Winning himself and with title rivals Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris failing to finish; the sprint race of the United States Grand Prix has a dream outcome for Max Verstappen. The Dutchman gains eight points on the McLaren duo due to his victory.
A bird’s-eye view of the sprint race:
ROUND 1/19: Chaos in turn 1! Polesitter Verstappen has a sublime start, behind him both Norris and Piastri are eliminated. Nico Hülkenberg is sandwiched from P4 between Fernando Alonso and Piastri, the latter is torpedoed by the German. Piastri hits Norris on landing. For both McLarens, it’s the end of the sprint race. Time for the safety car!
ROUND 6/19: The race resumes, Verstappen leads ahead of George Russell, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, and Lewis Hamilton. The top-8 is completed by Alexander Albon, Yuki Tsunoda, and Oliver Bearman.
ROUND 8/19: The battle for the lead is in full swing: Russell tries to outsmart Verstappen, but overshoots and misses the turn. Verstappen can’t go anywhere, but it ends well and the Dutchman retains the lead.
ROUND 10/19: Lewis Hamilton overcomes Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc in a battle for fourth place. Meanwhile, the stewards are reviewing Russell’s action, only to quickly conclude that no further action or penalty is needed.
ROUND 14/19: Max Verstappen is in his element, having created a significant gap from George Russell. Since his first overtaking attempt, Russell has not been able to get close to the Dutchman. Further down the track, Bearman is battling with Kimi Antonelli for the last available points. An interesting detail: the two rookies, from Haas and Mercedes respectively, were teammates last year at Prema in Formula 2.
Penalty
ROUND 17/19: The second safety car of the race is deployed. This is due to a massive blunder by Lance Stroll. He completely loses control in his Aston Martin at turn 1, causing him to crash into Esteban Ocon (Haas).
ROUND 19/19: The race finishes with the safety car still on the track. Verstappen takes the win and with it, eight points in the sprint race: he reduces the gap in the World Championship to Norris by 36 points and to Piastri by 55 points. Behind Russell, Sainz can call himself the number 3 of the sprint race. The remaining points go to Hamilton, Leclerc, Albon, Tsunoda, and Antonelli in that order. Bearman finishes eighth, but he has a 10-second penalty.
The qualification for Sunday’s race will start tonight at 21:00 UTC.
