Max Verstappen’s perfect weekend in America concluded after leading every lap in the Grand Prix, gaining 15 more points in the championship fight.
It was a much cleaner start today compared to yesterday’s sprint race, with no one crashing into each other going into turn 1.
Lando Norris didn’t have a great start, getting knocked down into 3rd place on the exit of turn 1, thanks to the soft tyres being used by Charles Leclerc propelling himself up to second.
Piastri, on the other hand, had a decent start, managing to get up to fifth after overtaking Russell, and managing to defend from an attempted counter attack at turn 11.
Norris needed to get past Leclerc as soon as possible if he wanted any chance of winning the race, and had made an attempt to overtake around the outside at turn 12, but they were both well defended by the Ferrari ahead.
A virtual safety car was called out on lap 7 after Sainz made contact with Antonelli trying to dive down the inside at turn 15, sending the Mercedes into a spin and forcing himself to retire at the pit entrance.
The incident helped with Yuki Tsunoda’s quietly strong start, helping him gain six positions to climb up to seventh.
Once green flag running resumed, it appeared that Norris dropped back on Leclerc, with Hamilton behind also finding himself with a bigger gap to Norris as well.
Norris had managed to catch back up by lap 14, and by lap 15 he was ready to attack once again, but it was the same story as before, with Leclerc excellently defending by forcing Norris to the outside of turn 12.
Norris was finally able to overtake Leclerc on lap 21, but by the time he did, he was 10 seconds behind Verstappen. Leclerc would be under pressure from Hamilton soon after, before finally pitting on lap 23.
The race had significantly settled down in the middle portion of the race, as drivers looked to nurse their tyres to make a one stop strategy work between the medium and soft tyres.
There was nearly another safety car that came out on lap 34, as Bearman looked to make an overtake on Tsunoda at turn 15, but the Red Bull driver would move under braking, forcing Bearman off track and forcing him to spin, the two narrowly avoiding contact.
After the round of pit stops, Norris found himself behind Leclerc once again, but by lap 40 Norris was announcing that he was struggling with his soft tyres, and after a couple of laps attacking the Ferrari, he would begin to fall back.
Norris would come back at Leclerc towards the end of the race after his tyres cooled back down, initially making an initial attempt to overtake down the inside of turn 1 on lap 51, but a switchback had kept Leclerc ahead.
Then, Norris found himself close enough to threaten the position coming down the back straight, and once again made a dive down the inside of turn 12, making the move stick to take second place from the Ferrari.
Verstappen would end the race 8 seconds ahead of Norris to take a grand slam victory in Austin.
The result means that Verstappen is now 40 points behind Piastri in the championship, having gained 23 points on Piastri over the course of the weekend. With his second place finish, Norris is now 14 points behind the championship leader.
The next race is the Mexican Grand Prix, which takes place on October 26.
