Max Verstappen cruised to victory in the U.S. Grand Prix Sprint ahead of fast-finishing Carlos Sainz.
The Dutchman started from P1 on the grid for the first time since the Austrian Grand Prix in June but had no problem acing his getaway to put himself ahead of a first-turn melee as the frontrunners jockeyed for position.
Front-row starter George Russell attempted to follow Verstappen through the corner but was swamped by both Ferrari drivers — Leclerc and Sainz starting third and fifth respectively — who were both eager to make up on underwhelming qualifying results.
The battle gave Lando Norris, starting fourth, a clear line down the inside, and after running the embattled Russell side by side around the outside through Turn 2, he emerged in second and directly behind Verstappen.
Norris harried the Red Bull until lap four, when Verstappen put his foot down and broke free of DRS.
The loss of straight-line boost left Norris exposed to Russell, and the Mercedes pushed hard for position at the end of the back straight. The two bravely dueled side by side through to Turn 15, where Norris reasserted himself in the position from which he was never again challenged.
It was a costly battle for Russell, cooking his medium tires. From being on the attack, he was suddenly forced to defend from the Ferrari drivers behind him.
Charles Leclerc led Sainz in the opening laps, but the Spaniard was determined to lead the charge up the field. From the first lap he relentlessly challenged the sister car for position until he barged past at Turn 15, pinning Leclerc on the curbs on exit on lap five.
With clear air, Sainz rapidly closed onto the back of Russell’s ailing Mercedes, and by lap nine he was through with a move down the inside of his favored Turn 15.
Leclerc muscled through at the same place one lap later, demoting Russell to fifth.
The scarlet cars chartered a course for Norris’ second place, and with two laps to go the trio were split by less than a second.
It took a critical mistake from Norris to break open the battle, the Briton locking up into the first turn to open the door to Sainz, who immediately punished him down the inside to take the place.
Norris committed a second lock-up at Turn 12, but having had DRS down the long back straight, Leclerc wasn’t close enough to immediately capitalize. The Monegasque attempted to double Norris’s pain at Turn 14 but was caught off-guard by the Briton holding an unusually tight line. The Ferrari had to take avoiding action to avoid a crash ending the battle in Norris’s favor.
The battle will make for enjoyable post-race viewing for Verstappen, who kept himself above the fray to record a straightforward victory.
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“It was not too bad — it feels a bit like old times,” he said forebodingly. “I’m very happy with today.
“If you look at the whole race, Ferrari was also very quick, but for us, finally we were racing again.
“Normally in the race we were always looking back behind us, but we could just do our own race. We had good pace.”
Sainz enjoyed battling up to second, though his tires were too worn to be a victory contender.
“Honestly, they were very fun battles,” he said. “A good sprint — I think if the Sprints are like this, you always enjoy them, that little bit of extra action.
“Toward the end I was starting to struggle with the tires, but I saw Lando also struggling and thought if I could get into DRS, I would have my chance to get into P2
“We made it stick into Turn 1. It was a fun one.”
Norris was happy with his result, even though his tires were too shot to defend second place by the end of the race.
“Honestly, I’m pretty happy with how things ended up,” he said. “It was a tough one. I thought I could maybe hang on to second, but Carlos did a good job.
“My front tires were completely finished; there was not a lot I could do.
“I did the most I could. I don’t think we had the pace of Max or the Ferraris, therefore happy to finish third.”
The finish cost him two points to Verstappen, extending the title margin to 54 points.
Russell finished a glum fifth ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton in sixth, up one place from his starting position.
Haas teammates Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg scored the final points of the Sprint in seventh and eighth.
Sergio Perez finished ninth and several seconds behind the American cars, up just two places from his grid spot after a long battle with RB’s Yuki Tsunoda for position.
Oscar Piastri crossed the line 10th after a feisty recovery from 16th on the grid after battling later with Tsunoda for the place. He was fast enough in the closing laps to negate a 5s penalty incurred for pushing Pierre Gasly off the track earlier in the Sprint.
Tsunoda beat Franco Colapinto to 11th ahead of Lance Stroll.
Alpine duo Gasly and Esteban Ocon finished 14th and 15th ahead of Liam Lawson, Alex Albon — the Williams driver having started from pit lane — and Sauber teammates Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
