“Force Hamilton” – Verstappen’s Clever Tactic Involving Red Bull F1 Teammate Perez at US GP Revealed

Max Verstappen won a thriller at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. He held off Lewis Hamilton in the last laps to take home the first US GP win of his career. But it did not go well for him at the start as Lewis passed him on Turn 1 in the opening lap.

He and the team decided to undercut the Mercedes and took an early pit stop. But he stated the team should ask his teammate, Checo, to push on Hamilton and make him take a pit stop as well. It worked, and he undercut the 7-time world champion.

Perez had started the race in P3 and was just a few seconds behind Hamilton after Max stopped. Verstappen asked the team to use Perez to disrupt Lewis’s strategy.

“Okay, Max, Hamilton has stayed out. So again, just manage the peaks early in this stint. Manage the peak early in the stints mate. Hamilton’s last lap was 41.8. So ahead of you is Leclerc, last lap 42.0.” said Max’s race engineer.

” Mate, you should force Hamilton not to go long with Checo,” said Max.

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The whole race, the pressure was on: Max Verstappen

As reported by Formula1.com, the Red Bull driver stated the pressure was on the entire race, but it was very exciting. He analyzed his race and mentioned that it was difficult on tires.

“It was exciting. The whole race, the pressure was on, not knowing how quick Lewis was going to get and we went very aggressive on the first stop in the start, and then again in the middle stint Lewis was within that undercut range so we had to respond: we had to go early again,” said Max.

Formula One F1 – United States Grand Prix – Circuit of The Americas, Austin, Texas, U.S. – October 24, 2021, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen celebrates on the podium after winning the race REUTERS/Mike Blake

“I think I have been in this position before when you are in the lead with the [worn] tires or the other way around when you are hunting. I tried to do the best I could, trying to be consistent and trying to find the grip within the tire without damaging too much, and yes, it wasn’t easy–but that made it, I think at the end of the day, really exciting,” concluded Max.

Verstappen extended his lead to 12 points with just 5 races to go in the 2021 season over Hamilton.

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