How Verstappen triumphed in Texas to tighten the title screw on Piastri

Formula 1 drivers are pragmatic souls, aren't they? Put any driver in a title fight - go on, pick one - and ask them about the championship, and they'll default to the usual platitudes of "taking it race by race" and "not thinking about the title". As much as the current crop of F1 stars are castigated for being too PR-friendly and unwilling to give much away, there's a psychological element to that mantra. Say the same thing enough, and you'll eventually believe it.

Max Verstappen has sung a similar song of late. To those who have followed this season in its intoxicating detail, it comes at little surprise; five races ago, Verstappen's title aspirations were almost non-existent. His arrears to Oscar Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix had just ticked over into triple figures, standing at 104 points after F1's return from its self-imposed summer exile. Not even two months have passed, and the deficit is now comparatively bite-sized at 40 points. The Dutchman has won three of the last four races, while Piastri's form has nosedived of late - albeit not entirely of his own making.

But Verstappen is starting to believe that the impossible is... well, possible. "There's a chance," he admitted, almost taking a moment of guilty pleasure in that statement, after sealing a largely uncontested victory at the Circuit of the Americas. Here was a race where he expected to have more competition from the McLaren duo of Piastri and Lando Norris, but the Dutchman instead gallivanted into a comprehensive early lead that laid the foundations for a controlled second stint. Conversely, the Woking squad endured myriad tribulations in Texas - and only Norris' second place finish after an almost race-long duel with Charles Leclerc spared the tangerine team from any blushes.

The lack of challenge from McLaren was triggered by the unceremonious exit of both cars at the first corner of the sprint. As the disorder transpired - Nico Hulkenberg's contact with Piastri begat Piastri's contact with Norris - to leave both of the MCL39 sat by the wayside, it opened the door to two further downpours of ill-fortune: one, Verstappen's victory in the 19-lap Saturday affair cut Piastri's championship lead down by a further eight points, and two, McLaren had no data on the medium compound of tyre and no feedback on how the cars fared through a session equating to a long-run simulation.

Verstappen, however, had the benefit of the Saturday race to become acquainted with a difficult characteristic in his proto-race set-up: the rear end was too loose, particularly over the bumps. He was slightly alarmed by the ease at which George Russell could stick with him in the early stages of the sprint, before the Mercedes driver's challenge evaporated after a now-or-never dive at Turn 12.

Red Bull, per team principal Laurent Mekies, took a few risks with its set-up for the grand prix. It worked out in qualifying, but that was never really the team's weak point over the season thus far; how the car would fare over 56 laps was the real poser. Earlier in the year, the story of Red Bull's season had been one characterised by great one-lap pace (at least, in Verstappen's super-human employ) that would tend to pale in comparison to the McLaren cars as thermal degradation became a factor during the races.

Pole star: Verstappen scorched to pole and, crucially, held the lead into Turn 1

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

But that was Red Bull-then; Red Bull-now is an entirely different prospect. Since the summer - and since Mekies took the reins from Christian Horner - the engineers appear to have been given more licence to take deductive leaps with set-up choices, and to keep the development ball rolling despite the looming end-of-life milestone for the current generation of cars. From an engineering point of view, it makes sense to do so since Red Bull had nothing to lose - understanding the more deleterious quirks of the car with the facilities at hand can yield dividends for next year's chariot.

Which brings us to Austin, where Verstappen stormed to pole by almost three-tenths (a sizeable margin in today's money) over Norris despite only doing one lap in Q3; the timing of his second out-lap was the only thing Red Bull really got wrong across the weekend. It mattered not; Verstappen was a car length closer to the zenith of Turn 1 on the grid.

His primary concern was Norris. Even with Red Bull's late-season resurgence, the team expected McLaren to have enough weapons to mount a stout offensive across the course of the race - but McLaren didn't feel comfortable in taking the initiative on tyre strategy owing to its enforced absence in the sprint.

"Tyre management was very important today, and it wasn't very straightforward because there were some laps where you had a very different feeling, balance, or grip a bit weirdly" Max Verstappen

After the race, Leclerc made known his surprise that Norris didn't join him on starting on the soft tyres. Indeed, the Monegasque was the only runner in the top 15 to deviate from starting on the mediums, a point of variance that offered significant benefits at the start. It was not known how long the softs could last, as Pirelli had predicted more tyre wear than initially expected, but Ferrari - podium-less in five races - decided to take the punt.

"I knew it was an aggressive strategy," Leclerc explained. "My plan was to be first after the first corner. I didn't quite make that, but at least I gained a position, which helped me a little bit with free air, and that definitely helped our race. Again, I knew it was aggressive, but considering the feeling I had on the hard in FP1, I was quite convinced I didn't want to touch that tyre."

Pirelli's decision to try its split-compound experiment resulted in the hardest construction - the C1 - being nominated alongside the C3 and C4. There was about a second-per-lap difference between the hard and the medium, although a predicted 0.2-second per-lap drop-off of the medium suggested that the hard could be an option. Yet, that wasn't quite the case.

Leclerc suffocated Norris at Turn 1, thanks to his rapid getaway on the soft tyre

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

Ferrari played a masterstroke. Leclerc found enough traction up the hill to sit side-by-side with Norris, and then a surplus of adhesion on the exit of the first corner to break ahead of the McLaren. For Ferrari, it was a significant boon to upgrade its position after a slow start to the weekend as a whole - but, arguably, it was an even bigger one for Verstappen. The thorn in his side had been cauterised, and he could use the opening laps to plot his getaway from the pack.

