Disqualification Rocks Verstappen’s Third Straight Win Over Hamilton

In the vast expanse of the Lone Star State, few cultural pillars stand as tall and revered as American Football. From the electrifying spectacle of two NFL franchises – the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys – to the ritualistic fervor surrounding high school games broadcast live on Friday nights, the gridiron’s dominance in Texas is undeniable, making it a fitting backdrop for a sport that shares surprising strategic parallels: Formula 1.

Formula 1, much like American Football, is a high-stakes game of chess played at exhilarating speeds. Both demand an intricate blend of physical prowess, strategic foresight, and unwavering mental fortitude. Teams immerse themselves in endless data analytics, meticulously crafting strategies that span entire races or games. Yet, even the most carefully laid plans can unravel in a split second, forcing radical, pressure-cooker decisions. And just as a stronger, faster opponent can triumph through sheer brute force despite tactical brilliance, the 2023 United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas saw Red Bull and Max Verstappen overcome early setbacks to demonstrate their formidable strength.

The stage was set two days prior to Sunday’s Grand Prix with a tantalizing qualifying session. Newly crowned world champion Max Verstappen had seemingly secured pole position, only for a minor infringement – running slightly wide at the exit of Turn 19 – to cost him the coveted spot. Though the FIA later repainted the white lines at that corner, making the incident irrelevant for subsequent sessions, Verstappen would start sixth. Charles Leclerc, in his Ferrari, inherited pole position, a golden opportunity to lead the charge up the iconic hill to Turn 1.

Leclerc had previously battled Verstappen intensely in Saturday’s sprint race, attempting an audacious move down the inside into the first corner from second on the grid, only to be robustly rebuffed. Now, with the advantage of pole position and a Ferrari meticulously set up for Austin’s multiple high-speed straights, Leclerc was perfectly poised. His primary challenge was to fend off Lando Norris, starting from second, into Turn 1. The grid itself was unusual; only 16 cars lined up for the formation lap, all on medium compound tyres, while the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, along with the Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg, opted for a pit lane start, adding another layer of strategic intrigue.

As the five red lights extinguished, Norris executed a sublime launch, mirroring his Silverstone heroics. He rocketed off the line, immediately drawing alongside Leclerc’s Ferrari. Without much momentum, Leclerc found himself unable to move left and squeeze the McLaren as Verstappen had done to him in the sprint. Behind them, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz Jnr engaged in their own fierce duel for second place, with Hamilton attempting a defensive block on the charging Ferrari. The opening moments promised an electrifying race.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Emerging from the tight left-hander of Turn 1, Lando Norris sensationally led the field. The two Ferraris followed, with Leclerc ahead of Sainz, who had successfully dispatched Hamilton. The Mercedes driver then squeezed out Verstappen at the exit, forcing the reigning champion to settle into fifth. George Russell, meanwhile, had a mediocre start, finding himself embroiled in battles with the Alpines and Oscar Piastri’s McLaren. Disaster struck early for two drivers as Piastri and Esteban Ocon made contact rounding Turn 2. Although it initially appeared to be a relatively innocuous side-by-side clash, the damage proved significant, forcing both drivers to retire within 10 laps, an untimely end to their Grand Prix aspirations.

Leclerc, having lost the lead, was then on the verge of losing second place to his teammate Sainz into Turn 12. Both Ferraris aimed for the apex, exercising caution to avoid a repeat of Mercedes’ unfortunate double-retirement in Qatar. At the end of the lap, Norris held a surprisingly healthy 1.7-second lead over the two Ferraris, with Hamilton in fourth and Verstappen in fifth, just ahead of the soon-to-retire Piastri and Ocon. With the top 18 drivers all running on medium tyres but potentially divergent strategies, the early stint mirrored Saturday’s sprint race, with the field spread relatively evenly. Mercedes had introduced a new floor to their W14 in Austin, and its effectiveness was already evident, with Hamilton having finished second to Verstappen in the sprint race, building confidence for the main event.

The seven-time world champion, enduring a winless streak stretching nearly two years, showcased formidable pace during the initial laps of the Grand Prix. On lap four, Hamilton strategically utilized the slipstream and DRS on Sainz, effortlessly driving around the Ferrari driver before braking for Turn 12, thus moving up to third position. Verstappen, not one to be left behind, soon followed suit, also dispatching the Ferrari. Hamilton then set his sights on Leclerc. Unlike his teammate, Leclerc offered a semblance of defense along the back straight, but it proved to be more of a token gesture. Hamilton swept past on the outside into second, both cars visibly bouncing over the circuit’s notorious bumps as they hit the anchors into Turn 12, their undercarriages scraping the uneven asphalt.

