How Mercedes went from Austin practice domination to "very tight at the front" with Red Bull

Mercedes has been on a roll of late in the ultra-tight fight to win the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It started off well in practice at Austin for this weekend’s US Grand Prix, but Red Bull got closer as Friday unfolded and even seemed to find an edge in one critical area of what seems set to be another close contest

Ever since Max Verstappen’s dominant victory on home soil at Zandvoort, it has been Mercedes comfortably leading the way on the opening days of track action at the following three Formula 1 events.

And when FP1 at this weekend’s US Grand Prix ended at Austin, it looked as if the Black Arrows squad was going to saunter to another comfortable practice position. In that session, Valtteri Bottas led the way on a 1m34.874s, with Lewis Hamilton second and Verstappen a massive 0.887s adrift of his 2021 title rival and 0.932s slower than Bottas in third.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.