The tyre delta made it difficult for Norris to mount a challenge. Although Leclerc's tyres were on a timer, Norris had to truncate the life of his mediums to pressure Leclerc and attempted a series of moves at Turn 12. Each time, Leclerc wafted towards the inside like a bouncer languidly protecting the pub door from an intoxicated would-be patron, forcing Norris into finding alternative routes around the Ferrari. The following series of switchback corners offered nothing; Norris could find neither nook nor cranny in which to hook his crowbar.

After 20 laps of having his nostrils stung by Leclerc's aftershave, Norris finally found the key. Leclerc's tyres were on their way out, and the McLaren behind had since refilled its battery pack and got the closest it had been to the Ferrari's tail. Norris had the move done before the two reached Turn 12 on the 21st lap, preceding Leclerc's stop on the following lap.

Verstappen probably owes Leclerc a drink after that; the endeavour had granted the Dutchman a lead of over 10 seconds when Norris finally got through. And, for Leclerc, the stop had come at a fortunate time; a gap in the pack had emerged in front of Fernando Alonso, with six seconds between he and Nico Hulkenberg ahead.

Leclerc dropped in clear of the Aston Martin, now sporting brand new medium tyres, and had a bit of time to slowly bed them in before making his way through the traffic ahead. He knew that Norris was going to extend his stint, given that the McLaren driver was likely going to take softs himself for the second stint, and thus could take his time.

Once up to speed, Leclerc tore through Hulkenberg, Ollie Bearman, and Yuki Tsunoda in quick succession. With some free air to Russell, the Ferrari began to ramp up its pace to facilitate an undercut over Norris.

When Norris locked up on the 32nd lap at Turn 12, he knew it was time to call the car in and take the softs. Norris was encumbered by three track limits strikes, a legacy of his lengthy pursuit of Leclerc, and couldn't risk another on dying tyres; this then opened the door for Verstappen to pit on the following tour. Leclerc duly completed his undercut on Norris to recapture second, and his pace had closed the once-11-second lead down to just 6.7s.

Leclerc's defence versus Norris helped Verstappen sprint off into the distance

Photo by: Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP via Getty Images

There were two things going for Verstappen: clean air, and Norris' return to third behind Leclerc. This prompted another charge from the McLaren to reclaim control of second, and Norris closed to within DRS range in just six laps - but once there, a pass was once again less straightforward than expected.

With the main overtaking point down at Turn 12, Norris needed to do what he'd done in the opening stint: stick close to Leclerc through the esses, get a good exit out of Turn 11, and hope he'd done enough to get within half a second. But with the track limits warning at the forefront of his mind, he found it difficult to take margin through the lap's opening rollercoaster while running in the Ferrari's wake, bobbing and weaving breathlessly throughout the left-right sequence of corners and hope to come up for air with enough of an advantage - only for his soft tyres to overheat.

Norris thought all was lost when his tyres were screaming hot and crying for a break. His race engineer Will Joseph smoothed over the frustration, and suggested that Norris should back off, give the tyres a chance to cool, and try again later on.

After signing off at the Circuit of the Americas, Verstappen had cut 64 points out of Piastri's title lead across the last four races

"The pace was pretty close. I think that's why it was so difficult, is because we were quicker for sure, but not by a lot," Norris reflected post-race. "They were some challenging lap-after-lap battles, trying to put him under pressure, trying to make him make some mistakes here and there.

"He didn't make many for sure. But I think especially the final stint, I managed to get the tyres into a good window and drop back a few seconds, re-attack, and I managed to kind of catch him a bit more off guard, let's say, with a couple of laps. So a good result in the end. Like for a minute, I was not expecting to finish second. I thought he was just a bit too quick for us, but to get back into second and get past was perfect."

Revitalised, Norris closed the 2.5-second door he'd left open and got back onto the Ferrari's tailpipe. He mixed up the format this time in gathering a good exit at the end of the 50th lap, enough to present a dive down the inside at Turn 1. Leclerc batted this back, however, gaining the switchback with the better exit line but, Norris stayed with him throughout the esses and got what he'd needed on the run to the back straight. This time, he didn't respond to Leclerc's motion to the left, and overlapped the Ferrari down the inside to reclaim second.

Norris completes the first of his passes on Leclerc - he had to do it again after being undercut by the Ferrari

Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images

Verstappen, however, was way too far up the road with six laps to go. Having heard of Norris' plight on the broadcast radio messages, Gianpiero Lambiase instructed Verstappen to think about tyre management - but the Dutchman had already come to the same conclusion after finding lap-on-lap variance with each tour of the circuit.

"Tyre management was very important today, and it wasn't very straightforward because there were some laps where you had a very different feeling, balance, or grip a bit weirdly," was Verstappen's assessment. "It's one of these days where you just need to try and make no mistakes, try to just drive as consistent as you can, drive around the bumps as much as possible."

In free air, Norris reeled off a series of laps that ensured Leclerc was well over five seconds behind to cover off the threat of a track limits penalty. Verstappen was thus 7.9 seconds up on Norris by the flag, the gap having briefly grown to nine before Norris dispatched Leclerc a second time.

After signing off at the Circuit of the Americas, Verstappen had cut 64 points out of Piastri's title lead across the last four races. Piastri barely had a part to play in the grand prix; starting sixth, he made up a place on Russell when the Mercedes driver got boxed in at the start, but flailed around with little pace - only Lewis Hamilton's suspected late-race suspected puncture brought Piastri a late sniff of fourth place, a sniff that proved to be a false omen.