Max Verstappen slowly extended his points lead over Lando Norris in Saturday’s sprint race in Austin, Texas, ahead of the United States Grand Prix.
Verstappen led all 19 laps at Circuit of the Americas to extend his points lead to 54 points. Verstappen earned eight points for the win and Norris finished third with six points.
Norris started the race fourth and moved up to second behind Verstappen on the first lap. Verstappen started from pole and defended well from George Russell. Norris then passed Russell after Turn 1 following a slow exit into the corner by the Mercedes driver.
However, he lost second place on the final lap after locking his tires while braking into Turn 1. That allowed Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to move into second place, while Sainz’s teammate Charles Leclerc was fourth after from a great save on the last lap when he tried to pass Norris.
The Mercedes cars dealt with tire wear issues mid-race as Russell dropped to fifth place in front of teammate Lewis Hamilton in sixth. The Haas cars of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg achieved the last two points-scoring positions, seventh and eighth, respectively.
Saturday’s sprint race precedes qualifying for the Grand Prix. The lineup for Sunday’s race (2 p.m. ET, ABC) will be set later in the afternoon. Verstappen is the defending race winner and appears to have the fastest car, or at least a car capable of keeping everyone else at bay, through the first three sessions of the race weekend.
