Red Bull praise hidden Max Verstappen advantage in Las Vegas 'masterclass'

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has stated Max Verstappen was holding back his true pace throughout the Las Vegas Grand Prix after his unchallenged run to victory.

Starting from second on the grid, Verstappen capitalised on a mistake for Lando Norris at the opening corner and took the lead.

The Dutchman ran deeper into the race than his rivals but retained the lead once he made his pit stop and then bridged a gap to the pack behind.

He crossed the line to take his sixth win of the year, leaving team boss Mekies more than content with his driver's performance.

“We had more confidence on the hard because the set of mediums, we saw that the tyres were in good condition when we took them off the car.

“Max could push more, and he had probably even more pace than what we have seen in the car.

“There was a couple of times in the second stint where we asked him to increase the pace when Lando was pushing, and every time it was necessary, he increased the pace.”

Mekies also issued praise to the Red Bull team for its execution of the race following a build-up of sessions that were run in extremely challenging low-grip conditions.

“I think altogether it was a masterclass from him, no question, on a race weekend where nobody had the proper preparations, because the practice sessions were all disturbed by something.

“To be that strong on Sunday [with] tyre degradation, executions, race pace. A big well done to Max for nailing it again and to everyone back in Milton Keynes and at the race track.

“Today there was a lot more than there was a lot more than normal race, there really was this number of factors that we knew were going to be new for the race day.”