I think that the circuit of the Americas is such an exciting track and I always love watching the race there. This race was doubly great for me because I actually got to watch it live at a normal hour, which rarely happens. I am pleased to say I was not disappointed and it was a very exciting race.

Verstappen raced extremely well, and his hard work would be payed off as he went on to win the race. He started the race on pole, but was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton going into turn one. However, the Dutchman would later overtake Hamilton after undercutting him by pitting on lap 11 as opposed to lap 14, like the Mercedes driver. He would go on to pit again on lap 29 for another set of hard tyres, and would keep his lead until the end of the race. This means he has extended his lead in the Driver’s championship to 12 points.

Hamilton was a challenging adversary for Verstappen. While the strategy was not on his side today, he still showed great pace and only finish 1.3 seconds behind Verstappen. I believe if the race had been just two laps longer, Hamilton would have won. It’s nice to see this battle between the two challengers, and it definitely makes for some nail biting finishes.

Perez was an unsung hero of this grand prix. He managed to stay P3 for the whole race and went almost the entire race without being able to have any of his drink. All F1 cars have a compartment that contains a drink for the drivers for during the race, but Perez’s broke early on into the race. COTA is an extremely demanding track and for him to stay with it, and keep a relatively good pace for the whole race is an amazing achievement. Him finishing on the podium also allowed Red Bull to close the gap between themselves and Mercedes in the Constructor’s Championship to 23 points.

Ferrari and McLaren had a pretty competitive mid-field battle with each other with Charles Leclerc finishing fourth and Carlos Sainz finishing seventh and Daniel Ricciardo finishing fifth and Lando Norris finishing eighth. McLaren holds third place in the Constructor’s Championship by only 3.5 points after this race and it was for sure be an extremely close rest of the season in terms of points for these two teams.

It was not a good race for Alpine who had both drivers retire due to technical issues. Pierre Gasly also retired from the race due to technical issues.

Max Verstappen drove a ‘classy’ race, as described by team boss Christian Horner to finish on the top step of the podium. He was joined on said podium by Hamilton in second and Perez in third. Charles Leclerc finished fourth followed by Ricciardo in fifth, Valtteri Bottas in sixth, Sainz in seventh, Norris in eighth, Yuki Tsunoda in ninth, and Sebastian Vettel rounding out the top ten.

We are currently underway in Mexico, and it’s already shaping up to be an exciting weekend. It is once again a race I can watch live at a decent time, and I am very much looking forward to reporting on this weekend’s events.