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Max Verstappen accused Red Bull of putting him on a strategy he had not signed off on which compromised his attempt to win the United States Grand Prix. The Dutchman started second on the grid but made it clear he was gunning to stop Kimi Antonelli winning for the ninth time in 2026. A poor launch off the line dropped Verstappen below Charles Leclerc, but he wasted no time in getting back up to second place and showed strong pace which gave him the net lead of the Grand Prix after he had pitted for soft tyres while Mercedes kept Antonelli out on his mediums.
The problem was, Verstappen had started on soft tyres. Formula One rules make it clear that every driver must use at least two different slick compounds in a dry race and so the decision to stay on softs at the first change of tyres locked Red Bull in to a two-stop strategy.
It also told all their rivals exactly what they were planning to do. So Mercedes were able to stay calm and keep Antonelli out until the right time to put the Italian onto hard tyres which would get him to the end of the race.
The end result was Antonelli won the race by 13 seconds with Leclerc the man who crossed the line second, and Verstappen in third another 4.4 seconds adrift. The podium, the Dutchman's sixth consecutive top-three finish, was not enough to satisfy him.
"I've had more enjoyable races," he grumbled in the media pen after the race. "Not a lot went right, really: the start wasn't good, the tyre choice, and the way we did it – soft, soft and then medium – hadn't been agreed upon beforehand. So I don't quite understand what that was about.
"That hadn't been agreed upon. I mean, then everyone immediately knows you're doing a two-stop strategy. We need to talk about that. I have no idea why that happened."
It was not the only problem Verstappen had during the race. He showed strong pace up until shortly before his second pit stop, when he had reported over the radio that something did not feel right with the car. He told race engineer Tom Hart at one point that the RB22 had become "undriveable".
Hart confirmed there was an issue with the engine braking and that, combined with a relatively slow change of tyres, cost him valuable time at the end of the second stint. Verstappen said: "There were too many problems with the engine as well, but that was already the case in qualifying.
"It was just very inconsistent. In one corner there wasn't enough engine braking, so it kept pushing, and then the next time it was very aggressive. It wouldn't shift properly either. You couldn't predict what it was going to do.
"The whole race just wasn't good. Of course, I'm not going to complain every lap, but it just wasn't good – the whole weekend wasn't and the race especially. I don't think the car's balance was optimal to begin with. But there were too many problems as well. You simply can't drive consistently when something different is happening all the time. Every lap, every corner was just inconsistent."
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies admitted their execution was flawed on race day. The Frenchman said: "We were a little less sharp today, there were a lot of minor problems that added up. As a result, we had a little less pace and more tyre wear, which made the race considerably more complicated.
"We finished third, but we know we probably didn't get everything out of the car today. We'll learn from that."
Big moments. Packed grandstands. A championship battle that’s heating up.
When the Formula 1 season delivers like this, watching from home just isn’t the same as being there when the lights go out.
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