Verstappen Snags Crucial Points In Austin Sprint Win

AUSTIN, Texas — Max Verstappen cruised to a sprint victory in Saturday’s Formula 1 lead-up event of the U.S. Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas.

The 19-lap preliminary event saw the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver route the field as he scored a crucial 8 points toward the title fight. Verstappen’s championship rival Lando Norris was relegated to third after Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz overtook the McLaren driver on the final lap.

After a fast start, Verstappen was untouchable as he crossed the finish line 3.882 seconds clear of Sainz at COTA.

It was Verstappen’s first trip to the top step of the podium (sprint or race) since the Spanish Grand Prix in June. 

“It was not too bad, feels a bit like old times!” said Verstappen. “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.”

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ran fourth ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell in fifth position. Russell’s teammate, Lewis Hamilton, placed sixth ahead of the two Haas F-1 drivers of Kevin Magnussen (seventh) and Nico Hulkenberg (eighth).

Both Haas drivers scored points for the American team. 

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez salvaged a ninth-place finish after starting 11th and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri climbed from 16th on the grid to 10th.