Verstappen Red Bull Austin: Win Streak Ends at Two Races

The Verstappen Red Bull Austin story is a short one: two straight wins, then a third place. Max Verstappen finished the 2026 United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas on 25 October behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, 17.485 seconds off the winner according to Sky Sports. Red Bull's tyre strategy went the wrong way, and Verstappen said so himself.

Verstappen Red Bull Austin: what went wrong?

The GridRaces database has Verstappen winning round 16 in Malaysia and round 17 in Singapore, so Austin was his chance at a third in a row.

Red Bull chose a two-stop plan built around the softer tyres that had worked in Sepang and Singapore. Verstappen pitted early, on lap 13, and Sky Sports describes a difficult second stint on softs. Antonelli did the opposite: he started on mediums, ran one stop and switched to hards on lap 24.

Motor Sport Magazine reports that Verstappen said Red Bull did not react quickly enough when the hard-tyre runners showed more grip, and that a different tyre choice might have been worth second place. Leclerc, on a soft-medium-medium plan, passed Lando Norris and then Verstappen late on. The same report puts Verstappen's second pit stop at nearly four seconds, which he called time thrown away, and notes a radio failure for the second race running. A late virtual safety car helped him hold the podium, his tenth of the season.

Is Red Bull reviewing the Austin strategy?

RacingNews365 reports that Red Bull have promised a review after Verstappen's strategy complaint. That is one outlet so far, and the team has not said what the review will cover.

The wider picture matters more than one weekend. Motor Sport Magazine's Mark Hughes argued that Red Bull did not have a clear pace advantage in Verstappen's hands, so there was no margin to absorb small errors. When a car is not clearly quickest, a slow stop and a strategy that reacts late cost positions instead of tenths.

The streak itself was real. Mercedes' best finisher in Malaysia and Singapore was second and third, and we trace the other four Mercedes defeats of the season in our Mercedes defeats analysis. Keep an eye on the championship table as the gaps move.

What does it mean for the 2026 championship?

Not much for Verstappen. Antonelli leads Mercedes teammate George Russell by 123 points and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton by 124, with 125 points still available, according to Sky Sports. A top-nine finish in Mexico City on 1 November would hand Antonelli the title four rounds early.

For Red Bull the fight is now about third in the constructors' table, which we cover in Red Bull and McLaren's points tie. Follow every lap on the live timing page when the Mexico City race starts, and put your Energy on whether Red Bull answers there on the predict page.