Karun Chandhok shares why he thinks boos have now turned ‘to cheers’ for Max Verstappen after COTA win

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Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen continued his late assault in the drivers’ championship with a perfect weekend at the United States Grand Prix.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli denied Max Verstappen a seventh F1 Grand Chelem of his career by stealing the fastest lap at the Circuit of the Americas.

However, Verstappen dominated every other aspect of the 2025 United States Grand Prix and picked up 33 points as a result.

It means having previously been more than 100 points behind Oscar Piastri in the drivers’ championship at one point this year, Verstappen has now closed the gap to 40 points with five race weekends remaining.

Verstappen commented on his championship hopes immediately after the race, and he’ll have Piastri and Lando Norris looking over their shoulders for the rest of the campaign.

Daniel Ricciardo admitted that Verstappen was ‘ridiculous’ as he sped off into the distance on Sunday, with Norris and Charles Leclerc squabbling for second.

At the end of the race, Verstappen received a fantastic reception from the Austin crowd, and Karun Chandhok explained why he thinks the Dutchman is no longer hearing ‘boos’ whenever he wins a race.

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Karun Chandhok says Max Verstappen is ‘popular everywhere again’ after United States Grand Prix win

Chandhok was reporting on the race for Sky Sports F1 (19/10 9:54 pm) and just before the podium ceremony, he commented: “You know what’s funny, when you become the hunter, rather than the hunted, the boos turn to cheers.

“Max is popular everywhere again!”

Chandhok also reacted to Leclerc saying to Norris in the cooldown room that he was surprised he didn’t start on the soft tyres.

He said: “That’s a really good point, actually! I have to admit, I thought to myself at the start of the race, if I were in a McLaren and my only chance to win was to beat Max off the line, I should start on the softs.

“But then I thought, oh, maybe it’s too hot, nobody will use the soft. But actually, I think that’s the mindset, am I chasing the win, or am I trying to consolidate points?

“McLaren going for the medium, being the slightly more conservative option, the message was, yes, we want to bag the 18 points, but the win is a bonus.”

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Max Verstappen reflects on a ‘perfect weekend’ for Red Bull after ‘incredible’ United States GP win

In the post-race press conference, Verstappen was asked to talk through the race, and he said: “Yeah. A perfect weekend for us.

“Today, I think what was crucial was the first stint where I could build a bit of a gap, because I think after that, it basically stabilised pretty much after the pit stop until the end.

“I think tyre management was very important today, and it wasn’t very straightforward because there were some laps where you had a very different feeling or balance, grip, but weirdly, better or worse.

“So, yeah, it’s one of those days where you just need to try and make no mistakes, try to drive it as consistently as you can, drive around the bumps as much as possible. But, yeah, for us to win again today is incredible.”

Jenson Button suggested at the start of the weekend that Verstappen could save Norris’ title hopes by taking points out of Piastri for him.

However, both McLaren drivers will now be far more worried about the Dutchman overtaking them both between now and Abu Dhabi.