Christian Horner, president of Red Bull Racing, believes Max Verstappen’s victory in the US Grand Prix is ​​of paramount importance because Austin has been a circuit for Lewis Hamilton so far.

In eight races previously held at the Circuit of the Americas, Hamilton has racked up as many as 5 wins, and was not only on the podium once when he finished fourth at Mercedes in 2013. With the first and then the win, Verstappen doubled his points lead over Hamilton to 12 Point last Sunday.

“to me [zwycięstwo] Important because this track was the stronghold of Lewis and Mercedes.” Happy Horner. “Getting first and then turning it into a win, even though we didn’t lead the race after the first lap, was a turning point for us. So it was a great team performance because on Friday we lost in practice one and we felt like a tough weekend, but the whole team He was working hard to change that.”.

After losing the start, Verstappen stayed close to Hamilton throughout. Red Bull decided to undermine the Mercedes driver with an early stop, after which Verstappen took the lead. Although Hamilton was coming on very quickly after the second round of stops, he was unable to beat his main rival in the title fight.

“We looked at the three stops by looking at what they look like, but that’s how it reflects your position on the track. In the end, we decided to keep our seat and save the tires, allowing Lewis to quickly get close, although he then found himself in the shadows Dirty aerodynamics. Max coped really well in this situation and there is a lot of pressure in a race like this.”.

Despite his victory in the Mercedes field, Horner knows that Verstappen’s advantage in the drivers’ standings is not great.

“There are five races to play, there are still 130 points to score and we only have a 12 point lead. It was good to zoom in on this track, because 10 laps before the end it looked like that difference would be over, or we would have two points behind. Increase the advantage as a result. It’s great and we have some important races ahead of us.”.

Source: racer.com