Lewis Hamilton got the fast start, but it was Max Verstappen who had the last laugh in the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.
Using the undercut strategy on two occasions, Verstappen jumped ahead of Hamilton in both pitstop phases.
The Red Bull driver then resisted a late flurry of quick laps by Hamilton on the dash home, securing his eighth win of the season.
Hamilton closed to within 0.8s at the start of the final lap. But Verstappen had conserved enough life in his tyres to keep his challenger at bay.
“I didn’t think we could hold on at the end there,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said. “He deserved that one.”
Verstappen extends his championship lead over Hamilton to 12 points.
“We lost out in the start, so we had to try something else,” Verstappen said. “But the last few laps were fun.”
Benefitting from starting on the inside of the front row, Hamilton jumped ahead of Verstappen at turn one.
Verstappen briefly slipped to third but quickly overtook teammate Sergio Perez to reclaim second.
Hamilton couldn’t push his lead over Verstappen to beyond one second until Red Bull brought their driver in for his first stop.
Pitting early elevated Verstappen to the effective race lead once Hamilton stopped a few laps later.
A similar scenario played out at the second sequence of stops. Verstappen pitted first, gifting Hamilton the lead back. Verstappen then reclaimed P1 once Hamilton stopped later on.
“Congratulations to Max. It was such a tough race today,” Hamilton said.
“I gave it everything, but at the end of the day they had the upper hand.”
Perez had a lonely race to finish third, though he did have to battle with having no water for the entire race.
Charles Leclerc was only ten seconds behind Perez at the chequered flag, claiming fourth.
Daniel Ricciardo came off best in a late clash with Carlos Sainz, which broke the Ferrari’s front wing endplate.
Ricciardo was fifth, ahead of Valtteri Bottas. Sainz dropped back to seventh to finish ahead of the other McLaren of Lando Norris.
Yuki Tsunoda and Sebastian Vettel rounded out the points scorers.
