Max Verstappen raises McLaren warning after US GP sprint triumph

Max Verstappen has expressed concerns over Red Bull’s race pace and their ability to challenge McLaren on merit at the United States Grand Prix.

Verstappen stormed to a comfortable race win at the Circuit of the Americas on Saturday.

The Dutchman resisted early pressure from Mercedes’ George Russell to come out on top in the sprint race.

Verstappen’s afternoon was made easier by the fact both McLarens DNFed on the opening lap. 

Oscar Piastri’s switchback attempt resulted in carnage at the first corner, putting both McLarens out of the race.

It means Verstappen is now 55 points behind Piastri with six races (and two sprints) to go.

Despite an important victory, Verstappen believes Red Bull still need to improve the handling of his RB21 ahead of qualifying.

“The start was good,” Verstappen said to Jenson Button in parc fermé. “Then, of course, there was a safety car because of that Turn 1 incident. It took a few laps after the safety car to have decent pace.

“So we need to figure out what was going on there. But nevertheless, we won the sprint, which is, of course, the most important.

“But of course, already looking at for tomorrow, I do think we need to be a bit better in race trim to be able to fight the McLarens, because we haven’t seen anything of them.

“Of course, we have some ideas what we can do. And then hopefully we’ll just, yeah, stick a bit better tomorrow.”

Verstappen on F1 title race

Verstappen refused to get drawn into talk of winning this year’s title.

The four-time world champion is the in-form driver, winning two of the last three races. 

A series of upgrades have transformed the Red Bull, making them a contender at all types of circuits. It coincided with McLaren struggling for form.

When asked by Sky Sports about the title race, Verstappen said: “Well I mean it’s very simple if you keep winning that’s a good thing.

“The sprint we won but the pace wasn’t where we wanted it to be. If we want to win tomorrow we definitely need to be stronger.

“That’s something we will analyse to see if we can find that kind of pace.”