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max verstappen Continued his march into the Formula One championship battle by marching to victory in United States of America Grand Prix.
Lights-to-flag win completes a perfect weekend in Austin for resurgence red Bull The driver also won the Saturday sprint from pole.
lando norris won the long race and came second with charles leclerc The British driver reduced McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri’s championship lead to 14 points after the Australian could only finish fifth in the closing stages.
Verstappen’s 33 points at the weekend means he has reduced his deficit to Piastri from 63 to 40 points after a costly collision during the sprint which took both McLarens out.
The Red Bull driver announced his bid for a fifth consecutive title before the summer break, but he has closed the gap on Piastri to 104 points after Zandvoort five races ago.
That race was the last win for the previously dominant McLaren duo as a true three-way title scrap unfolds, with five rounds remaining and 141 points to contest.
Piastri will most likely have to think about staying ahead of the Mexican next weekend, having been beaten by both Norris and Verstappen in each of the last four races.
A better day for Ferrari saw Leclerc finish third and Lewis Hamilton fourth, while George Russell finished sixth for Mercedes.
Norris’s chances of threatening Verstappen at the Circuit of the Americas were dashed as he was thwarted by the fast-starting Leclerc, who was the only one of the top 15 to start on the soft tyres.
The Ferrari driver used his extra grip to charge around the outside of turn one and passed Norris on the inside at turn two as Piastri gained one place from sixth and Hamilton moved up to fourth, while Russell slipped two places from fourth.
Russell attempted to attack Piastri, but was foiled as Norris’ battle to overtake Leclerc allowed Verstappen to overtake him at the front.
Norris attacked Leclerc at Turn 12 on laps three and four but found no way. It was a dream scenario for Verstappen, who had a lead of three seconds by lap five.
Norris bide his time before launching another sustained attack on Leclerc on lap 15, but the Monegasque’s resolute defense continued to ruin the British driver’s hopes of victory, now seven seconds behind Verstappen.
Norris eventually made the move on Leclerc on lap 21, but there was another concern as he was shown a black and white flag for track limits, meaning another one would result in a penalty.
Piastri pitted after lap 30, with Norris emerging once again behind Leclerc after a lazy stop two laps later.
Norris complained that his used set of soft tires was “finished” and he fell behind Leclerc with still 16 laps to go.
His race engineer told him to cool the tires before attacking again and he did so, hunting down Leclerc and taking the lead at Turn 12 with five laps remaining.
Piastri was off the pace all weekend and there was no change in the final stages as the title leader went home in fifth place.