AUSTIN, Texas — Max Verstappen claimed his fifth Grand Prix win of the season in Sunday’s United States Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas.
Verstappen drove his Red Bull to a dominant triumph racing from the pole to take the victory ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc, as the duo waged a thrilling battle for second. to second place in a thrilling duel between the pair.
It had been a strong start to the race for Verstappen, the Dutchman holding the lead from pole position while the rest of the field got through Turn 1 much more cleanly than during Saturday’s action-packed Sprint.
Though questions remained in the early stages over strategy choices, all of the field opted for a one-stop plan – and this worked smoothly for Verstappen, who remained in P1 after his stop. And while he had to nurse his soft tires home in the latter stages, the reigning world champion crossed the line with a margin of 7.959 seconds to seal his fifth Grand Prix triumph of the season.
Behind him, a close fight played out between Norris and Leclerc, a scrap that firstly unfolded in the early stages after Leclerc got ahead of the McLaren at the start. With the two going head-to-head again in the final laps, Norris eventually made a move stick to take a valuable P2, leaving Leclerc to round out the podium in third.
Lewis Hamilton added to Ferrari’s points haul in fourth place – a position he just held onto despite seemingly suffering a puncture on the final lap – while championship leader Oscar Piastri brought a tough weekend to an end by taking fifth.
Meanwhile, Verstappen remains alive for a crack at a fifth championship. He now sits third in the standings and trails point leader Piastri by 40 markers.
“It was an unbelievable weekend for us,” said Verstappen. “I knew that the race was not going to be super forward.
“If you look at the whole race, the pace between myself and Lando [Norris] was really close. Just in that first stint was where we made the difference, and I could eke out a bit of a gap, which is basically what we kept to the end.
“It wasn’t easy to manage the tires for most of the stints, but we kept it in the lead and I’m just incredibly proud of everyone to be able to deliver a weekend like this.”
Behind Norris and Leclerc at the checkered flag, were Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Piastri.
