Mekies was "no longer surprised by unbeatable" Verstappen

Hot on the heels of Max Verstappen's dominant victory at last Saturday's Las Vegas Grand Prix, Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies revealed that he was "no longer surprise" to see the Dutchman pull off a race-deciding manoeuvre at the start of the 50-lap race.

Having secured second place on the grid, Max Verstappen picked off Norris into Turn 1 on the opening lap as the McLaren driver slightly outbraked himself.

Thereafter, the Dutchman managed the race superbly. He absorbed all the pressure Russell threw at him in the opening stages of the race, and managed to build up a bit of a margin from the chasing pack.

Although Red Bull left Verstappen out for longer than his rival during the first stint, the Dutchman had slightly fresher tyres for the second stint which allowed him to escape from the duo of Russell and Norris again.

While Verstappen cruised to his sixth Grand Prix win of the season at Las Vegas, his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda endured another tough race.

The Japanese driver opted to start from the pit lane after his difficult qualifying session. He pitted early to switch from the mediums to the hard tyre, but had to stop a second time and that dropped him back down the order.

Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies revealed that he was "no longer surprise" to see the Dutchman pull off a race-deciding manoeuvre at the start of the 50-lap race.

"Everyone in the Team and back in Milton Keynes can be proud. The car was fast at a track where we struggled a bit last year and this weekend no one had time to properly prepare because Thursday's practice was somewhat disturbed, as was FP3. The car was fast, our tyre management was up to the job and our execution was very strong.

"When Max needed to push, he did and was able to bring more to the table. This is a race like no other with the low temperatures and the track layout and tonight, Max and the Team mastered it. As for the start, Max is unbeatable when it comes to this sort of move, so we are no longer surprised!

"But there were a few critical moments in the race, when George pitted while we and Lando stayed out, but everyone managed it to perfection.

Signing off with a word for Tsunoda, Mekies said: "As for Yuki, we paid the price for what happened yesterday. Today, we made it, a win is a win, so now we will reset and look ahead to Qatar with the same objective of extracting everything from our package."