A late Virtual Safety Car at the United States Grand Prix denied fans of a battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

With just five laps remaining of the United States Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was catching Max Verstappen at an alarming rate and a dramatic finish was on the cards.

However, Valtteri Bottas retired his Cadillac and triggered a Virtual Safety Car, which took the sting out of the race and allowed Verstappen to secure a podium finish.

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Max Verstappen and Laurent Mekies disagree about US GP finish

In his post-race analysis, Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies was confident that Verstappen was still on track to hold off Hamilton even without the VSC.

“I think Max would have kept Lewis. He was faster than us in that phase, but I think he had a fairly reasonable gap to him. So I think he would have kept him behind him, even with all the VSC, but you know, it’s only speculation.” – Laurent Mekies.

However, Verstappen, who was audibly frustrated at Red Bull for the race strategy over the team radio, disagreed with his boss.

Speaking to ViaPlay, Verstappen was asked whether he only made the podium due to the late VSC intervention.

”Absolutely, that’s clear. Yeah because Lewis was rapidly approaching.”

”But in the end, for me, it doesn’t matter whether you’re third or fourth.”

Lewis Hamilton refuses to weigh in on the debate

Clearly Verstappen and Mekies don’t agree on how the United States Grand Prix would’ve ended, and Lewis Hamilton was not keen to get involved in the debate.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Hamilton said: “To be honest, the VSC wasn’t ideal but I felt like the race was really lost from the first two stints.

“I lost so much time. I couldn’t turn the car in the lower speed particularly.”

Hamilton finished 1.1 seconds behind Verstappen after losing two laps to the VSC triggered by Bottas’ retirement.