With the 18th victory of his career, Max Verstappen left Austin with a 12-point advantage over rival Lewis Hamilton with 5 races ahead. That’s one of the many notable statistics from this year’s return to the COTA racetrack.
* Class run: Mercedes “failed” for the first time in Austin
Mercedes and Red Bull show equal strength, but in the end, Max Verstappen is the best person to win the 9th pole in 2021. This is the first time that Max has ranked first in the starting line in Austin, also the first time. First time for the Red Bull racing team since 2013.
200th Podium in History for Red Bull
Verstappen has won 5 times in the last 7 poles against Austin and collided with Lewis Hamilton in the remaining 2 stages (at Silverstone and Monza).
This achievement indirectly made Mercedes not win pole at COTA racetrack for the first time in the turbo hybrid era. Second place for Hamilton means that the 7th stage this season, the two championship candidates are in the 1st starting row. Sergio Perez is 3rd, the 3rd time in the top 3 on Saturday this year, is also the second place. First time in the top 4 in the US.
Valtteri Bottas ranked 4th but will start the race in 9th place due to a new engine change, the 3rd penalty in the last 4 races. Charles Leclerc is the driver who inherited the 4th place, the 2nd race in a row to start the top 4. Carlos Sainz helped Ferrari to have 2 cars in the top 5 for the first time after 11 stages, since the Azerbaijan GP.
Meanwhile at McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo maintained his performance in Q3 in all races here since 2012. Lando Norris finished 7th, the same as in Turkey and also the result of the last 2 races of the McLaren. British young driver.
Ferrari shortens the gap with McLaren in the racing team rankings
Pierre Gasly had the best ranking result in Austin (8th), while teammate Yuki Tsunoda entered the top 10 for the second straight race, the fifth time this season. At Aston Martin, Lance Stroll eliminated from Q1 for the third time in the four races he has been to COTA. “Snowman” Kimi Raikkonen has not been able to make it to Q2 since Hungary in July this year.
* Main Race: 200th Podium for “Goat Bull”
Verstappen and Hamilton finished 1-2 in 24 races in F1 history, of which the Dutch driver ranked above 7 times, 5 of which took place in the 2021 season. All US GP races in Austin Each has a first-row winner. Before this race, Verstappen had never won in the US, and Red Bull had “empty hands” here since 2013.
With this achievement, Max created a difference of 12 points, the biggest advantage in 8 races. In addition, a Honda-powered car has its first win in the US since 1991, when Ayrton Senna won with McLaren in Phoenix. Verstappen has only taken the lead in two previous Austin races.
Hamilton has never won a title when he did not lead the individual rankings entering the race in Austin. The British driver led 11 laps at US GP 2021, more than the number of leading laps in the last 9 races combined. He has yet to win at COTA since 2017.
Along with Max, Perez stood on the podium with 3rd place, helping Red Bull get the 200th podium as a racing team. This is the first time Red Bull has had both drivers on the podium in consecutive races since Malaysia/Japan 2017 with Verstappen and Ricciardo then. The 3rd place achievement helped Perez overcome Norris to rank 4th on the individual rankings.
Mercedes failed on its “sanctuary”
Charles Leclerc has the 6th stage, ranked 4th, and has only 1 podium for the whole of 2021. Thanks to that, he has again surpassed teammate Carlos Sainz in terms of points.
Ricciardo is in the top 5 for the 3rd time in the last 4 races, the best US GP performance in 5 years. This is the 33rd stage in a row that the Australian driver has completed an F1 race, the longest chain among current drivers.
Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes finished 6th, still only having 1 top 4 at COTA, with a win in 2019. Sainz continued to score in the 6th stage of the race in Austin with 7th place.
Yuki Tsunoda got her first score since the summer break with 9th, and Sebastian Vettel ended a four-race streak of no points in a row. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) finished 11th for the second consecutive race, he only had 1 point this year. Both Alpine cars dropped out at this stage, the French team’s first dual DNF since Germany 2019.
Source: https://tcdulichtphcm.vn/the-thao/dua-xe-f1-thong-ke-us-gp-chien-thang-dau-tien-tai-34mien-dat-h…
(Sports news, F1 racing news) Max Verstappen won a spectacular victory over rival Lewis Hamilton, ending his dominance…
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