AUSTIN (Texas): If there ever was a time for Max Verstappen to flinch in this riveting Formula One championship battle with Lewis Hamilton, it would have been Sunday in the closing laps of the US Grand Prix.

The young Dutchman, seeking his first world championship, was being chased by the seven-time champion, and Hamilton was rapidly closing in on the lead under the hot Texas sun at the Circuit of the Americas.

The intensity of the tightest championship race in years might have derailed a different driver especially when Hamilton pulled within one second on the final lap but Verstappen thrived under pressure and won his eighth race of the season.

“It was exciting, the pressure was on, not knowing how quick Lewis was going to get you,” Verstappen said. “We managed to hang on at the end.”

The victory doubled Verstappen’s lead over Hamilton to 12 points in the standings with five races remaining and could prove to be a pivotal win in this classic championship battle.

Verstappen and Red Bull won on a track where Hamilton and Mercedes have been dominant for years Hamilton is a five-time winner at COTA and he made Verstappen work for the win.

Red Bull’s Mexican Sergio Perez was a distant third, struggling with dehydration after a water bottle failure in the Texas heat, ahead of Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.

“I think I’ve aged about 25 years in that race,” said relieved Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. “I really didn’t think we were going to hang on.”

Hamilton chased Verstappen over the final 18 laps and maybe if there had been one more lap, he might have caught Verstappen and reclaimed the points lead.

The 24-year-old now has some breathing room heading into Mexico City, a high-altitude stronghold for Red Bull.

Hamilton is seeking a record eighth F1 title, and fifth in a row.

“Congratulations to Max, he did a great job today. It was such a tough race,” Hamilton said. Got a good start and gave it absolutely everything, but in the end of the day, they just had the upper hand this weekend.”

As the popularity of Formula One explodes in the US, the championship rivals delivered a dramatic finish in front of an estimated crowd of 140,000.

Verstappen started out on pole position, ending a Mercedes run of qualifying domination in Texas, lost the lead into the first corner and then won it back with an aggressive pitstop strategy.

Hamilton was quickest when the lights went out, squeezing through on the inside at turn one with Verstappen forced to run wide and plenty of overtaking going on in their wake.

The pair pulled away from the field, with Perez unable to stay with them.

Verstappen soon started chafing over the radio that he had more pace and was first to pit on lap 11, as Red Bull went for the ‘undercut’ -- a strategic bid to close the gap and get back in front when Hamilton pitted three laps later.

“Of course we lost out in the start so we had to try and do something else. The tyre wear is quite high around this track, we went aggressive and I was not sure it was going to work but the last few laps were fun,” said Verstappen. “A bit sideways through the high-speed corners but super happy to hang on.”

Verstappen made his second stop on lap 30 to hand Hamilton the lead again.

The Mercedes driver was told it was now “target plus six” and stayed out for another seven laps before pitting again and slotting in 8.58 seconds behind Verstappen with 18 laps to go but on fresher tyres.

The British driver ate away at the advantage, aided by Verstappen running into a wall of backmarkers.

With 10 laps left, the gap was down to 2.3sec while Perez was a distant third almost 30 seconds off the lead.

However, Verstappen held on under intense pressure over the last two laps to secure a crucial victory.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2021