Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has hailed his US Grand Prix success as “a perfect weekend” for his title chances.
Verstappen dominated both the sprint and main race to claim the maximum 33 points which left him 40 points behind championship leader, Oscar Piastri, with the Aussie’s nearest rival – Lando Norris now 14 points adrift from him as a three-way title fight intensified.
The reigning four-time champion though put his “perfect weekend” down to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc having played his part in frustrating Norris by going for an alternate strategy of soft tyres at the start to Norris’ medium tyre.
“It was a perfect weekend and I think the start was key today. The pace wasn’t magic but we got a good start on the first stint and Charles got in the middle of myself and Lando which helped a lot and as soon as Lando was in clean air he was very fast.
“We just did the best we could and tried to manage our tyres in the best way possible even though they were overheating a bit.”
Verstappen however iterated that Red Bull must maintain this performance if he is to stand any chance of snatching the title from the McLaren drivers’ grasp.
“This performance was exactly what we need until the end of the season to fight for the title. The Team has done a great job,
“I’m having fun and it’s exciting for everyone. The performance of the car has been better and we need to keep the momentum going. We really maximised everything with the points and we need to continue having these perfect weekends until the end of the season. I am very happy to win again.”
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