Why wasn't Verstappen's USGP win as easy as usual?

Max Verstappen battled past a series of setbacks to narrowly defeat Lewis Hamilton at Circuit of The Americas and claim his 14th victory of the season.

The reigning world champion started third after a subpar qualifying session but quickly carved his way past the Ferraris despite a braking issue which compounded into a tyre temperature problem.

Mercedes' failed one-stop strategy

Verstappen's first pit stop on lap 16 allowed Hamilton to seize the race lead. But Mercedes left Hamilton out too long, compromising a potential one-stop strategy as his medium tires degraded rapidly.

Hamilton eventually pitted on lap 20, switching to the harder compound. He emerged 7 seconds behind Verstappen, having also lost time in the stop itself.

Although the Mercedes driver upped his pace and chased down Verstappen, a late encounter with backmarker Daniel Ricciardo ended Hamilton's hopes of victory.

Set-up compromise

A deeper technical analysis by Mark Hughes suggests Verstappen's Red Bull struggled more with ride height and plank wear compared to Mercedes and Ferrari.

The bumpy COTA surface exacerbated these issues, as teams were forced to increase ride height to avoid dangerous porpoising effects.

Consequently, Verstappen lost Red Bull's traditional aero edge gained from running an extremely low rake.

The resulting setup compromises forced Verstappen to carefully nurse his tires in the early laps while progressing through traffic.

Further compounding matters, Verstappen complained of having "no feel" in the brake pedal throughout the Grand Prix.

This lack of braking feedback forced him to brake earlier to avoid potential lock-ups, which in turn cooled the front tires excessively.

Verstappen was therefore unable to fully attack in the opening stages while managing these myriad technical concerns.

Hamilton's recovery drive

After Mercedes' failed one-stop strategy, Hamilton emerged from his second stop on lap 20 over 7 seconds behind Verstappen.

Now on the harder compound tires, he was at a further disadvantage to Verstappen who was on the faster medium tires for his second stint.

Despite this, Hamilton pushed hard to recover the lost time to Verstappen. With 8 laps to go, Hamilton had closed the gap to the race leader to just over 5 seconds.

The Mercedes driver continued to chip away at Verstappen's lead, getting within 1.8 seconds on the penultimate lap.

Best of the rest

Further back, Lando Norris led McLaren to an encouraging podium after starting second.

Ferrari executed confusing tire strategies, leading Charles Leclerc to plummet from pole to sixth.

The Monegasque was later disqualified alongside Hamilton for excessive plank wear.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, and the Williams cars picked up lower points.