Ross Brawn believes that Max Verstappen was the standout driver of the United States Grand Prix because he managed to avoid making any mistakes whilst under pressure. After losing out to Lewis Hamilton at the start of the race, the Dutchman took the lead due to making the undercut at the pit-stops. Hamilton started to close in during the latter stages, but Verstappen was able to hold position and take the win. Whilst he found the performances of both title contenders impressive, Brawn thinks that Verstappen's drive was particularly noteworthy. "Max edges this because of the pressure he came under from Lewis for an awful lot of the race," Brawn wrote in his column for Formula1.com . "He kept in touch with Lewis for the first part, after losing the lead at the first corner – and then controlled it from there, looking after his tyres beautifully. To not put a foot wrong in 56 laps was impressive. "The Circuit of The Americas is a tricky track. The promoter has done a great job of smoothing it out in places, but it's still a challenge and one where it's so easy to make a mistake." Brawn believes that Red Bull did a good job given that the track has often generally been thought to favour Mercedes, and is interested to see how this momentum could shift again at the remaining five races. "I know from talking to those at Red Bull that they had pencilled this race in as a Mercedes track and one where they had to minimise their losses," F1's Managing Director said. "That wasn't the case – but it was close – as it has been all year. And maybe we'll see the opposite play out in Mexico and Brazil, which are tracks that Red Bull might feel will move to them. "This championship has still got an awful long way to go."
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