Verstappen holds off Hamilton’s late charge to take 50th win in F1 US GP

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen secured victory at the Circuit of the Americas, for the United States Grand Prix, to hold off Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton’s late charge despite brake problems.

The United States Grand Prix weekend was a mixed bag for the reigning, newly-recrowned world champion, Verstappen. 

The three-time world champion made a rare error in qualifying, exceeding track limits, on Friday which saw his provisional pole lap deleted and allowed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to take pole position. 

In turn, Verstappen started the race in sixth place sandwiched between the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine of Pierre Gasly who started fifth and seventh respectively. 

Despite this, the three-time world champion managed to find his way up to fifth by the opening corner. It wasn’t long before the world champion found his way to the front of the field. From there he somewhat cruised to victory hindered by brake problems. 

Speaking after the race in the parc ferme interviews, where he secured his 50th career win, Verstappen said: 

“I think the whole race I was struggling with the brakes, which definitely made my race a bit tougher. You could see, it was really close at the end.”

Midway through the race, Verstappen was not pleased by the brakes installed on his dominant RB19. This frustration escalated as he barked at his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, not to talk to him ‘in the braking.’

In the latter stages, Verstappen swapped over to the hard tyres from the medium compounds while Hamilton completed the reverse on his final stop, and the seven-time world champion was on a charge.

Hamilton dispatched Leclerc and McLaren’s Lando Norris for third and second quickly and set his targets on Verstappen out in front. 

The gap between the Verstappen and Hamilton stood at just under five seconds with a handful of laps to go, victory looked all but assured for the Dutchman. 

However, the brake problems quickly hindered Verstappen’s pace and by the chequered flag just over a second separated the winning Dutch driver from Hamilton. Norris rounded out the podium to secure his fourth consecutive podium appearance. 

Verstappen’s victory now means that the Red Bull driver has equalled his previous best, and the all-time F1 record, for most race wins in a season with 15 this year. 

Four more races remain on the calendar to bolster this impressive statistic.

That’s all for the article: Verstappen holds off Hamilton’s late charge to take 50th win in F1 US GP!

Read more Formula 1 here:

• US GP: Verstappen secures Sprint Race win with ease with 8s over Hamilton
• US GP: Verstappen pole redemption as top three separated by 0.069s
• US GP: Leclerc gains F1 pole after Verstappen exceeds track limits
• Haas F1 sports new one-off livery for US Grand Prix
• Pirelli to continue as F1 sole tyre provider until 2027
• Hamilton takes responsibility for Turn 1 incident with Russell in Qatar GP

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.