Max Verstappen maintains his perfect sprint record this season by winning after leading from the start and building a gap over his rivals to take success at Circuit of the Americas.
The Red Bull driver clinched victory with a 3.9-second margin over Carlos Sainz, who made a last-lap pass on Lando Norris at Turn 1 to snatch second position.
Norris had thrown his McLaren down the inside of Charles Leclerc at the first corner, and then maintained enough momentum to sit on the outside of George Russell at Turn 3 to assume the inside line for the next corner to move up to second place.
He then stayed in DRS range of Verstappen for the opening laps, closing in on the lengthy back straight but without enough pace to test his championship rival with a move into Turn 12.
But Verstappen stabilised and built a plus-one-second margin to ensure Norris could no longer use DRS, which threw the McLaren driver into the clutches of George Russell.
This set Norris back a further second in defending from the Mercedes driver; Russell’s challenge subsided as he struggled with tyre wear, and Norris then attempted to get back into Verstappen’s wheel tracks for the second half of the 19-lap race.
Although Norris started to close the now two-second gap and got as close as 1.2 seconds behind, Verstappen was able to add more pace from an improved Red Bull and reclaimed his advantage, tacking on a few further tenths to fully ward off a late-race challenge from Norris as the McLaren driver dropped off.
Carlos Sainz then capitalised; the Ferrari driver had brought himself into play having passed teammate Leclerc on the fifth lap with a well-judged move at Turn 15 and let Charles run out of road. The ailing Russell was then easy prey for Sainz, who then began to catch Norris.
Having homed into DRS range of Norris, Sainz stayed close in the final sector of the penultimate lap and pounced on Norris at the uphill Turn 1, forcing his former teammate into a lock-up that ensured the Ferrari driver came up for air with second.
Norris held onto third just, nearly coming to blows with Leclerc at Turn 15 on the final lap as the Ferrari driver was surprised by his early braking into the tight left-hander.
Russell fell to fifth, eight seconds behind Leclerc, to finish ahead of teammate Hamilton – who endured a quiet race in the Mercedes as his pace faded away in the heat; the W15 rather eating up its rear tyres to cost pace in the final stages.
Kevin Magnussen clinched seventh as his Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg claimed the final point; Magnussen defied an order to let Yuki Tsunoda repass earlier in the race as he felt the RB driver had pushed him off in an attempt to pass.
Tsunoda then defended hard from Sergio Perez and Oscar Piastri in the latter stages of the race, but ultimately got passed by both drivers despite his stout defence and fell out of the top ten. Piastri held onto P10 despite a five-second penalty for forcing Pierre Gasly off the road.
So a frantic 19-lap sprint race and yet the defending world champion achieved a well deserved win. Been a while since Max Verstappen last won a race so this result is important in terms of the championship.
United States Grand Prix, sprint race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 31:06.146
2 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +3.882s
3 Lando Norris McLaren +6.240s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +6.956s
5 George Russell Mercedes +15.766s
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +18.724s
7 Kevin Magnussen Haas +25.161s
8 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +26.588s
9 Sergio Perez Red Bull +29.950s
10 Oscar Piastri McLaren +37.059s
11 Yuki Tsunoda RB +38.363s
12 Franco Colapinto Williams +39.460s
13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +41.236s
14 Pierre Gasly Alpine +41.995s
15 Esteban Ocon Alpine +42.804s
16 Liam Lawson RB +44.008s
17 Alexander Albon Williams +44.564s
18 Fernando Alonso Aston Marin +46.807
19 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +52.842
20 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +54.476s
Max Verstappen has returned to winning ways in the Sprint at the United States Grand Prix, the Dutchman taking an assured win from pole position to add to his points tally as championship rival Lando Norris lost P2 to Carlos Sainz in the final moments.
After Verstappen made a strong launch from P1 on the grid, Norris also impressed by getting ahead of both Ferrari cars and George Russell to put himself into second place. From there the Red Bull was unchallenged in the lead, claiming his fourth Sprint win of the season.
Norris had been running in a solid P2 for much of the event but faced a late challenge from Sainz, the Spaniard getting ahead to take the position after the McLaren locked up. Charles Leclerc followed close behind in fourth, while the Mercedes pair of Russell and Lewis Hamilton and Haas’s Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg completed the points-scorers.
