The pre-race call that hurt Hamilton's chance to stop Verstappen's US GP charge

Max Verstappen’s recovery from a bodged pitstop to win the United States Grand Prix demonstrated Red Bull’s dominance in 2022, but in truth key pre-race decisions helped swing the advantage back to the newly-crowned Formula 1 world constructors’ champions after its pitlane blunder. Regardless, the Dutch driver’s performance was a fitting tribute to Dietrich Mateschitz whose death during the Austin race weekend rocked the paddock

Alex Kalinauckas Oct 24, 2022, 11:02 AM

Upd: Oct 25, 2022, 8:13 AM

“Extremely happy to win on this difficult weekend for us. I think this was actually a race he would have loved to see.”

A day on from the death of Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz leaving Max Verstappen visibly shocked and upset at the sad news post-qualifying, the Dutchman was able to dedicate victory in the 2022 United States Grand Prix to his long-time benefactor.

Share Or Save This Story

Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.