Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has become the first driver to win seven grands prix in the United States by claiming his fourth win at COTA: one day after claiming the sprint race win. As a result, he is now just 40 points off the championship lead with five grands prix and two sprint races remaining this year.

Like most drivers, Verstappen adopted a medium-soft tyre strategy, which required optimal management on the bumpy asphalt that peaked at 47 degrees centigrade, with gusting winds complicating the task further. Easing the demand on the tyres slightly was an early Virtual Safety Car, which slowed the pace at a critical point with the cars full of fuel.

The key outlier in terms of strategy was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc: the only driver in the top 15 to start on the soft tyre. He used the extra grip to brilliant effect, challenging for the lead from third on the grid – with the soft tyres estimated to gain nearly an extra two metres in the sprint from 0-150kph at the start. To put that in context, there are four metres between each grid slot: so Leclerc’s choice of starting tyre gained him the equivalent of nearly half a grid position.

Leclerc was consequently the first of the frontrunners to pit, going from soft to medium on lap 23. He made good use of the yellow tyre to hold second place, before being passed in the closing stages for the runner-up spot after a race-long battle with McLaren’s Lando Norris (who was on the faster soft for his second stint).

Verstappen’s advantage was such that he was able to make his single stop from medium to soft tyres on lap 33, slightly later than his other rivals, without losing the lead.

All three compounds were seen on the starting grid, with three drivers at the back of the grid selecting the hard tyre. Only two drivers stopped twice: Williams driver Alex Albon and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, with everyone else stopping only once.

In a momentous week for American motorsport, it was announced before the start of the race that COTA would remain on the calendar until at least 2034.

MARIO ISOLA - MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR
“Today the teams decided to keep their options open at the start, using mainly the medium tyre on the grid, which is the most flexible starting point for a number of different strategies. Leclerc stood out among the top 10, being the only driver to opt for the soft, which gave him an initial grip advantage that paid off.

The early VSC period allowed a few extra laps on both the soft and the medium, with the medium compound in particular showing consistency that was perhaps greater than anticipated. A positive influence on that was the asphalt temperature, which was lower than yesterday, and track evolution. These combined factors allowed the first stint to be stretched for as long as possible.

As a result, the medium-hard strategies that were initially envisaged inevitably turned into a theoretically more audacious strategy once the halfway point of the race had been reached. A succession of pit stops round about lap 30 saw the red tyre used for the final stint on nearly all the cars.

With the rear tyres not reaching maximum wear, the drivers were able to maintain a competitive pace without having to manage them, also thanks to the setups selected by the teams. Congratulations to Max Verstappen, who continues to fight for the title, and to Charles Leclerc for choosing a different strategy to get onto the podium."