How Verstappen and Red Bull were brought back down to earth in America

Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing clearly had an attack in mind. Verstappen lined up aggressively on the inside of the grid and had fresh soft tyres on his RB22. With Kimi Antonelli on mediums and plenty of room to launch an attack into Turn 1, the opportunity was there.

But the attack never came. Verstappen's RB22, not for the first time this season, struggled to get going and was in no position to attack. Verstappen seemed to keep the Ferraris behind him through Turn 1, but through the fast sequence of corners he appeared to have no power deployment at all. The lack of energy gave Leclerc an easy overtaking opportunity, while Verstappen only just managed to keep Hamilton at bay.

Verstappen did not stay behind Leclerc for long, as he produced a textbook move in the final sector. He forced Leclerc from side to side before eventually attacking on the inside and passing the Monegasque. Unfortunately, the broadcast director did not bother to replay what was probably the best overtake of the race.

By passing Leclerc again within a single lap, Verstappen limited the damage to championship leader Antonelli. The Italian had meanwhile built a two-second lead. Verstappen showed good pace with several fastest laps, but Antonelli was able to pick up the speed too. As a result, the gap between the two remained between two and three seconds.

On lap 14, Verstappen was the first of the front-runners to dive into the pit lane. With a deficit of just 2.5 seconds to Antonelli, an undercut was possible. Red Bull's 2.7-second pit stop was decent and put Mercedes under pressure. The German team did not respond, however, and kept Antonelli out. Leclerc and Hamilton did pit, switching from the red soft tyres to the yellow medium tyres.

Over the following laps, it became clear that there were two different strategies for this race. Antonelli opted for a one-stop race on the mediums, while Red Bull chose a two-stop strategy for Verstappen. The aggressive approach, with the strategic advantage of an extra set of fresh soft tyres, had been expected.

Verstappen made his way forward fairly easily. He had to pass Russell on track, but Russell's team-mate made no effort to defend his position. Team-mate Isack Hadjar proved more difficult, as he was not willing to move aside. Verstappen lost time on that lap because Hadjar did not move over when asked. Hadjar did not want to lose time himself, but ended up costing Verstappen time. This earned Hadjar and Red Bull's strategy team an angry tirade from Verstappen over the team radio.

On lap 24, just as Verstappen had passed Hadjar, Antonelli was called in for his pit stop. Mercedes also managed a neat 2.6-second stop and, as expected, switched to the hard tyres. When Antonelli rejoined the track, he was nine seconds behind leader Verstappen. Verstappen, however, still had a pit stop to make.

Over the following laps, Verstappen's problems began to pile up. On the soft tyres, he lost the gap he had built over Leclerc and Antonelli, lap after lap. Leclerc on mediums and Antonelli on hards were much quicker than Verstappen at this stage of the race, and Verstappen grew increasingly irritated with Tom Hart over the team radio.

On lap 31, Verstappen came in for his final pit stop. He switched from the softs to the mediums, but the stop did not go perfectly either. A slow right-front tyre change stretched the stop to 3.9 seconds. Verstappen pitted with a two-second lead over Antonelli, but rejoined the track around 21 seconds behind him.

Once on the medium tyres, things improved somewhat for Verstappen and he set a few fastest laps, but victory soon seemed out of reach. He closed in on Antonelli, but not quickly enough to pass the Italian before the end of the race. In fact, the Ferraris of Leclerc and Hamilton were also much faster than Verstappen on the hard tyres. His focus therefore shifted from attacking to defending.

The problem only grew when Lando Norris, on the hard tyres, managed to keep Verstappen at bay for a long time. Verstappen was stuck behind the reigning world champion in dirty air, while Leclerc rapidly closed a nine-second gap.

On lap 47, Verstappen finally got past Norris into Turn 1, just as Leclerc looked close to passing Verstappen. Norris then helped Verstappen for a moment by managing to keep Leclerc behind through the fast section. That did not last long, as Leclerc passed Norris for P3 in sector three.

Verstappen had no answer to Leclerc, though. Two laps after passing Norris, he could only watch as Leclerc swept past him on the straight between Turns 11 and 12. Verstappen's wide moment at Turn 11 appeared to cause his poor exit, but he simply did not have the pace either.

A virtual safety car for Valtteri Bottas worked in Verstappen's favour, as it prevented Hamilton from having enough time to close the four-second gap to him. The virtual safety car was lifted with three laps to go.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing looked like the team to beat all weekend. Verstappen was the fastest driver in the field right up to Q2, but something went wrong after that. It started in Q3, and Red Bull did not get things right in the race either. A poor start, a deployment issue and a strategy that was clearly not the fastest all worked against Verstappen.

Verstappen ultimately fought his way onto the podium, in a weekend where the Dutchman had hoped for much more. After two wins, Verstappen and Red Bull have been brought back down to earth, and there is work to be done ahead of Mexico.