Not even starting sixth on the grid could slow Max Verstappen’s bid for victory in Sunday’s United States Grand Prix at Texas’ Circuit of The Americas.
Holding off the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris, the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver scored his 50th career Formula 1 victory. Verstappen also won the sprint race on Saturday.
“It feels incredible to win my 50th Grand Prix here in Austin, I’m very proud of course but I want to keep pushing for more,” Verstappen said. “Starting in P6 today was interesting, I worked my way slowly through to the front. We didn’t have a massive pace advantage today and I was struggling with my brakes.
“I didn’t have the same feeling in the car as I did yesterday so that made the race much tougher than anticipated. You could see it was very close at the end and there too. We had to rely on the strategy today and the team did a great job with that.”
Norris held the point early on after swiping the lead away from polesitter Charles Leclerc. Though Verstappen made his presence known, eventually taking the top spot away from Norris on lap 28 of the 56-lap race.
From there, Verstappen stretched his gap as Hamilton snagged the runner-up spot from Norris on lap 49.
After the race, Hamilton and Leclerc were disqualified from the race due to a technical breach in post-race inspection.
With the disqualification to Hamilton, Norris finished second for his fourth consecutive podium finish. Carlos Sainz headed the Ferrari brigade in third. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez completed secured fourth with George Russell in fifth after Leclerc’s disqualification.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly finished sixth. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished seventh while Yuki Tsunoda ran eighth. Tsunoda also earned AlphaTauri a point by laying down the fastest lap of the afternoon.
Alexander Albon landed in ninth with American Logan Sargeant completing his first United States Grand Prix with a 10th-place result.
Nico Hulkenberg led the Haas F-1 charge in 11th with teammate Kevin Magnussen finishing 14th.