Sprint start
One of the few heart-pounding moments of the United States Grand Prix Sprint it was undoubtedly the departure. Rarely had one seen a Max Verstappen so aggressive and determined to maintain first position, so much so tighten Charles Leclerc ever closerwith the aim of not allowing him to take the lead in Turn 1.
In this test of strength, Max Verstappen came out on top, retaining the lead and then went on to win the short race on Saturday in Austin undisturbed. It went less well for Leclerc, given that in the maneuver he then had to give up second place to an attacking Lewis Hamilton.
Subsequently Verstappen and Leclerc spoke about what happened, both between them in parc fermé and in the press conference, without raising the slightest controversy. The Dutchman explained that that maneuver was the only one possible to avoid allowing his rival to overtake him, while the Monegasque said he had no hard feelings towards his rival, given that the maneuver was hard but correct.
For Villeneuve there should have been a penalty
Jacques Villeneuve to the microphones of F1Tv he said he was surprised by the lack of intervention by the Race Stewards, who – in his opinion – should have penalized Verstappen: “Leclerc was pushed off the track, it’s too much. It wasn’t necessary. I don’t understand why the first lap should be evaluated differently, a dirty maneuver or pushing a car to the limits of the track are things that should be investigated. At the start you may see more than one driver braking a little too late, but these things can happen. You can turn a blind eye to aggression, but not when someone pushes another driver off the track.”. According to the 1997 world champion, Verstappen should have received a sanction in terms of a time penalty. The Red Bull champion won the Sprint with a lead of over 9″ over Hamilton and 17″ over Leclerc.
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