Max Verstappen Earns Spot on USGP Podium

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen earned his seventh podium of the 2019 Formula 1 World Championship season Sunday, taking third place at the United State Grand Prix after 56 trips around the 3.4-mile Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Gridding third, Verstappen climbed to second with a strong start allowing him to chase eventual race winner Valtteri Bottas for most of the day. His two-stop strategy clashed with the single-stop plan used by Lewis Hamilton, which put the 2019 World Champion ahead of the Red Bull driver over the race’s final laps. Verstappen made up three full seconds to close on Hamilton with two laps to go, but a waving yellow flag in Turn 12 for Kevin Magnussen’s stalled car denied him the chance to pass at the end of that straight, dooming Verstappen to third place.

Behind Verstappen, unlike Mexico City last week when Alex Albon avoided opening-lap contact, the rookie got squeezed between Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz in Turn 1, resulting in damage that forced Albon to pit. The Thailand-born driver fought back impressively and climbed all the way to fifth at the finish, extending a streak that has seen him place sixth or better in each of the seven races run since he and Pierre Gasly swapped Honda-powered rides after Round 12.

The Toro Rosso drivers both threatened to collect points-paying finishes but saw their hopes dashed in the final orbits of the Texas circuit. Pierre Gasly retired with suspension damage with a lap to go while Daniil Kvyat suffered a five-second post-race time penalty for the second consecutive race, this time for contact while passing Sergio Perez for the 10th spot with a lap to go. As it did in Mexico City, the penalty dropped Kvyat to 12th place, leaving him out of the points.

Verstappen’s podium result vaulted him ahead of Vettel for fourth place in the season’s driver standings, while Albon – who took Driver of the Day honors – moved up two spots to sixth. Gasly fell to eighth after his DNF while Kvyat remains in 13th with two races to go. Toro Rosso’s results dropped the team to seventh in the constructors championship, just a single point behind Racing Point – which was the point awarded to Perez after Kvyat’s penalty.

The series will take a week to travel back across the Atlantic Ocean and then prepare for the season’s penultimate race, the Brazilian Grand Prix at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo on November 17.