Max Verstappen dominates Austin sprint, McLaren patatrac

Thanks in part to a sensational auto-crash at the first corner between the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen in his Red Bull triumphs in the sprint race of the U.S. Grand Prix at the Austin circuit. Second was George Russell in the Mercedes and third Carlos Sainz in the Williams. Fourth and fifth are the two Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

At the start Verstappen sprints very fast from the pole position, Norris on the other hand is slow, Piastri pulls alongside him but the Brit has the inside line of the first corner favorable, the Australian tries to squeeze through but does not notice Hulkenberg who cannot avoid him, hits him full on and Piastri ends up on the blameless Norris. The two McLarens are then out after a few hundred meters.

The safety car then enters the track to clean up the debris, Alonso was also involved in the accident and has to stop, so behind the four-time world champion are Russell, Sainz and the two Ferraris with Leclerc having overtaken Hamilton, Hulkenberg on the other hand continues despite not having a front wing. At the end of lap five, the race can finally begin.

On the eighth lap Russell attempts an impossible overtake at the first corner to Verstappen, the two both end up in the run-off but continue with unchanged positions and Max in response takes a good lead. The following lap, however, Hamilton managed to overtake teammate Leclerc, who had made a mistake in the “esses” part and was caught by the seven-time world champion.

The race in fact ended on the sixteenth of nineteen laps, with the safety car returning to the track and staying there until the finish line due to a crazy overtaking attempt by Stroll to Ocon with the Canadian’s inevitable ramming into the Frenchman. Verstappen wins his 13th sprint out of 23 held in Formula 1 history: an impressive average!

Now the Dutchman’s gap in the world standings is 55 points from Piastri and 33 from Norris. On the lower steps of the podium are Russell and Sainz, remaining at the foot of it are the Ferraris. Closing the points zone from sixth to eighth place are Alexander Albon in the other Williams, Yuki Tsunoda in the second Red Bull, and Kimi Antonelli in the other Mercedes, due to an unbelievable ten-second penalty from the marshals for an overtaking attempt they deemed unfair to Oliver Bearman, who had finished ahead of the Italian.