Sprint Race Report - Verstappen wins

By Mark Karp

Max Verstappen took a wire-to-wire victory in the 19-lap Sprint Race in his Red Bull-Honda at Austin in the United States GP, as it ended behind the Safety Car.

George Russell in the Mercedes GP was second, 0.395s behind, while Carlos Sainz in the Williams-Mercedes finished third, 0.791s behind the winner.

With both the McLaren-Mercedes out after an incident at the first corner, Verstappen now has closed Oscar Piastri’s lead in the Drivers Championship to 55 points.

Lewis Hamilton (1.224s) in his Ferrari finished fourth, Charles Leclerc (1.825s) in the second Ferrari was fifth, Alex Albon (2.576s) in the second Williams was sixth, Yuki Tsunoda (2.976s) in the second Red Bull finished seventh, Kimi Antonelli (4.147s) in the second Mercedes was eighth, taking the final point.

Before the start on a hot Texas day, Verstappen and Lando Norris were on row 1, Piastri and Nico Hulkenberg on row 2, Russell and Fernando Alonso on row 3, Sainz and Hamilton on row 4, and Albon and Leclerc rounding out the top 10.

All drivers started on medium tyres.

At the appointed time at noon local time the drivers took the formation lap and lined up of the grid, the lights went off and the race began with Verstappen took the lead.

Into the first corner Hulkenberg, hits and launched Piastri into Norris. Both McLaren’s have damage and our out of the race.

Alonso is also out.

The safety car is out.

Piasrtri, Norris and Alonso are out of the race.

Under the safety car the order is Verstappen, Russell, Sainz, Leclerc, Hamilton, Albon, Tsunoda, Bearman, Gasly, and Antonelli in tenth.

Tsunoda, who started from 18th, winds up in seventh.

At the start of lap 5 the race resumes - Verstappen leads Russell, Sainz, Leclerc, Hamilton, Albon,Tsunoda, Bearman, Gasly and Antonelli in tenth.

On lap 7 Verstappen sets fast lap at 1m36.527s.

On lap 8 Russell under DRS tries to dive down the inside of Verstappen, they both go wide, and Verstappen stays in front.

On lap 9 Hamilton passes Leclerc for fourth place.

At half way, at lap 10 of 19, Verstappen leads Russell by 1.4 seconds, followed by Sainz (4.2s), Hamilton (

On lap 11 Hamilton is lapping quickly and gaining on Sainz.

On lap 12 Lawson passes Gasly for tenth.

On lap 15 Antonelli is looking for a way past Bearman in eighth place.

On lap 16 Stroll dives down the inside of Ocon, locks up and hits him into turn 1, Ocon is out, and Stroll tries to limp to the pits. The Safety car is out.

Verstappen leads Russell, Sainz, Hamilton, Leclerc, Albon, Tsunoda, Bearman, Antonelli and Lawson in tenth, Gasly, Bortoleto, Hadjar, Hulkenberg and Colapinto in 15th.

On lap 18 Bearman is given a 10-second penalty for gaining an advantage while Antonelli tried to pass.

The Safety Car is still on track as they start the final lap.

Verstappen wins over Russell and Sainz.