Max Verstappen claimed a quiet victory at the American Grand Prix, closing the championship gap on title leader Oscar Piastri to just 40 points.
Verstappen made a perfect start from pole position and was in the lead by more than a second by the end of the first lap, but was never spotted again. The Dutchman led every lap of the race to score his 15th career hat-trick, leaving him seven points behind Michael Schumacher’s record.
As a result, Red Bull Racing finished third in the constructors’ championship, six points behind Ferrari.
“It was an unbelievable weekend for us,” he said. “If you look at the whole race, my pace and Lando (Norris) were really close. Just in the first stint, I think that’s where we made the difference. I was able to squeeze through a little bit of a gap and that’s basically what we kept until the end. … I’m incredibly proud of everyone for having a weekend like this.”
“The (championship) opportunity is there. We just have to try to deliver a weekend like this all the way. We’ll do whatever we can.”
Lando Norris won a mid-race battle with Charles Leclerc and was close to second place with six laps remaining. Leclerc was the only driver among the top 15 to start on soft tires, and he used the compound effectively, sweeping the outside of Norris in the first turn and taking the decisive inside line in turn two. Leclerc’s soft tires allowed him to maintain the lead in the early stages, but from lap 15 Norris was able to use the more durable mediums to close the gap and increase the pressure.
They sparred nicely in the third sector of that lap and sparred again on lap 19, but by lap 21 the difference in tire life was overwhelming and Norris used DRS to pass him well before the braking zone at Turn 12. Ferrari accordingly pitted Leclerc at the end of the next lap and changed to medium tires for a 34-lap long final stint.
Uncompetitive on the hard tires, Norris was kept on his toes until lap 32, forcing him to spend a 24-lap stint on the soft tires as well. He returned to the race 4.3 seconds behind Leclerc and quickly closed the gap, but his tires wore out after just a few laps in the dirty Ferrari air, and by lap 40 he radioed that the attack on the place was over.
However, it was only postponed and with seven laps to go, Norris picked up the pace and reattached his Ferrari’s gearbox. On lap 51, charging for position on the inside of the first turn, Leclerc fell back to maintain position, but the gap between the two narrowed to zero as they approached the back straight. A strong exit from Turn 11 saw Norris stay inside Leclerc until Turn 12, where he took away the Ferrari’s position and returned to second place.
That meant he did near-maximum damage to teammate and title leader Piastri, who finished an ineffectual fifth on a poor weekend for Piastri. Norris narrowed his title disadvantage to 14 points, leaving him with just 26 points behind Verstappen.
“Took you long enough!” he said. “I thought the second attack would go through a little easier, but it wasn’t. Charles ran a very good race. It was a lot of fun and it was a good fight. … We have to be second. We couldn’t have done better today.”
Despite Leclerc’s near miss, Ferrari returned to the podium for the first time since July’s Belgian Grand Prix. Ferrari also moved within seven points of second-placed Mercedes in the constructors’ championship.
“Overall I’m very happy,” he said. “The second half of the year was a tough one. After a difficult FP1 with a gearbox problem, I’m happy to be back on the podium here and make a good recovery.”
Lewis Hamilton finished a distant fourth against the Brit who followed a more traditional medium-soft strategy. The only highlights of this solitary race were a brief battle with Leclerc before the pit stop and a suspected puncture on the final lap that left him exposed to Piastri from behind at the final corner.
Piastri got a good start from 6th place, pushing George Russell off the line, but fell short of the top four in the first stint. His race was a defensive race with early stops to prevent Russell from undercutting, and although the Mercedes driver closed the gap in the final laps, he held his position to minimize damage to the championship lead.
Russell’s coach Hiroki Tsunoda moved up six places from his starting position and scored for the second time in the last three Grands Prix. Nico Hulkenberg scored his first point since his first podium at Silverstone in July with an eighth place, finishing ahead of Oliver Bearman and Fernando Alonso in the final points spot.
Liam Lawson was the first finisher outside of the points in a race that saw little action due to the extensive tire management required to use the soft compound. The Kiwis were led by Lance Stroll, Kimi Antonelli, Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon and Issac Hajjar, who fell to the back of the pack after being punted by a clumsy Carlos Sainz.
Franco Colapinto passed teammate Pierre Gasly on the penultimate lap despite being instructed to maintain his position at the back of the field. Gabriel Bortleto then overtook Gasly for 18th place on the final lap, relegating the Frenchman to last place.
result
