Marko compares Austin to Spain 2016: 'Max showed that combination there too'

Helmut Marko praises Max Verstappen after his win at the United States Grand Prix. He compares the Dutchman's race to his first win for Red Bull Racing in Barcelona 2016.

"This win in Austin was absolutely one of the best races I've seen from Max", Marko telss the Dutch branch of Motorsport.com. "At the start things went wrong for a while, but after that we were significantly - and really significantly - faster than Mercedes on mediums. However, we could not convert that advantage behind Hamilton into time gains and on the hard tyres Mercedes were actually faster."

"After the first stop Max actually started a little too fast and as a result his own tyres went. At the second stop he clearly learned from this. Max deliberately took it slower in turns four, five and six. He left about half a second there. As a result, Hamilton got closer, without Max getting very nervous about it."

Combination reminds Marko of Spain

Marko continued: "When Hamilton was about 2.5 seconds behind Max, he accelerated again by half a second per lap. Mercedes obviously saw all that too and that let them know 'hello, we have no chance here at all, he has played a game with us'."

Because of that game, the Red Bull advisor compares the race in Austin to Verstappen's first win in Formula One. "Exactly this combination of managing speed and saving tyres is what he showed in Barcelona. That's why I like to compare this win with that."