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F1
Max Verstappen’s Texas triumph seals 2 F1 titles for Red Bull
A record-equalling 13th victory of the season for the double world champion sees Oracle Red Bull Racing wrap up the constructors' crown for the first time in nine years.
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Top of the world. Top of the world. No, that's not an echo – just merely stating the facts, plural. Because for the first time in nine years, Oracle Red Bull Racing are the winners of the Formula One drivers' and constructors' championships – and with three races still remaining in the 2022 season after Sunday's United States Grand Prix in Austin.
One race after Max Verstappen wrapped up his second drivers' title in a row after a win at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Pérez made sure the team got in on the celebrations, too.
Verstappen's 13th win of the year – he equals Sebastian Vettel (2013) and Michael Schumacher (2004) for the most victories in a single season – allied with a fourth place for Pérez sealed the deal on Red Bull's most successful season in a decade, and with time to add more silverware the trophy cabinet.
The team celebrated its first title since 2013 in style
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Oracle Red Bull Racing came into the race weekend with a 165-point constructors' championship lead over Ferrari, and would secure a fifth teams' title if it could leave Austin with a 147-point advantage over the Scuderia. After Ferrari's pole-sitter Carlos Sainz was tapped into a spin at the first corner of the race by Mercedes' George Russell, it was an open goal for Verstappen to stroll into, and after some mid-race drama, one he converted.
Verstappen came home five seconds ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc rounding out the podium after a tense conclusion to a race that came alive in the final 17 laps.
Here's the tale of the tape from round 19 of the season in Texas.
Smooth sailing after stormy waters for Max
Verstappen's chances of recording his record-equalling win improved 24 hours before Sainz's mishap on Sunday, after he qualified third in a desperately close session where just 0.092 seconds separated the top three drivers on the grid.
Leclerc pipped Verstappen to second, but the Monegasque driver had a 10-place grid penalty to contend with after installing new engine components for the weekend, promoting the world champion to second. Given the US Grand Prix had never been won from outside the front row of the grid in nine previous instalments, it proved crucial.
Verstappen made the best of the start and was ahead of Sainz before the Spaniard was sent spinning into retirement, and the Dutchman looked to have the race under control until a Lap 35 pit stop went awry, a stubborn front left wheel taking an eternity to fasten itself, and leaving a frustrated Verstappen to re-join behind both Leclerc and Hamilton.
With just 14 laps to go, Verstappen needed to pass both drivers to get back to where he felt he belonged, and his superior straight-line speed saw him take the lead with five laps left, with he and Hamilton reprising memories of their 2021 title fight as they ran side-by-side for several corners.
The number one star in the Lone Star State
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
The win was Verstappen's second in succession in Austin, Red Bull's third at the circuit and the team's 18th consecutive Grand Prix with at least one driver on the podium.
"That was a tough one," Verstappen beamed after the race.
"It was all looking good, but then of course the pit stop was a bit longer than we would have liked so I had to fight my way forward again. But we gave it everything out there today, I pushed to the limit to come back.
"We had a big chance to win the constructors' (championship) here, and of course you want to do that in style – I think we did that today."
Oracle Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner was thrilled with the constructors' championship triumph, and the manner in which Verstappen recovered after his pit lane problems.
"Max had to fight back after a difficult pit stop, we had a problem with the wheel gun," explained Horner.
"He just got his head down, and I thought 'there's only going to be one outcome to that race'.
"After eight long years … this means everything to us. It's been such a journey. We've had the tough years, we've had to keep picking ourselves up and dusting ourselves off. The hard work, the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into this … this one means the world to us."
Checo survives skirmishes to snare fourth
Pérez ended 56 laps on Sunday in the same place he'd ended up in qualifying on Saturday, but the Mexican's race was action-packed, opportunistic and gritty after things didn't go his way in the early stages.
Penalised for taking additional engine components and starting eighth after qualifying fourth, Pérez was up to sixth on Lap 1 as the field scattered to avoid a spinning Sainz, but picked up some front-wing damage in the opening skirmishes.
Securing second in the drivers' championship is the goal for Sergio Pérez
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Typically, the four-time Grand Prix winner was undeterred, and put himself in place for a podium finish by moving up to fourth on Lap 6, and with Russell ahead of him yet to serve a five-second time penalty for being at fault for the Sainz incident at the start. Pérez led for four laps through the first phase of pit stops, and was unfortunate with the timing of a safety car to retrieve Valtteri Bottas' beached Alfa Romeo on Lap 18, which allowed Leclerc to make a cheap pit stop to eat into his advantage and eventually jump him on Lap 30.
Pérez finished eight-tenths of a second adrift of Leclerc after 56 laps, and fell two points (267-265) behind him for second in the drivers' standings as Red Bull look to use the final three races to break new ground; never before has the team had its two drivers finish 1-2 in the championship.
Tsunoda back inside the top 10
The odds didn't look good for Scuderia AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda being able to snap his 12-race run of finishes outside of the points when he qualified 15th and then started second-last after taking additional engine components in Austin. But the Japanese driver produced a feisty drive to slot into 10th at the chequered flag, which later became ninth after Fernando Alonso (Alpine) was issued with a post-race penalty.
Tsunoda had scored just one point in the previous 14 races before Sunday, but held off Alpine's Esteban Ocon in the closing stages to bring his tally to 13 points for the season. The result means he has back-to-back top-10 finishes at the Circuit of the Americas after he finished ninth on debut last year.
Yuki Tsunoda’s persistence paid off with points in Texas
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Team-mate Pierre Gasly showed speed, but had a complicated race that saw him cross the line in 13th place. A top-10 finish went begging when he was hit with a five-second time penalty for dropping too far behind the safety car midway through the race, his Texas troubles extending to four races without a single points finish.
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Veterans show fighting qualities
Want proof of the strength of a modern-day F1 car? Check out Alonso's race for Alpine. The Spanish veteran finished seventh on the road after a remarkable incident which saw him clip Aston Martin's Lance Stroll as they battled on the flat-out back straight. Alonso's car was sent skywards with only its rear wheels touching the ground before thudding back to earth. But a pit stop for a fresh set of tyres later, Alonso was back in the thick of it and finished seventh, which became 15th after he was issued with a penalty for driving with a damaged car, one of his side mirrors falling onto the track late in the race.
Another driver in the thick of the action was the driver Alonso will replace as Stroll's team-mate at Aston Martin next year, Sebastian Vettel. The soon-to-retire four-time world champion fought like his life depended on it against Haas driver Kevin Magnussen on the last lap to secure what was to become seventh place, his fire for the fight unquenched as his F1 career approaches its last laps.
Over to you, Checo
Remember the scenes when Pérez became the first Mexican to lead the Mexico City Grand Prix a year ago? Us too, and if a race-weekend crowd of 371,000 last season is any guide, this year's event (October 28-30) could go next level after Checo added his third and fourth F1 wins earlier this year in Monaco and Singapore.
Located in a public park in the south-east of the massive metropolis, this race always has atmosphere by the bucket-load, especially now Pérez has become a front-running F1 force. The circuit has history, too: 2022 marks 60 years since the track named after racing brothers Ricardo and Pedro first hosted a non-championship F1 race, the world championship proper coming to the track from 1986-1992, and again from 2015 onwards.
The 'other' Red Bull driver next weekend (that'll be the world champion, Verstappen) has made himself right at home in his team-mate's backyard. The Dutchman has won in Mexico three times (2017, 2018, 2021), with last year's 16-second margin of victory being the narrowest of his three triumphs at a high-altitude track where he's always soared.
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