Verstappen takes sprint win as Sainz pounces on late Norris mistake

Max Verstappen converted pole into a sprint victory at the United States Grand Prix, having resisted early pressure from Lando Norris to claim an untroubled first win since June’s Barcelona race.

Verstappen clinched victory with a 3.9-second margin over Carlos Sainz, who mounted a last-lap pass on Norris at Turn 1 to snatch second place.

Norris had thrown his McLaren down the inside of Charles Leclerc at the first corner and then maintained enough momentum to sit on the outside of George Russell at Turn 3 to assume the inside line for the next corner to move up to second place.

He then stayed in DRS range of Verstappen for the opening laps, closing in on the lengthy back straight but without enough pace to test his championship rival with a move into Turn 12.

But Verstappen stabilised and built a plus-one-second margin to ensure Norris could no longer use DRS, which threw the Briton into the clutches of countryman George Russell.

This set Norris back a further second in defending from the Mercedes driver; Russell’s challenge subsided as he struggled with tyre wear, and Norris then attempted to get back into Verstappen’s wheel tracks for the second half of the 19-lap race.

Although Norris started to close the now two-second gap and got as close as 1.2s behind, Verstappen was able to dig out more pace from an improved Red Bull and reclaimed his advantage, tacking on a few further tenths to fully ward off a late-race challenge from Norris as the McLaren driver dropped off.

Carlos Sainz then capitalised; the Spaniard had brought himself into play having passed team-mate Leclerc on the fifth lap with a well-judged move at Turn 15 and let the Monegasque run out of road. The ailing Russell was then easy prey for Sainz, who then began to catch Norris.

Having homed into DRS range of Norris, Sainz stayed close in the final sector of the penultimate lap and pounced on the McLaren at the uphill Turn 1, forcing his former team-mate into a lock-up that ensured the Ferrari driver came up for air with second.

Norris held onto third by the skin of his teeth, nearly coming to blows with Leclerc at Turn 15 on the final lap as the Ferrari driver was surprised by his early braking into the tight left-hander. The incident was…