Now freed from the Ferraris, Hamilton focused on closing the 3.4-second gap to Norris. By the end of lap 10, the Mercedes driver had chipped away only half a second from the McLaren. Verstappen, however, was making far greater inroads into third-placed Leclerc’s lead. On lap 11, the Red Bull dove inside the Ferrari at Turn 12, demoting his rival to fourth. More positions lost for Leclerc, and more punishment for his car over the unrelenting bumps. As the leaders approached the anticipated pit window, Norris began reporting struggles with the balance of his McLaren. His race engineer, Will Joseph, suspected the issue wasn’t solely car-related. “Lando, the wind is inconsistent,” Joseph warned, “Might be what you’re feeling.” This added another layer of challenge to the already demanding Circuit of the Americas.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Hamilton continued to close, bringing the gap to Norris down to under two seconds, while Verstappen maintained a six-second deficit in third. Red Bull made the first strategic move, pitting Verstappen at the end of lap 16 and fitting a second set of medium compound tyres, signaling a clear two-stop strategy. Two laps later, Norris pitted from the lead, opting for hard tyres, which theoretically handed Verstappen a pace advantage for the second stint. Norris rejoined ahead of the world champion, with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine acting as a temporary buffer between them, adding another strategic element to the unfolding drama.

Mercedes, unwilling to be passive in their pursuit of victory, aimed to diverge from their closest rivals’ strategies. “Lewis, do you think you have another five laps on this tyre?” race engineer Peter Bonnington inquired. “Do you reckon you could handle it?” Hamilton, ever candid, confessed, “I’m not sure, man. It’s pretty tough.” He proved his own point by locking up into Turn 11 and running slightly wide, a costly error that allowed Verstappen to fall within his pit window. When Mercedes finally brought their leader in on lap 20 for hard tyres, Hamilton rejoined the track just in time to see Verstappen disappear over the crest of the hill ahead. Norris and Hamilton were now on hard tyres, potentially committing to a one-stop race, while Verstappen was locked into a two-stop on mediums. Norris was asked to consider ‘plan B’, voicing his approval before inheriting the lead back at the end of lap 23 from a pitting Leclerc, who had committed to changing tyres only once.

Norris had the lead, but crucially, he lacked Verstappen’s raw pace. A critical mistake at Turn 11 saw the McLaren driver miss the apex of the left-hander by more than a car’s width – a moment of vulnerability that was like blood in the water for Verstappen behind him. The Red Bull closed rapidly on the McLaren. Verstappen, a driver rarely known for his patience, understood that he could afford to bide his time, but his natural instinct for attack would soon take over.

Despite his usual aggression, Verstappen had indeed demonstrated a rare moment of patience. However, on lap 28, exiting Turn 11 and onto the long back straight, his six-tenths deficit to Norris was erased by an enormous 25kph top speed advantage over the McLaren. Verstappen seized the opportunity, lunging from what seemed an almost laughable distance to sweep into the lead for the first time in the race. Even after taking the lead, Verstappen didn’t immediately pull away from Norris. It wasn’t until lap 32 that the McLaren’s lap times began to rapidly degrade, the gap ballooning from one second to nearly four. Any hope of Norris making a one-stop strategy work vanished before McLaren’s eyes, prompting them to bring him in at the end of lap 34 for a second set of medium tyres, abandoning their initial plan.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Red Bull now had a clear path to victory for Verstappen. They reacted swiftly to McLaren’s stop, bringing their leader in at the end of the very next lap for hard tyres. Despite a slightly slow change on his left-rear wheel, resulting in a tardy 3.3-second pit stop, Verstappen still had ample time in hand, rejoining the circuit a comfortable second-and-a-half ahead of the former race leader, Norris. Meanwhile, Hamilton cycled through into the lead, with Leclerc in second. Ferrari’s ambitious one-stop strategy looked increasingly ill-advised with every passing lap, as their tyres faded. Just as Hamilton pitted at the end of lap 38 to take mediums for the final 18 laps, Verstappen effortlessly caught Leclerc, slipping by him on the run up the hill to Turn 1 and reclaiming the lead for good.

The Red Bull driver was now in the dominant position he likely would have expected had it not been for his Friday qualifying error. However, the race was far from over. Hamilton emerged from the pit lane just under eight seconds behind the race leader, setting up a thrilling chase. For Hamilton to win, he needed to first dispatch Leclerc, then Norris, and finally extract over four-tenths of a second per lap from Verstappen to catch and pass him before the checkered flag. A simple task on paper, but monumental in reality. Hamilton accomplished the first part of his mission with relative ease, carving six seconds out of Leclerc over four laps before overtaking the Ferrari for a second time along the back straight into Turn 12. Norris, however, proved a tougher challenge. When Hamilton caught the McLaren on lap 48 with just eight laps remaining, Norris defended his position far more tenaciously than Leclerc had. A probing look to the inside of Turn 1 on lap 49 was aggressively defended by Norris, but Hamilton, with superior traction and momentum out of the corner, swept around the outside of Turn 2 and into second place.

