Max Verstappen booed by US Grand Prix crowd after milestone F1 win

Thomas Maher 22 Oct 2023 10:10 PM

Max Verstappen celebrates for Red Bull in the pitlane at the Circuit of the Americas during the United States Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen may have won the United States Grand Prix, but the Red Bull driver had to weather intense booing on the podium.

The Dutch driver had to overcome a stern challenge in order to win at the Circuit of The Americas, having started the race from sixth place on the grid.

Verstappen moved up to fifth into Turn 1, but had to rely on strategy and some brave on-track overtaking to make his way into the lead – all while battling a brake issue that resulted in Lewis Hamilton closing him down quickly in the final laps.

Max Verstappen weathers booing on the United States GP podium

Having crossed the line to hold on by just over two seconds over Hamilton and claim his 50th career win – putting him just under half the career total of record holder Hamilton on 103 – Verstappen climbed onto the podium to some booing.

Being presented with his race winner trophy, the booing became cacophonous and overpowering as Verstappen kept a small smile on his face.

Verstappen’s lack of popularity at the Circuit of The Americas is likely down to his dominance of F1, his dominance over Sergio Perez, who is from neighbouring Mexico, as well as his defeat of Hamilton with the Mercedes driver enjoying a huge American fanbase.

“That’s incredible to win my 50th Grand Prix here,” Verstappen said after moving to fifth on the all-time F1 winners list.

“I’m very proud, of course, and we’ll just keep on trying to push for more.”

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Explaining his tough race, Verstappen said: “I think the whole race, I was struggling a lot with the brakes. And, around here, there are quite a few braking points and I couldn’t really have the same feeling as yesterday.

“So that definitely made my race a bit tougher out there today, but you could see it was very close to the end. Then we also have the backmarkers with the tyres already going which makes it a little bit more difficult.”

It took until half-race distance for Verstappen to take the lead, longer than might have been usually expected, and he explained why it had been a slow start to the Grand Prix for himself.

“You don’t want to destroy the tyres, but I was struggling a lot on the braking,” he said.

“So it took quite a while to at least find a bit of a middle way.”