
