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

“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.

And he did it in style, recovering from a botched Red Bull pitstop to underline his 2022 pedigree, although with a touch of 2021 essence sprinkled in as it was Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes he defeated.

Heading into the race, Ferrari and Carlos Sainz had represented the opposition after the Spaniard’s clean, calm final Q3 flier had netted him pole when Verstappen and Charles Leclerc made late errors. But the Scuderia’s victory hopes evaporated instantly at the start.

With Leclerc starting 12th having taken yet more engine components past the permitted season allocation, Sainz was the sole red car at the front when the lights went out. He reacted fine, but post-launch wheelspin meant he did not shoot up Austin’s lap-opening hill, which left Verstappen pretty much unopposed running into the lead well before the braking zone for the famous left-hand hairpin.

The pair briefly drifted close together before jinking away ahead of turn-in, with Sainz then sweeping sharply left from the outside Turn 1 line to try and rescue the situation as Verstappen’s inside line meant he went wide lacking momentum.

But Sainz had no idea what was coming next: George Russell’s nose clattering his left-rear and spinning him to the rear of the pack.

“I didn’t get the best of starts,” said Sainz, who retired in the pits at the end of the first lap as the contact had ruptured a radiator and water was leaking. “I think Max got a really good one, because mine compared to Max wasn’t too bad. I was in the middle of a fight with Max, and suddenly came someone who wasn’t even in that fight and bumped into me…”

The incident, for which Russell was handed a five-second penalty that he served at his first stop to drop him out of contention thereafter, left Verstappen clear in the lead.

Verstappen blasts free into the lead after Sainz is spun around by Russell

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

He ended lap one of 56 with a 1.3-second lead over Hamilton, who had been running alongside Russell when his team-mate locked his left-front approaching the Turn 1 apex and slid clumsily into Sainz.

A noted Austin specialist, this felt like Hamilton’s big chance – one that had already been boosted by Sergio Perez dropping back to ninth on the grid from fourth in qualifying for also getting another new internal combustion engine component at this event.

But the Mercedes just couldn’t hang onto Verstappen in the early stages. Over the next 10 laps, he edged clear by 0.3s each time to build a lead of 4.4s. Here, Mercedes acted – pulling Hamilton in to switch from the medium tyres all the leaders had started on to take the hards.

“We were aggressive,” Hamilton said of his team’s strategy calls, the Silver Arrows well aware of the undercut’s power on a high-energy, high-degradation venue.

The Finn ended up beached in the gravel trap beyond the vast runoff. There was no crash, but his perilous position meant the safety car was called into action and Verstappen’s lead was instantly eroded

But the decision looked to have backfired when Hamilton emerged behind Perez, Lance Stroll, Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, and Verstappen’s hards service at the end of the following tour was swift enough to get him back out with 5.7s in between the fierce 2021 title rivals.

When Perez and Stroll pitted out of the way and Hamilton then cleared Vettel in Turn 1 on lap 16, Verstappen’s net lead stood at 6.3s, which turned out to be the maximum for the day. This was because, although Leclerc still ran between the leaders, just five laps into Verstappen’s second stint, the race complexion was altered.

This was thanks to Valtteri Bottas losing the rear of his Alfa Romeo, caught out in a gust of wind at the penultimate corner while pushing too hard on mediums while running 13th and chasing Pierre Gasly closely.

The Finn ended up beached in the gravel trap beyond the vast runoff. There was no crash, but his perilous position meant the safety car was called into action and Verstappen’s lead was instantly eroded.

Bottas spins out of the US GP after pushing too hard for his first points finish since the Canadian GP in June

Photo by: Mark Sutton

Leclerc, who’d had to stamp on the brakes at the race’s first corner to avoid the pack chaos unleashed by his spinning team-mate, had been battling up the order (including a stunning lap one, Turn 5 double pass on Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso). He now pitted under the safety car.

He gained 10s in the process, which meant he ran fourth behind Perez – in the wars on lap one with Bottas and thereafter seeing off Norris and the Astons – after rejoining.

The race neutralisation lasted three laps, with Verstappen then acing the lap 22 restart to pull clear of Hamilton’s DRS threat again. But the green flag racing didn’t last 12 corners because the race’s third major drama occurred.

This was ultimately the biggest and may have implications for 2023 given the drivers involved: Alonso and his soon-to-be-Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll.

The latter had run as high as third by following Hamilton on the outside of Turn 1 on lap one, before he’d fallen back behind Perez and Leclerc and then lost ground to team-mate Vettel stopping just before the Bottas safety car. And that all left him running just ahead of Alonso – another safety car stop gainer.