“Nice work, Lewis,” Bonnington relayed to his driver. “We’ve got Verstappen ahead, five seconds.” Despite sitting comfortably out front, Verstappen had spent a significant portion of the second half of the race complaining about his brakes, which he characteristically described as “shit.” Yet, even with such issues, Verstappen maintained his typical metronomic pace, offering little opportunity for Hamilton in pursuit. Hamilton’s tyre advantage, however, was clearly working for him, allowing the Mercedes to shave four seconds off the leader’s advantage over five laps, bringing him tantalizingly close to the magic one-second gap needed for DRS activation. The agonizing problem for Hamilton was simple: he was rapidly running out of laps.

It had been a relentless sprint of a race, devoid of any Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car interventions to break up the rhythm. But just as many of his rivals had predicted on Friday, Verstappen had successfully navigated his way past the five cars ahead of him on the grid and into the lead long before the checkered flag. Race win number 15 of the season and the milestone 50th of his career was confirmed at the end of lap 56, as Verstappen crossed the line, completing a charge to victory that had made him work harder than in most rounds of 2023. “In general, today the pace was a lot closer than maybe some other races,” Verstappen admitted after the race, acknowledging the increased competition. “Naturally that does make it more exciting. You need to be really on top of things. But then at the same time, I was not entirely happy because I was struggling myself with the brakes, so then your confidence is not that fantastic.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Verstappen secured his third consecutive victory in Austin, a circuit where he has consistently faced pressure from Hamilton, particularly recalling his virtuoso performance in the 2021 race during their epic title fight. Hamilton closed to within 1.7 seconds of the leader on the final lap, ultimately settling for second. However, after stretching out his opening stint and not following Verstappen onto the hard tyres at his first stop, Hamilton was left to ponder what might have been. “I think we made our life a lot harder today than it probably needed to be,” Hamilton reflected on his team’s strategy. “I do think we would have been in a position to fight with Max. There’s lots of areas where we could have been better, but the positives are that we were at points matching them for pace and to be only two seconds back afterwards at the end of the race I think is a good sign.”

Lando Norris finished eight seconds further back in third, a commendable drive that saw him lead 21 laps. Yet, he candidly admitted McLaren lacked the ultimate performance to truly contend for victory at COTA. “I felt like I was always in the vulnerable position, the one defending,” he stated. “I just clearly didn’t have the pace at the end of any of the stints today. Our tyre degradation was just not on par with these two guys.” Carlos Sainz was within five seconds of Norris in fourth, having deviated from Ferrari’s one-stop strategy after pushing his tyres too hard in the early stages, necessitating a tactical switch. Sergio Perez took fifth, ahead of the unfortunate Leclerc, who was left a sitting duck on a compromised one-stop strategy.

Advert | Become a Supporter and go ad-free

Russell expressed frustration at finishing seventh, but Pierre Gasly was more than content to be ‘best of the rest’ in eighth, securing four solid points for Alpine. Lance Stroll, overcoming a difficult start to the weekend and a pit lane start, secured his first points since Spa in ninth. Yuki Tsunoda gave AlphaTauri plenty to cheer about by taking the final point and the bonus point for fastest lap in tenth. Another NFL stadium-sized crowd had witnessed an enthralling strategic battle, worthy of the gridiron, unfold over the course of 56 demanding laps. Even if the winner was no surprise, American fans had seen him forced to truly earn it.

However, US sports fans are unaccustomed to seeing the results of a sporting contest change long after the players have left the field. Yet, just before 5:30 pm, as over 100,000 fans filed out from the Circuit of the Americas, the FIA posted an ominous bulletin to the paddock. Both Hamilton and Leclerc’s cars had failed a post-race inspection on their plank wear levels, exceeding the permissible 1mm deviation. Suddenly, the official race result was thrown into serious doubt. While both Mercedes and Ferrari pointed fingers at the notoriously bumpy circuit, arguing their cars had been visibly bouncing over the uneven asphalt during their early race skirmishes, this offered no grounds to excuse a clear infringement of the technical regulations. The stewards had only one course of action available to them.

All of Hamilton’s Herculean efforts to chase down Verstappen in his final stint, and all the arduous work Leclerc had put into trying to keep his tyres alive over his ill-fated one-stop race, were ultimately in vain. The stewards formally disqualified both drivers from the final results. Lando Norris was consequently elevated to second place, while Carlos Sainz was promoted onto the podium in third, with Sergio Perez gaining fourth. Leclerc’s removal allowed George Russell to jump up to fifth, with Pierre Gasly’s initial four points doubling to eight. Lance Stroll was awarded seventh place, and Yuki Tsunoda eighth. However, the greatest beneficiaries were Williams, as both Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant were moved into the points – Sargeant finally securing his first top-ten finish of his rookie season, and doing it at his home Grand Prix, at a critical time for his ambitions to remain on the grid for 2024. The disqualifications underscored the uncompromising nature of Formula 1 regulations and provided a dramatic twist to an already exciting race.

Despite the post-race turmoil, one result remained unaffected: the winner. Already a three-time world champion, Max Verstappen had now joined an exclusive club of just five drivers with a half-century of Formula 1 race wins – Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Alain Prost, and himself. With four rounds remaining in the 2023 season, it was hard to imagine him not growing that number even further, solidifying his place among the sport’s all-time greats.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free