A gripping US Grand Prix saw Verstappen pip Hamilton to double his advantage at the top of the standings.
Prior to the race, Verstappen's 2nd place finish in Turkey left him 6 points above Englishman Hamilton in the drivers championship, with Hamilton falling to a 5th place finish. In qualifying, it was the Red Bull of Verstappen who qualified on pole edging out the Mercedes of Hamilton by 0.2 seconds with teammate Perez qualifying 3rd fastest.
And it was a thrilling start to the race in Austin as Hamilton immediately got the better of Verstappen and took the lead. A dream start for the 7 time F1 champion but a nightmare start at the back of the grid for Canadians Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Nicholas Latifi (Williams) who found themselves unable to avoid collision at turn 1. With Verstappen unable to regain control, the Red Bull team elected to pit Verstappen early for the undercut changing from the medium tyres to the hard tyres. It took Hamilton three laps to reply as he made the same switch and as a result found himself, once again behind title rival Verstappen. Further down in the grid, Bottas began his surge up the grid as he overtook Tsunoda to snatch 8th place, as did Vettel's fightback from 18th place as he overtook Russel to enter 13th place.
Just after the halfway stage, Verstappen pitted for his second time with the Mercedes of Hamilton staying out 8 more laps than the Dutchman. Could the Dutchman's early pitstop prove costly? Coming through under the radar, was once again Sebastien Vettel as he concluded his surge into the points finding himself in tenth thanks to veteran Raikkonen's spin. Meanwhile, it was getting ever-closer at the top of the standings but it was Verstappen who managed to just about hold onto the win in a nail-biting affair. Then came Hamilton, followed by Verstappen's teammate Perez, then came Leclerc, Ricciardo; Hamilton's teammate Bottas continued his rise into 6th, in front of Sainz, Norris, Tsunoda and Vettel who rounded of the points scorers of the US Grand Prix.
A disappointing afternoon for Mercedes who just lost out to the Red Bull Honda in the final stages of the race. Elation on the other hand for Verstappen who extends his lead at the top of the championship to 12 points. Meanwhile, an interesting affair in the constructers championship with just 3.5 points separating McLaren and Ferrari with both teams picking up decent points in the race. For Hamilton and Mercedes, all focus on correcting their mistakes before the Mexican Grand Prix in two weeks time.
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