As Alonso chased Stroll onto the long back straight on the restart lap, he got a great run and was soon reaching the Canadian’s rear. Alonso left it until he was almost upon Stroll before jinking left to slipstream by. But Stroll moving likewise a split-second later caused Alonso to crash skywards over the Aston’s left-rear.

Stroll was sent spinning out of control and the race, while Alonso bounced heavily back down and glanced the barriers on the track’s inside. The Alpine suffered remarkably little damage beyond a broken front wing and ruined medium tyres, with Alonso able to charge back to finish seventh on the road following quick pitlane repairs.

At the time of writing, he ended up 15th in the post-race penalty slew after his right-side mirror falling off late-on was deemed “unsafe” by the FIA officials and stewards following a righteous protest by the Haas squad (more on that later).

That was all to come, but the wreckage and debris from his crash with Stroll – who will take a three-place grid penalty at this weekend’s race in Mexico after being found at fault for the incident – had to be cleared. This was done over three more laps behind the safety car, with the race restarting for a second time on lap 26.

Alonso and Stroll clash became the third and biggest flashpoint of the race

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Aston Martin

Again, Verstappen nailed the restart, but over the following phase of the race he couldn’t shake Hamilton as he had in the first stint. The gap between them did reach the two-second mark on lap 31, but after that Hamilton surged back towards the leader.

Verstappen was finding things “a bit tricky with the wind” and also losing time with an engine “driveability” issue.

“It was just a rotary change, which then influenced the throttle pickup a bit,” Verstappen explained of the temporary problem, exacerbated by the bumpy Austin track not helping him keep things stable when hitting the gas pedal. “It can happen, so we just went back to the other setting and it was a bit better.”

Yet the gap was heading towards DRS range, and here again Mercedes made a bold strategy call – pulling Hamilton in for a second time at the end of lap 34. Red Bull again moved to cover this aggression by pitting Verstappen the next time by, but here his race took on a new hue altogether.

Not only was Verstappen’s left-front hard slow in coming off, but when the Red Bull mechanic at that corner went to tighten up the nut on his corresponding new medium it wouldn’t do so. Verstappen was left stationary for an F1 service age – 11.1s as a second wheelgun was sought and the nut finally refitted.

“That was a gun failure and these things unfortunately can happen,” said Verstappen, who had initially let off “a lot of swear words” feeling “very upset” as he traversed the pit exit back on the mediums.

Leclerc had been committed to an audacious strategy to overcome his grid drop had the first safety car period not happened, which was perhaps a one-stopper suggested in his “Consider Plan E” early radio call

His fury was compounded by following Leclerc out of the pits – the Ferrari having stopped at the same time but from much further back.

The previous 7.1s gap to Verstappen had built up following the second restart because of the seven laps Leclerc had spent chasing Perez and his two attacks required to get ahead of the Mexican driver.

Leclerc’s initial attempt to pass at Turn 12 at the end of the back straight on lap 29 had ended in failure when he ran deep and went into the runoff, with Perez locking up on the inside. But the next time by he dived from further back to seize the apex advantage with the pass of the race – just squeezing his Ferrari into a tiny window of remaining space.

Leclerc chased on after Verstappen and Hamilton but was falling further away by the time he came in for his second stop. It is understood Leclerc had been committed to trying an audacious strategy to overcome his grid drop had the first safety car period not happened, which was perhaps a one-stopper suggested in his “Consider Plan E” early radio call.

Leclerc's charge back from a grid penalty put him into play for the podium places

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Not that that mattered now, as the circumstances had come to Leclerc and Hamilton – the Briton easily moving into the lead thanks to Verstappen’s delay, just when it looked like his second undercut attempt might pay off anyway.

With just over a third of the race still to go at the end of Leclerc and Verstappen completing their final out-laps and the stage was set tantalisingly.

Once again, the 2021 title protagonists were set to duel on-track, with Hamilton enjoying a 4.6s net lead but in the season’s clear third-best package. Perez and Vettel were still yet to pit for a second time, with the latter also later losing out to a slow left-front switch at Aston after he’d led for two laps.

For three tours, Verstappen chased Leclerc – finally mounting a move on the inside of Turn 1 on lap 39.

But he went in too hot and the Ferrari was able to cut back and shoot ahead again. Not that Leclerc’s defence last much longer, as Verstappen then swept by with DRS down the back straight – his speed trap best 4.7mph faster than his red rival’s (and 5.7mph up on Hamilton’s top speed there too).

Verstappen now faced a 4.6s deficit to Hamilton, which was 2.5s six laps later.

“It felt like they couldn’t really eke out enough [pace], and I felt that [the win was on],” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said of this moment. Hamilton felt likewise: “For a second, I thought maybe we might just be able to hold on to it…”

But this is Verstappen and Red Bull in 2022. The problem had been that he’d let his mediums “just run really hot” in his efforts to get by Leclerc.

