Selcuk Bugra Gokalp
25 October 2021•Update: 25 October 2021
ANKARA
Max Verstappen won his first Formula One United States Grand Prix on Sunday with a time of 1:34:36.552.
The Dutch driver for Red Bull Racing Honda secured victory but felt the breath of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton on his neck for almost the entire race as the gap between the two drivers was just 1.33 seconds.
The closest driver to the two men was Verstappen's Spanish teammate Sergio Perez, who finished third with a more than 40-second gap behind Hamilton at the Circuit of The Americas in Travis County, Texas.
Two Alpine Renault drivers, French driver Esteban Ocon and Spain’s Fernando Alonso, retired from the race as the team called Ocon in for an undisclosed reason during lap 42 and Alonso could not finish the race due to a wing issue in lap 52.
With this victory, Verstappen kept his place at the top spot of the driver standings with 287.5 points, while British driver Hamilton is just behind him with 275.5 points and another Mercedes driver, Finland’s Valtteri Bottas, is third with 185 points.
In the constructor standings, Mercedes is at the top with 460.5 points, while Red Bull Racing Honda is second with 437.5 points and McLaren Mercedes is in third spot with 254 points.
The next stage in Formula 1 will be held in Mexico from Nov. 5-7.
