Max VerstappenRed Bull

US GP: Max wins the strategy game

Max wins the game of strategy at US GP in 2021. Lewis put in all he could but still remained P2. Checo did his job to come P3

Red Bull got the strategy right for Max Verstappen at US GP

With Lewis and Max being on the front row of the grid, it was bound to be a spectacular start to the race. Lewis got a better start and Max tried hard to cover him, almost pushing him outside but still Lewis got ahead at turn 1, leading the race. Max managed to stay in the DRS zone of Lewis but couldn’t overtake him. So Red Bull decided to go for a very aggressive strategy and pitted Max very early to undercut Lewis. The strategy worked, Max came out ahead but then he had to nurse his tires for a longer period.

Red Bull had another ace up their sleeve. Thanks to Checo being so close to the race leaders, his pit stop forced Mercedes to take action and Lewis had to pit soon too, rather than going long in the first stint.

Mercedes couldn’t catch up to Max

In the second stint Lewis was around 6 seconds behind Max but was unable to close the gap. Red Bull pulled of another early pit-stop for Max and go for a second undercut. But this was much closer as Lewis decided to go long on his Hard tire before pitting for the second time. Lewis had 17 second gap to cover up and overtake Max on fresher tires and had around 18 laps to do the same. Max took some time to overtake the backmarkers and Lewis was able to catch up with Max soon. We were in for a showdown in the last 3 laps of the race. However Lewis’ pace was not sufficient to stay close to Max. He had to settle for P2 eventually with a 12 points gap between them.

Checo doing his job well

The other Red Bull driver Sergio Perez was able to stay close to the race leaders but eventually lost pace. He did not have his drink connected and was severely dehydrated in the second half of the race. Still he did his job of keeping pressure on Lewis in the first half and scored a podium and valuable points for the team. He will be chuffed up and looking forward to his home race in Mexico.

Great duel between Ferrari and McLaren

The Mid-field is lit up, as always. There was a great tussle between Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo with Lando joining in the fray soon. At one point Carlos and Daniel touched each other but went away unharmed. Daniel had a great time in US and would be very happy with the P5 finish. Carlos fought hard but couldn’t move beyond P6 finish.

Charles had a lonely boring but a very good race. He finished P4 and would be very happy to gain some valuable points for himself and Ferrari. Lando would be a bit disappointed with the P8 finish.

A US race to forget for Bottas

Bottas has won the US GP before but this wasn’t the case this time. Starting P9 due to the engine penalty, he was in dirty air for most of the race and couldn’t move up the places quickly, despite having the Mercedes pace. He managed to finish P6.

Tsunodo and Vettel finished P9 and P10, getting some valuable points. We also saw a lot of lively battles between Kimi, Alonso, Giovinazzi and Ocon. But both Alpine cars had to retire due to technical failures and both the Alpha Romeo missed out on getting points.


US GP Race Classification: Max, Lewis and Perez on the podium

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *