AUSTIN — Red Bull driver Max Verstappen won the Formula One race at the Circuit of the Americas here on Sunday, holding off a charging Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton in the final laps.

“You could see, it was very close to the end!” Verstappen said after the race. “I was struggling a lot on the braking.”

It marked a 15th Grand Prix win in 2023 for Verstappen, tying his own record from last year and chasing Formula One history after clinching his third consecutive world championship this month. The come-from-behind win came after he started in sixth place following a mistake in qualifying that scrambled the usual order.

“It’s incredible to win my 50th Grand Prix here,” he said. “Very proud of course, and we’ll just keep trying to push for more.”

At the podium ceremony after United States Grand Prix, loud boos filled the audience as Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, a Republican, presented Verstappen with the winner’s trophy.

It was an intriguing race of competing strategies and managing tires in scorching heat, with the Red Bull team pulling another master class by committing early to two pit stops for Verstappen.

McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had a dream start and lunged into the lead in the first corner, tried a one-stop before switching to a two-stop, which gave Verstappen the edge over him. Hamilton also gambled on a one-stop race by seeking to make his fresh tires last a long time, before abandoning that strategy and stopping again. Hamilton overtook Norris for second place in the closing stages.

Scorching heat and big crowds

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown told NBC News that the Circuit of the Americas deserves “a lot of credit” for bringing Formula One back to the U.S. in 2012 after a drought of races.

“It’s just built and built and built, and it’s great to see all the US fans here. They love Formula One,” Brown said on the grid moments before the race began. “It’s only going to grow. We haven’t even had Vegas yet. We have a new television contract. We got the Brad Pitt movie coming. So all these things are gonna just continue to accelerate the growth of Formula One.”

Massive crowds packed the grandstands during the weekend despite scorching temperatures that topped 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Fans have complained about rising prices as interest in tickets has grown.

Leo Garcia, executive vice president of operations at the Circuit of the Americas, said his team limited ticket sales in order to balance the need for a positive fan experience.

“To the community, to the fans — it’s a big, big event for us all,” Garcia said. “To know it’s on TV, to know that there’s millions of fans all over the world watching this race, that’s exciting for us.”

A battle for second in the championship

While Verstappen has already clinched the driver’s championship this year, a consequential battle for second place is heating up.

Red Bull’s other driver, Sergio Perez, started the season neck-and-neck with Verstappen but after a poor stretch, Hamilton has closed the gap to 19 points, eating another eight out of his lead Sunday.

Perez, who is Mexican and says Austin feels like a second home race, was greeted throughout the weekend to chants of “Checo! Checo! Checo!” — his nickname.

After the race, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said in a brief interview that finish 1st and 2nd in the driver’s championship will be a “a nice to have” and voiced confidence in Perez to do so.

“It’s not like winning the championship, but it’s something we’ve never done before,” Horner said.

Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, said that overtaking Perez in the championship would be “a showing of resilience and strength and depth from our team” after a difficult 2022.

“I don’t know whether or not we’ll catch Sergio, but given the difference of our cars throughout the season, I’m really proud of the work that we’ve done,” Hamilton told reporters on Friday. “We’ve just got to keep our heads down, keep fighting, keep pushing.”

And there’s a battle for second in the constructor’s championship with Ferrari seeking to hold off Mercedes. Behind them is a surging McLaren that just overtook Aston Martin, which started the season strong and has since fallen behind.

F1 stars dish on growing U.S. fan base

Over the weekend, the drivers also reflected on the growing American fan base, on which the sport is making a major bet with a record three U.S. races — in Miami, Austin and the first-ever Las Vegas street race next month.

“A couple of years ago, you could just drive back to the hotel within 20-25 minutes, no problem. You could go out for dinner, no problem, you could walk around, no problem, whereas now, driving back to the hotel takes you 40-45 minutes,” Verstappen quipped. “There are so many fans in the city. They really love it. It’s a massive crowd next to the track. So yeah, it has grown a lot and I think that’s, of course, great to see of course here but of course also like Miami, you can see the crowd and I can only imagine what Vegas will be like so yeah, it’s good to see that.”

His rivals agreed.

“The change is massive,” Leclerc said. “In Austin, we could go around and nobody would recognize us. Now it’s a bit more difficult to go around. But it’s a good thing. Formula One is growing everywhere. And I think where we felt the most difference is definitely here in the US.”

Norris said the atmosphere has “changed a lot” and hailed the “good food” and “nice golf courses” that he remembers about Austin, alongside the larger fan base.

“It’s grown massively. And a lot of it’s down to Netflix and things like that,” he said, referring to the popular series “Drive to Survive,” which has brought in new fans. “Even the Netflix event we got in Vegas is going to be cool.”

But none have experienced the transformation more than Hamilton.

“I’ve been here since the beginning in 2012. Already back then we had an amazing crowd. But there’s a different… a different energy, a different excitement, even bigger than before, and it’s growing every year,” Hamilton said. “And it’s something that you can really feel.”