F1: Red Bull’s Verstappen wins Austin sprint to stretch lead over Norris

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the U.S. Grand Prix sprint from pole position on Saturday to end an eight-race losing streak and extend his Formula One championship lead over McLaren’s Lando Norris to 54 points.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz finished second, 3.882 seconds behind Verstappen, after passing Norris at the start of the last lap at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas when the Briton went too deep into turn one.

“It feels a bit like old times. I’m very happy with today. If you look at the whole race, Ferrari was also very quick,” said Verstappen.

“For us, finally we are racing again. Normally we are always looking back but now we can just do our own race, so we had good pace.”

The victory was Verstappen’s first of any sort since a sprint in Austria in June and meant the triple champion has now won all four 100km sprints so far this season with two more still to come.

Norris had made a great start from fourth on the grid, seizing second place on the inside into the first corner and holding on until the 19th lap.

The Briton almost lost third place as well as he went wide at turn 12 with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc right behind and they almost tangled at turn 15.

Stewards noted potential erratic driving by the McLaren contender.

“It was a tough one. I thought I could hang onto second but Carlos did a good job. My front tyres were completely finished, so there wasn’t a lot I could do,” said Norris.

“A disappointing end but I’m happy with the race result and a good amount of points.”

Leclerc was fourth with the Mercedes pair of George Russell and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton finishing fifth and sixth.

The Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg took the final points in seventh and eighth, a big boost for the U.S.-owned team in their home race.