F1 | Red Bull, Verstappen wins the fiftieth race of his career

He is the first to win the United States Grand Prix not starting from the front row, and with this he achieved his fiftieth victory in formula 1, at just twenty-six years old. Another race, another record rain for Max Verstappen, yet this triumph does not have the same flavor as the others. Max's comeback is slow and calculated, but his opponents in particular help him Hamilton e Leclerc. At the first stop, in fact, the Red Bull he betrays himself by overtaking the average again and revealing to his opponents that he still wants to opt for a two-stop strategy. More than a mistake, this is precisely what helps the Austrian team: yes Mercedes is Ferrari they try to lengthen their drivers' stints so they can only make one stop, mostly resulting in disasters, Leclerc in particular. With the Monegasque out of contention for the podium, what remains in the Dutchman's way are his old enemy Hamilton and the new threat of Lando Norris. Despite the brake problems – Max is absolutely clear in shouting this out to his race engineer Lambias – Verstappen manages to come through and win this race too. The taste of victory, however, is bittersweet: the dominance that we saw until a few days ago now seems to be in question, with the opponents gradually getting closer.

“It's incredible to win my fiftieth race here in Austin. I'm very proud, obviously, but it's not enough for me, I want more. It was interesting to start from sixth position, we needed a lot of patience today, in fact, it was necessary. The pace wasn't what I expected, but I had problems with the brakes, yesterday we replaced them, and this made my life very difficult, I couldn't find the feeling when braking and I lost time on the lap – revealed the three times world champion – I wasn't able to find the same feeling I had in the Sprint, which is why the race was harder than expected, because I was wearing out the tires and the lead was getting shorter. In the end we were all very close, and I could only hope for the strategy: the team did a great job."