Friday’s Sprint Qualifying session had decided the grid for the 19-lap, 100km dash, in which points would be handed out to the top eight finishers – from a maximum of eight for P1 down to one for P8.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-seals-assured-sprint-victory-in-austin-ahead-of-sainz-and-norris.2pmtRJ93X05jCErUijyryu
Lando Norris was happy to come away from the Sprint at the United States Grand Prix with third place – despite losing out on P2 following a last-lap move from Carlos Sainz – as the Briton believes McLaren are lacking the pace of Max Verstappen and the Ferraris.
After lining up in fourth place on the grid, Norris had a strong launch off the line which saw him surge up into second on the opening lap, putting his MCL38 ahead of both Ferraris and the Mercedes of George Russell.
While he looked to be on course for that position for much of the 19-lap encounter – with Verstappen having built up a lead of several seconds up ahead – Norris found himself under pressure from Sainz as the Sprint headed towards its close, and a lock-up from the 24-year-old allowed his former team mate to sweep through.
Asked after the event about what had happened on the last lap, Norris explained: “I mean, it was a good race. Honestly I’m pretty happy with how things ended up.
“It was a tough one, I thought I could maybe hang onto second, but Carlos did a good job and my front tyres were completely finished so there was not a lot I could do, whether I stayed straight or defended or not I’m pretty sure I would have lost the position to Carlos.
“A disappointing end, but I’m happy with the race result and a good amount of points.”
“I did the most I could. I don’t think we have the pace on Max or the Ferraris, therefore I’m happy to finish third.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-taking-positives-from-austin-sprint-despite-disappointing-end-as-he.5WmzPF5AgvfKKO0334fJwV
Max Verstappen took his first victory in any format since the Spanish Grand Prix way back in June after winning the Sprint at the Circuit of The Americas – giving the Dutchman hope that Red Bull have returned to competitiveness.
Red Bull arrived in Austin for the United States Grand Prix weekend with an upgrade package for the RB20, with Verstappen using it to good effect to claim Sprint Qualifying pole on Friday evening.
But he followed that up with a controlled display in the Sprint itself, withstanding early pressure from title rival Lando Norris to take the win – as Norris was passed on the final lap by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, meaning Verstappen extended his gap to the Briton to 54 points.
“It was not too bad, feels a bit like old times!” said Verstappen, who’s now won 11 of the 16 Sprints held.
“I’m very happy with today. I think of course if you look at the whole race, Ferrari was also very quick, but I think for us finally we were racing again.
“Normally in the race we’re always looking back behind us, but now we could just do our own race and we had good pace.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/finally-were-racing-again-verstappen-buoyed-by-sprint-victory-at-circuit-of.1JmEtGM1Z2tDiqufNS6lw0
McLaren’s Lando Norris has been cleared by the FIA of any wrongdoing in his last-lap battle with Charles Leclerc in the Austin sprint race, having been accused of moving under braking.
The Briton had been under investigation by the stewards at Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix for potentially erratic driving.
He had been battling with Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Leclerc for a podium position in the closing stages of the race, as his tyres faded.
Having lost second place to Sainz after the first corner on the last lap when he locked up and ran wide, Norris then had a fight on his hands to keep hold of third place from Leclerc.
His Monegasque rival tried to make a move up the inside through the complex at Turns 14 and 15, but aborted after Norris firmly shut the door on him. After getting his car back under control, Leclerc came on the team radio to accuse Norris of having moved under braking.
Leclerc dropped back from there, meaning that Norris eventually came home in third – two places behind his title rival Max Verstappen.
But shortly after the race, the FIA announced that Norris was under investigation for potentially erratic driving on the final lap.
Following a review of video and data evidence, the stewards concluded that there was nothing wrong with what Norris did in that sequence – so saw no need to take the matter further.
A statement issued after its hearing said: “There did not appear to be any significant changes of direction under braking, and the move at Turn 15 was a legitimate defending move by the driver of Car 4. In Turn 1, Car 4 locked up under braking and went wide, losing a position.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/norris-summoned-by-fia-for-moving-under-braking-in-leclerc-us-gp-sprint-battle/10664554/