Published By: Siddarth Sriram
Last Updated: October 22, 2023, 12:29 IST
United States of America (USA)
Max Verstappen will likely be searching a “fun” fiftieth profession victory from sixth on the grid in Sunday’s United States Grand Prix after cruising to victory for Red Bull in Saturday’s dash race.
The newly topped three-time world champion led from pole place to the chequered flag to complete 9.465 seconds away from revitalized seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes. Charles Leclerc got here dwelling third for Ferrari, 17.997 adrift.
READ: United States GP: Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc Takes Pole, Verstappen Stoops Down To Sixth
“The pace of the car was really good today,” mentioned the 26-yr-outdated Dutchman, who wrapped up his third consecutive drivers’ title with victory in Qatar earlier in October.
“But I’m going to need it tomorrow because starting P6 is going to be a bit more difficult and different from today.
“It makes it more interesting and hopefully we can have a bit of fun out there with quite a bit of passing… It won’t be easy because I need to pass five cars to win.”
Verstappen admitted he needed to survive an actual problem from Leclerc on the first nook the place the Monegasque driver tried to discover a method via on the within after which when Hamilton sought to keep up shut contact within the opening laps.
“It was quite tight, but luckily there was a lot of space going into turn one so that definitely helped, but after that we could settle and do our own race and control the pace a bit.
“It was always around eight- or nine-tenths (to Hamilton) for a few laps, but that was controllable and once I had cleared the Drag Reduction System (DRS) zone, we settled into a rhythm.”
Verstappen would possibly face a problem from not solely Hamilton and Mercedes, who confirmed a lot improved type with their main replace bundle, but additionally Ferrari and McLaren in a race the place tyre degradation and technique are sure to be key elements.
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Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate, Carlos Sainz, was the one driver to decide on delicate tyres, a call that ensured the staff gathered beneficial information forward of Sunday’s Grand Prix, wherein Leclerc begins from pole with Verstappen sixth after he had a lap deleted in Friday’s dash shootout for exceeding observe limits.
“We need to work to try and understand everything better to be a step ahead tomorrow,” mentioned Leclerc. “We have quite a lot of data to analyze after having the two cars on two different strategies.
“I think this will be quite a bit of a help for us because we know how the soft tyre is behaving for tomorrow so I hope we can take advantage of that and hopefully we can win tomorrow.”
Ferrari inflicted Red Bull’s solely defeat of the season when Sainz received the Singapore Grand Prix and they’re going to bid to repeat that feat, however will face fierce competitors from Mercedes and McLaren.
Lando Norris completed an in depth fourth for McLaren behind Leclerc and was optimistic of a powerful race Sunday in his one centesimal Grand Prix begin.
“We have the speed in the car,” he mentioned. “And I’m happy that we can be right in this race.”
Hamilton mentioned his dash effort will assist for Sunday.
“We will try to keep Max behind,” Hamilton mentioned. “But ultimately I think he will be breathing down our necks before too long, with the pace that he had today.”
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – AFP)
