After months of being behind his rivals at McLaren, Max Verstappen took his first Formula 1 win of any kind since June in the United States Grand Prix Sprint Saturday (Oct. 19) afternoon.
Verstappen cruised to the win by almost 4 seconds, as Lando Norris lost second place on the final lap to Carlos Sainz. Verstappen has gained two more points on Norris, making it a 54-point gap in the Drivers’ Championship as time continues to run out for the Papaya team.
“It felt just like old times,” Verstappen said with a laugh in the podium interviews. “I’m very happy with today. If you look at the whole race, the Ferraris were very quick but I think for us, finally we are racing again.”
Outside of the top three, Charles Leclerc almost took another spot from Norris in the final sector but ended up finishing fourth.
George Russell fell from his second-place starting position to fifth, ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton in sixth.
It was a successful outing for Haas, as Kevin Magnussen finished seventh and Nico Hulkenberg took the final point of the day in eighth. These three points were enough for Haas to tie with RB in sixth in the constructor standings, with Haas having the edge due to the count back.
There were no wrecks or spins during the event.
While racing Pierre Gasly for 13th, Oscar Piastri was ruled to have forced the Frenchman off the track.
Piastri was granted a 5-second penalty that essentially killed any chance he had at finishing in the points; the Aussie ended up finishing 10th.
After qualifying later on today, the next big event at COTA will be Sunday’s United States Grand Prix. Lights out will be at 3 p.m. ET with broadcasting on ABC.
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