Red Bull and Verstappen outplayed their opponents both in strategy and execution.
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In the first night race of 2021 (including 2020), the night of the explosive "staying up late", the two championship drivers once again began to compete in the peak duel, Verstappen stubbornly resisted Hamilton's challenge at the end of the race, winning his first American Grand Prix championship.
Hamilton, who started inside P2, took the lead at Turn 1, but rival Verstappen established the lead through two early pit stops, and although Hamilton caught up with the advantage of the tyres after two stops, narrowing the gap to less than 1 second, but in the face of the Dutchman's calm and calm, zero mistakes excellent play, Mercedes's strategy ultimately failed.
With five games remaining in the season, Verstappen extended his points lead to 12 points. Teammate Perez P3 helped Red Bull to make two consecutive stops at the same time since 2017, and also reached the 200 podium in team history.
The race outside the podium was extraordinary
If verstappen and Hamilton is a war without smoke, then between McLaren and Ferrari behind it is a real battle for the place of P3 in the constructors' standings. In the end, Leclerc finished with his 6th P4 of the season and Ricciardo also achieved his best finish at COTA since 2016.
The real inflamed flavor was the scramble outside the points zone, with Alonso battling two Alfa Romeo drivers in full swing. Starting at Turn 1, which was ruled compliant by Kimi overtaking off the track, angered Alonso. He then overtook Kimi's teammate Giovinaz from outside the Turn 12 track, but was ordered to return the position, even if the team communicated with race director Massi to no avail (Gio later operated in the same position and was told to return the position). After tossing and turning for most of the game, Alonso was eventually withdrawn from P12 due to a tail failure.
A match between Verstappen and Hamilton
The championship suspense of the American Grand Prix was maintained until the final lap, with both drivers pushing to the limit, and finally crossing the line was only 1.333 seconds apart, while another Red Bull driver behind him, Perez, was 40 seconds away. Looking back at the 56 lap races, both had a chance to win, and in the final analysis, Red Bull's car was faster, while Verstappen's driving was impeccable from start to finish.
Yesterday's victory, which means a lot to Verstappen, or the series of victories since the beginning of this season, has made his driving more stable, mature and patient, which are all qualities needed to become a world champion. It was the Dutchman's eighth win of the year (17 races) with a winning percentage of nearly 50%, 12 points ahead of Hamilton with five games remaining. With the next two tracks, Mexico and Brazil, more favourable for Red Bull racing, the balance has tipped in the race for the drivers' championship, with Verstappen already holding the championship trophy in one hand before the last three stops to the Middle East (Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi).
COTA is somewhat similar to Sochi and has always been mercedes' dominant track. Prior to this match, Mercedes had all the qualifying pole positions since the Hybrid Era (2014-2019) and five of the six main matches. On Friday, a session in Mercedes looked strong, with a lap advantage of nearly 1 second, but by qualifying the situation had reversed, not only was the pole position taken away by Verstappen, but even Perez was almost faster than Hamilton.
Red Bull manager Horner said after the game: "This is a very crucial victory because (COTA) has been the home base for Hamilton and Mercedes. Taking pole position on Saturday was a milestone moment for us and then turned it into a victory, even if we failed to hold the lead at the end of the first lap. ”
'It was a great teamwork because in a practice session on Friday we were at a tailsed end and it looked like it was going to be a tough weekend, but the whole team was working very hard to turn things around.
Mercedes' advantage in Friday's practice session may be that they drive higher than their opponents in terms of engine output (or Red Bull is "hiding"). By Saturday, compromises had to be made in order to avoid damage to the car on the bumpy COTA circuit, causing both drivers to say the car had become struggling in all three sessions. Due to the rise in temperature and wind speed on Sunday, Mercedes' car reactions were more "sensitive", especially in the final stages of the race when Hamilton approached Verstappen, which was also their long-standing weakness.
