Max Verstappen held off an early Lewis Hamilton challenge before pulling away to claim victory in this morning’s United States Grand Prix Sprint Race at Circuit of the Americas by 9.5 seconds.
The now three-time world champion had qualified on the pole for the race in the morning’s earlier Sprint Shootout, topping Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by just 0.055 seconds, with Lewis Hamilton a further 0.014 seconds behind and Lando Norris 0.032 beyond that, making for one of the tightest qualifying margins between the top four seen this season.
Leclerc and Verstappen both got away well, and the latter squeezed his rival across towards the grass by pitlane exit, leaving him off-line heading into Turn 1.
Hamilton ran the outside line to move into second as Verstappen slotted in at the front. The two pulled a gap on Leclerc over the opening lap, which would continue to extend to over three seconds by Lap 10.
The seven-time world champion remained within a second of the lead over the first six laps but dropped off the pace from there, running a lonely second with Leclerc well behind.
Carlos Sainz, who qualified sixth, was an early mover, jumping ahead of fellow third-row starter Oscar Piastri and Norris to sit fourth. With everyone else running medium compounds, Sainz remained on softs and would ultimately drop off the pace.
Norris moved back into fourth on Lap 10 and made ground on Leclerc over the closing stages, falling just 0.8 seconds short of the podium.
Sergio Perez, who had made inroads from seventh on the grid, followed past Sainz a lap later and finished fifth, while the Ferrari was left to settle for sixth, the same position he had started.
A 5-second post-race penalty for George Russell for overtaking Piastri off-track on Lap 3 saw him drop to eighth as the final point scorer, with Pierre Gasly the benefactor and promoted to seventh.
Piastri continued to fall backwards throughout the race, eventually finishing tenth, a place behind Williams’s Alex Albon and one ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.
Daniel Ricciardo was the best-placed AlphaTauri driver in twelfth, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda.
Lance Stroll was the only non-finisher after a brake problem forced him to return to the lane.
The United States Grand Prix begins at 8.00 am on Monday NZ time.
Header Image: Getty Images/ Red Bull Content Pool
