F1: Red Bull Win First Constructor’s Title In 9 Years As Verstappen Prevails At COTA

New Delhi

Verstappen came back to win after a botched pitstop meant he found himself behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

Key Highlights

Verstappen became the first driver since Alan Jones to win two races in a year in the US
Verstappen had won the US GP last year as well
Apple's CEO Tim Cook waved the chequered flag for the race

On the weekend, Red Bull revealed that its founder Dietrich Mateschitz had passed away at the age of 78, the Austrian stable had come with the mission of dominating the Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas. On the back of Max Verstappen wrapping up his second world driver’s title in Japan, Verstappen largely dominated the race after overtaking Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr at the start, save for a few hiccups on the pit stop. Sainz, unfortunately, didn’t survive the first lap as the Mercedes of George Russell took him out. This handed the advantage to Lewis Hamilton as Russell was given a penalty which meant he finished behind the Red Bull of Sergio Perez.

Perez who had taken a penalty made good early progress in managing P4 eventually in the race. He was outshined by Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari who had started at P12 after taking an engine change penalty. Leclerc managed P3 at the end of the race and at one point was ahead of Verstappen thanks to some fortune with safety car timing and Red Bull botching up the pitstop. This also meant that Lewis Hamilton was in the running for a race win, till he was overtaken by the dutchman five laps before the end of the race.

Lando Norris managed an impressive P6 for McLaren with him getting ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Alpine in the dying moments of the race. Alonso himself did brilliantly to manage P7 despite a high-speed crash with Lance Stroll which triggered the second safety car of the race. But the driver of the day was Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin who finished P8. The 4-time world champion who is retiring from the sport at the end of the season led the race for a while and was on track to finish in P6 but for a botched pitstop which dropped him to P13. He still managed to fight back and take P8 overtaking the Haas of Kevin Magnussen in the last lap of the race.

Yuki Tsunoda also did well for AlphaTauri which was the other team owned by Dietrich Mateschitz. He managed P10 and finished ahead of Pierre Gasly who managed P14. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon managed P11. Alex Albon finished in P12 for Williams while his teammate Nicholas Latifi finished in P17. Guanyu Zhou was the only Alfa Romeo to finish the race in P12 as Valtteri Bottas retired and triggered the first safety car. Mick Schumacher again couldn’t deliver the goods and finished P15 for the Haas. Daniel Ricciardo continued his misery for McLaren with his P16 finish.

This race win also means that Verstappen has equalled Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel’s record of most race wins in a single season with thirteen. He still has three races in hand to get the record for the most race wins in an F1 season, though the 2022 F1 season is also the longest one in history. Vettel ironically equalled Schumacher's record in 2013 which was the last time Red Bull had won the constructor's title.