“They were also new, so they still needed to come up to temperature,” Verstappen said, meaning he’d stressed the mediums when they needed to be brought in gently as he had done so well in the first stint.

“Then being behind the car in high-speed corners, you have to turn always a bit more, which is not great for the tyre…”

But once he was in clear air in the gap to Hamilton, Verstappen was able to give his rubber a breather. This created the impression he might come up short and Mercedes could clinch its first win in nearly a whole year, but in fact this was one of two factors in his eventual victory given it meant he could recover his tyre management plan and home back in on Hamilton.

The other was actually totally out of Verstappen’s control and centred on a pre-race Mercedes call.

Hamilton was unable to match the superior pace of Verstappen in the key final stage of the race

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar

This was to use all but one set of new mediums in practice, leaving it with no other option for Hamilton but to go for the white-walled C2 compound again for the final stint. It just wasn’t fast enough and Verstappen’s mediums “just lasted long enough to the end”.

Red Bull had put him on those at this long second service based on his early stint two feedback and clear struggles on the hards.

“We were probably more competitive on the medium than we were on the hard,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. Meanwhile, Mercedes “simply didn’t have any mediums any more”, per Wolff.

“[Lewis was] still holding on to a potential win, it felt feasible at that stage,” he added. “But once Max was past Charles and he couldn’t fight back, I think it was just waiting for [defeat] to happen.”

Verstappen took a total of 10 laps to get within DRS range of the lead that had for so long been his. Once he was, at the end of lap 49, he pounced quickly.

The world champion dived to the inside of Turn 12 from a long way back on the 50th tour – with Hamilton initially swinging across before turning right and out of likely contact. He believed he could power back by Verstappen with a better exit, which worked, but only enough to get his nose fractionally ahead.

"I think Dietrich would have quite enjoyed that race from above – to see us overtaking Mercedes with five or six laps to go and win the constructors’ world championship" Christian Horner

With Verstappen on the inside for Turn 13, Hamilton had to cede the place, which Verstappen sealed cannily by sitting on the two apexes of the quickly arriving Turn 15 and holding Hamilton up and at bay.

“The track really lets you do that because it's quite wide,” Verstappen said of his tactics in the post-race press conference. “These kind of corners, you can really brake deep into the corner, and then the other car can come back at you in the exit – especially from 12 to 15.

“One car can go really tight and defend, the other one can really open it up. I think it was good racing.”

“His pace, obviously, at the back end of the stint was then strong enough to really take it to Lewis, who looked like he was sliding the car, pushing very hard,” added Horner.

“So, it was a game of patience. Max was able to quickly get his frustration under control leaving the pitlane and not cook the tyres but bring them in, make the pass on Charles and then hunt down Lewis. And the one opportunity he had was decisive and he got the job done.”

Once back in the lead, Verstappen was again untouchable in his victory charge

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar

There was a final, slightly unedifying coda to come, which was both leaders earning track limits transgression black-and-white flag warnings from the FIA. But neither picked up a penalty once they’d reached that threshold and when Hamilton finally lost DRS on lap 53 the game was up.

Verstappen pulled clear and eventually won by 5.0s. Leclerc completed the podium only 0.8s clear of Perez at the flag, explaining Ferrari had “suffered a little bit too much tyre degradation to fight for higher [places]” yet again this year.

Perez had also been flying late on – benefiting from Red Bull altering his front wing flaps to make things easier with his right-side front wing endplate missing, eventually, after the early contact with Bottas.

Haas, which had of course been ordered three times to pit Kevin Magnussen for repairs when he had endplate damage in Canada, Hungary and Singapore, protested Perez’s result – so incensed was it at the apparent lack of consistency.

But the stewards were satisfied that there was no case to answer in this case (Alonso losing his right-side mirror and carrying on was judged unsafe and penalty worth, which Alpine now disputes) as FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer had declared Perez’s “car was not in an unsafe condition”. This was based on pictures Red Bull had sent him mid-race.

But even if Perez had somehow lost the 12 points he’d scored for fourth, it would not have stopped Red Bull sealing an emotional constructors’ championship.

It ultimately did so in very Mateschitz style – team members wearing light blue jeans instead of their usual deep blue trousers in homage to his regular look at GP events, eschewing black armbands and sombre moods for wild celebrations.

“I think Dietrich would have quite enjoyed that race from above – to see us overtaking Mercedes with five or six laps to go and win the constructors’ world championship,” concluded Horner. “I think he would have been very proud about that race.”

Verstappen's win was a fitting tribute to Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images