Lewis Hamilton praises 'flawless' Max Verstappen as champion celebrates 'incredible' 50th victory at US Grand Prix

World champion Max Verstappen celebrated an “incredible” 50th victory in Formula 1 at the United States Grand Prix.

The Dutchman is a three-time world champion, and his win in Austin, Texas, was his third consecutive victory at the US Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver had started from sixth and while he had a strong challenge late on from Lewis Hamilton, who led for part of the race and finished second, before he was disqualified for a car infringement.

Speaking after his victory, Verstappen explained that a problem with his brakes had given him some difficulty.

He said: “With starting in P6 and the whole race I was struggling a lot with the brakes, so I couldn't really have the same feeling as yesterday, so that definitely made my race a bit tougher out there today. Here you can see it was very close at the end and with the back markers and the tyres already going it makes it all a bit more difficult.

"Of course, you don't want to destroy the tyres but like I said before at the same time I was struggling a lot on the braking so it took quite a while to at least find a bit of a middle way."

Verstappen reflected on his 50th victory in the sport, and said he would be looking for more.

"It's incredible to win my 50th Grand Prix here as well so I'm very proud of course and we will just keep trying to push for more,” he added.

Hamilton had come to Texas with a significantly improved Mercedes, but in a blow to the team the car's floor was deemed to be too low - leading to the seven-time world champion's disqualification. Before finding out that news, which came almost four hours after the race finished, Hamilton was happy to praise Verstappen.

He said: “First of all we have to congratulate [Red Bull], this team have done an incredible job all year long, Max has been really flawless. I was catching him towards the end and I was hopeful but we needed some more laps.

“The team did an amazing job this weekend, so much work to bring this upgrade here.”

- - -

TNT Sports presents the premium live sports rights previously carried by BT Sport including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, MotoGP, Cricket, UFC, Boxing and WWE. The streaming home for TNT Sports in the UK is discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination. You can also watch TNT Sports through BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.