In a season of easy victories, career win No. 50 finally made Max Verstappen sweat. Even if it was just a little bit.
Verstappen had to work through the field after starting sixth instead of from pole position, then held off the charging Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton over the final laps in the Texas heat to win the United States Grand Prix on Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas. Hamilton’s best finish in five months was later wiped out when he and sixth-place finisher Charles Leclerc of Ferrari were disqualified more than three hours after the race for rules violations found with the skid blocks under their cars.
Verstappen’s record-tying 15th win of the season also made the Dutch driver just the fifth Formula One driver in history to reach 50 in a career. Hamilton has the most with 103.
Verstappen has four races left this season to leap over Alain Post (51) and Sebastian Vettel (53) for third. Michael Schumacher has 91.
“It’s a great number,” Verstappen said of 50. “Let’s try to win more.” The three-time F1 champion had to work much harder than usual in a season of almost complete domination. But the power of his Red Bull and the right pit stop strategy calls by his team navigated Verstappen to the finish line 2.2 seconds ahead of Hamilton. Hamilton’s Mercedes had been eating up chunks of time while chasing Verstappen over the final laps.