Mercedes manager Wolf said: "I think the team has to be cautious, not always oscillating between radical and conservative, but to stick to our understanding of the car. ”
"I never thought we wouldn't do it. The general feedback on Friday was that we (Mercedes) were dominating, how would Red Bull respond? But fast forward 24 hours later, the opposite is true. So I think it's really about studying racing and unlocking more potential. How do you tune and provide better performance? That's the difference between losing and winning. ”
Wolff has previously stressed that stability in the championship race is the most critical and that the DNF of any race is unbearable. This could also explain their three replacements of power units/engines for Bottas in their last four races, and the re-evaluation of whether to turn on a new power unit/engine for Hamilton at each sub-station. In contrast, Red Bull and Verstappen made rapid progress on the weekend's car tuning, although they also found tiny cracks in the rear wing on Friday.
Does Mercedes have a chance to win?
The winner and loser of the race, in addition to grabbing turn 1 after the start, is two pit stops. After the Red Bull race, they admitted that it was a bit risky for them to let Verstappen enter the station twice to contain Hamilton, but fortunately, the driver's calm mind and excellent driving skills made the plan work in the end.
Hamilton's best chance of the whole game was actually in the starting line, and the inside line of Corner 1 took the lead. Since then, he has not been able to shake Verstappen away, and opponents can even stay in the DRS zone, which shows that Red Bull's car is significantly faster at COTA.
Red Bull's decision to pit on lap 10 was a bold move, but it also took into account the track position. In fact, as a Mercedes strategy team, they are also very clear that whoever is in the first place at this time can make faster laps on the field with new tires. However, according to their analysis of the decline of the tires, entering the station so early around the 10th lap will be detrimental to the subsequent races. If they advance, then Verstappen can stay on the pitch to establish a certain pit stop window gap and wait until the latter part of the race to take advantage of the tyre advantage to attack Hamilton (as Hamilton did in reality).
The reality is that Red Bull has chosen to preemptively strike. Horner said they were indeed "gambling", but knew that Mercedes would not enter the station early, so they chose to do the opposite.
Red Bull's next move was to get Perez to enter the station, which forced Hamilton to follow suit, or fall behind the two Red Bulls, which would be in big trouble.
Mercedes's response was to leave Perez behind a stop, then establish a time difference with Verstappen in the pit window, and finally use the tire advantage to counterattack. The situation in the game was once biased in Mercedes' side, and Hamilton quickly closed the gap with Verstappen after the second stop.
But the truth is, Red Bull was also on the defensive, allowing Verstappen to keep the lap and protect the tyres until Hamilton chased after them before unleashing their last potential. It was a race carefully planned and executed by the team and drivers, who guessed Mercedes' mind, each step ahead of the opponent, and finally won a well-deserved race.
Will the U.S. stand be a watershed moment in the race for the title?
Apart from Red Bull's clear advantage at the Dutch Grand Prix, Mercedes has been in a position of comparative advantage since the Hungarian Grand Prix in August, but after a series of competitions (especially Russia and Turkey), it is Verstappen who leads the table with a 12-point advantage and is the clear winner.
More importantly, of course, the next two races, Mexico and Brazil, both at high altitudes, are expected to favor Red Bull's Honda engine. The higher the altitude, the thinner the oxygen, so the turbine strength must be increased to compensate. Compared to Honda and Renault engines, the efficiency of Mercedes and Ferrari's engines seems to be more affected by altitude. In the past few years, whether using Renault engine (2015-2018) or Honda engine (2019), although it has not performed well on other tracks, it has been able to beat Mercedes in Mexico (and Austria) Red Bull.
Commenting on the next games, Horner said: "The relationship between the two teams this year is very tense and there is no reason to think that the next few games will not be tense. This (victory) doesn't really change a lot, it's all about the details. For me, the victory didn't give me more confidence. We're all confident in the team and we can do a good job, but we need to nail down the details and start trying again in Mexico and find the best settings. ”
Wolff, on the other hand, said he didn't think anyone would be more suited to which track. But facts and history are in front of us, and the road left for Mercedes in the future may not be easy to walk.
Regular results
Pit stop and tire statistics
Fastest lap and fastest pit stop
Best driver
Drivers' Standings
Constructors' Standings
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