Red Bull Team Principal Laurent Mekies lavished praise on a decisive Max Verstappen drive after he won Formula 1‘s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Verstappen stormed to victory after a commanding 50-lap race at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
The Dutchman secured his sixth win of the season, cutting down his deficit to Lando Norris to 24 points and keeping himself in title contention heading to Qatar.
Starting alongside the McLaren driver, the 28-year-old got a better start off the line. But Norris was quick to cover off Verstappen’s advances going into Turn 1.
However, as Norris veered off to the left, he missed his braking point and ran deep, allowing the four-time F1 champion to slide down the inside to take the lead.
Mekies hailed the Dutchman’s instincts, crediting his move as the decisive moment of the race.
“Well, you know, Lap 1, Turn 1, he just never gets it wrong, no? So that was a typical Max, he nailed it, got a good start, got Lando,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“You guys can judge it better than I do, but he just never gets it wrong, so that’s what it’s then.”
From there onwards, Verstappen kept his lead intact, protecting his tyres in clean air. Norris’ Turn 1 mistake also allowed George Russell to get past the 26-year-old.
That said, despite mounting a charge for the lead in the opening laps, the Mercedes driver had to concede his advances as his tyres started to grain in the dirty wake of the RB21.
“From that point, in the early phase of the race, actually George was able to put more pressure than what we would have thought on us,” examined the Frenchman.
“So, George was properly putting pressure on us that last maybe five or 10 laps, and then he started to, I think, to drop, perhaps with graining or with something else.
“The race started to become a bit more in control at that stage when George was a touch out of our DRS, let’s put it this way.”
Verstappen’s final stint sealed Las Vegas GP win
Starting on the yellow-walled Medium tyres, Verstappen was able to extend his advantage over the likes of Norris and Russell.
But the Mercedes pit wall seemingly threw a spanner in the works as they decided to call Russell in on Lap 18.
“Then there was another critical moment where George pitted, whether or not to cover him,” Mekies recollected.
“I guess that was a bit tricky at that stage because it was not clear how fast he would go with a fresh set of Hard tyres.”
Clean air played out in Verstappen’s favour as he was able to eke out performance to neutralise the undercut Mercedes had been planning.
Consequently, pitting on Lap 26, he maintained his lead over the Briton with a slender 1.4-second advantage.
“We decided to stay out. Max was able to keep pushing and effectively to match George’s pace,” he explained.
“Nonetheless, as you have seen, eight laps later when we pitted, it was still very, very close between the two, so there was little to separate them.”
After the final round of pit stops, Verstappen executed a metronomic final stint on the white-walled Hard tyres.
Still having clean air, Mekies detailed how Verstappen executed the Red Bull pit wall’s instructions to a tee, managed his pace till the end and sealed the deal on the iconic Vegas strip.
“Then on the Hard again, I think we had more confidence on the hard because we saw the set of Medium, we saw that the tyres were in good condition when we took them off the car, and Max could push more, and I think he had probably even more pace than what we have seen in the car,” concluded Mekies.
“There was a couple of times in the second stint where we have asked him to increase the pace when Lando was pushing, and every time it was necessary, he has increased the pace.
“So, you know, I think altogether it was masterclass from him, no question.”
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