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Another landmark for Max after a proper F1 contest

Alain Prost (in 1993), Michael Schumacher (2001), Lewis Hamilton (2016), Sebastian Vettel (2018), and now Max Verstappen. Red Bull’s current star underlined his status as one of the Formula 1 greats by joining the short list of drivers to score his 50th world championship grand prix victory at Austin last weekend. Many of Verstappen’s recent successes have not exactly pushed the Dutchman to dig deep, such has been the advantage of the RB19, but the United States Grand Prix was different. As Alex Kalinauckas explains on page 18, a combination of a track limits penalty, Red Bull brake problems, improved performance from McLaren and Mercedes, and an inspired Hamilton made Verstappen’s job more challenging than anyone expected on Sunday.

In the end, Hamilton’s disqualification (see p4) made the battle academic, but it was good while it lasted before F1 heads to Mexico – where the Red Bulls are likely to disappear down the road at a rate of knots. Verstappen has won four of the past five GPs there…

The British Touring Car Championship and its support package provided plenty of action in 2023. Marcus Simmons and Stephen Lickorish take a look at how the titles were won in our reviews (p40 and p48), as well as picking out the top performers.

Two of the UK highlights last weekend were the British GT finale at Donington Park and the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch. Turn to p66 to see how the GT crown was decided, and p70 for our coverage of a Formula Ford contest that culminated in an epic final.

Kevin Turner Chief Editor

kevin.turner@autosport.com

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Cover image Hone/Motorsport Images; Chris Graythen/Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool

PIT & PADDOCK 4 Why Hamilton/Leclerc ‘walked the plank’ 6 Anger over new €1m F1 driver fines 8 WEC and BTCC change qualifying formats 10 International entries return to Macau 13 Mexican Grand Prix preview 15 Opinion: Alex Kalinauckas 17 Opinion: Gary Watkins

RACE CENTRE 18 United States GP report and analysis 34 World of Sport: ELMS; DTM; NASCAR Cup;

F1 Academy; FRegional European; MotoGP

FEATURES 40 BTCC review: Sutton makes history 48 The conquerors of the TOCA supports

CLUB AUTOSPORT 61 Century wants BGT champs to stay 62 Jaguars and Midgets to CSCC 64 Equipe to move into single-seaters 65 Opinion: Stephen Lickorish 66 National reports: Donington Park;

Brands Hatch FF Festival; Silverstone; Kirkistown

FINISHING STRAIGHT 78 What’s on this week 80 From the archive: 1956 Le Mans 82 My favourite track: Oliver Gavin

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26 OCTOBER 2023 AUTOSPORT.COM 3