Max Verstappen from Red Bull won the US Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday, leading everyone in every lap, extending Oscar Piastri’s Formula One championship lead to seventh place in Texas.
Five laps from the chequered flag, McLaren’s Piastri passed Lando Norris, his teammate and closest competitor, just seconds after passing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the winner of the previous year, at the finish line.
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With five rounds and two sprints left, Piastri now leads Britain’s Norris by 14 points, while Verstappen cut his Australian lead to 40 after being 104 behind at the end of August.
Verstappen also won the weekend sprint at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas from pole position, helping the McLarens collide and retire on a weekend with maximum points for the four-time world champion.
McLaren has already clinched the title of constructor.
Verstappen asserts that there is a title chance.
Verstappen remarked of the title battle, “For sure, there is a chance.” We just need to make an effort to deliver these weekends until the very end.
We’ll make every effort possible. He continued, “It’s exciting,” after recording his 68th victory in his career in his third of his career.
Piastri asserted that he still had full confidence in his ability to win the title for Australia the first time since 1980’s Alan Jones.
The 24-year-old added, “I’d still rather be where I’m than the other two.”
Leclerc won the race for Norris at the start, but it took 21 laps to get back in as the , Monegasque, held a defensive masterclass on the faster but less durable soft tyres.
Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton then squared off in a battle that moved up to third and fourth, with Piastri moving up to third and Lewis Hamilton returning in ninth place.
Verstappen was already ten seconds away from his closest rival.
After the rest of the frontrunners had made their pit stops, Leclerc was once more in second place behind Verstappen and Verstappen, with Norris third having to overtake with a track limitations warning hanging over him.
Done, Norris fought back and finished in a time of 7.9 seconds behind Verstappen and 7.4 ahead of Ferrari.
It was difficult, they said. We made every effort possible in a fight that generated some excitement for the fans as Verstappen completed lap after lap that was largely absent from the global television feed.
I anticipated a second attempt to pass, but that wasn’t the case. A very strong race was led by Charles. Good battles and good fun ensued. Therefore, we must take the break. There isn’t much else we can do right now.
Andrea Stella, the McLaren team’s manager, claimed Norris could have won if Ferrari hadn’t obstructed his efforts.
Piastri was just 1.1 seconds away, and Mercedes took the chequered flag in sixth place after George Russell, who won the previous race in Singapore, took the title.
Oliver Bearman and Nico Hulkenberg of Red Bull placed third, ahead of Oliver Bearman of Haas and Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull. Aston Martin’s driver took the win in the end, taking Fernando Alonso.
When Mercedes’ rookie Italian Kimi Antonelli and Williams’ Carlos Sainz collided on lap 7, the Spaniard retired after attempting to overtake for seventh place inside.
Sainz a , five-place , grid penalty at the Mexican Grand Prix next weekend, plus two penalty points, were awarded by stewards for the collision.
Alex Albon, Sainz’s teammate, and Gabriel Bortoleto, a rookie from Brazil, collided in the first corner.
Although the race was held at a lower temperature than anticipated, the weekend was declared a heat hazard (about 28.6 degrees Celsius (83. 5 Fahrenheit).
Source: Aljazeera
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