Max Verstappen wins sprint after crash delays race

For the second successive race start, the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri clashed on the opening lap. In Singapore, both escaped unscathed although Norris had his knuckles rapped and later revealed he was the victim of minor consequences by his team, the details of which they are yet to divulge.

In the sprint race at the United States Grand Prix, their coming together was far more calamitous as they bowed out of the race through, in truth, no major fault of their own.

Norris, who had endured a poor start, was the victim of three drivers just behind him in teammate Piastri, Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso sandwiching into turn one, and colliding. In the resulting melee, Piastri spun and took out Norris to end the pair’s sprint race hopes.

The weekend had begun with Max Verstappen still in with a mathematical chance of winning a fifth straight world title. Such an outcome seems marginally less fanciful – and yet still unlikely – now with a 55-point deficit to championship leader Piastri with 166 points still remaining before the season’s end.

Verstappen and Red Bull have been enjoying something of a late season renaissance having got to grips with a car they struggled to comprehend for much of 2025 The one real remaining question mark was how they might fare with regards to tyre wear on high-temperature circuits where the McLaren have habitually shone.

This 19-lap sprint race at the Circuit of the Americas did little to answer whether that remains their Achilles’ heel.

That said, the Dutchman complained to his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase about the state of his rear tyres during the 19-lap race which potentially does not bode well for the full grand prix.

It proved a relatively uneventful race for Verstappen out front, a moment where George Russell tried to force his way past around the outside on turn 12. It ended with both drivers going off track but, from there, Verstappen was unopposed to the finish. He eventually took the chequered flag after the safety car was deployed following another incident on track.

While the result gave him a bit more of a glimmer of hope in his title challenge, the result was overshadowed by the early exodus of the two McLarens.

Norris effectively shrugged his shoulders in the aftermath of his DNF. He said: “What else was I meant to do? I got taken out. Not a lot I could have done.”

The team were able to take solace from the fact the damage to both cars was not too serious and yet it still left their mechanics with a race against time to repair the two cars before qualifying for the main race.

Verstappen has an astonishing record in sprint races having won 11 of the 23 ever to have existed, including taking pole and the win at all three shortened versions in Texas. And for the fourth straight race he has outscored McLaren to at least put a modicum of pressure on them in the drivers’ championship.

Behind him, Russell took second with Carlos Sainz an impressive third place as Lewis Hamilton edged the Ferrari battle with Charles Leclerc a place ahead of his teammate in fourth.

It was a timely boost for a team which has struggled to understand its under-performing car amid rumours Christian Horner might be brought in to replace Fred Vasseur next, something Hamilton described as an unwanted distraction.

Photograph by Clive Mason/Getty Images