Max Verstappen won a chaotic sprint race in Austin which saw title rivals Norris and Piastri both crash out.
It was complete pandemonium at the start of the race, as Piastri looked to get a better start than Norris, although Norris maintained the inside line.
Then, Nico Hulkenberg saw a gap to try and overtake Piastri on the inside, but he had Alonso on his inside, getting sandwiched in between. This caused Hulkenberg to hit Piastri, who in turn hit Norris, causing both McLarens to retire from the sprint, as well as Alonso.
Other incidents throughout the field caused a major shake up in the field, with Sainz climbing to third, Leclerc and Hamilton up to fourth and fifth and Tsunoda going climbing all the way up to seventh, having started in 18th place, and having someone else’s front wing underneath his car after the turn 1 incidents.
It was a much calmer restart after green flag running resumed on lap 6, with Verstappen opting to get things going again soon after the safety car came back into the pits.
Russell was keeping up rather well with Verstappen early on, and made a major lunge heading into turn 12 on lap 8, forcing himself and Verstappen wide, after which Russell began to drop back outside of DRS range.
Hamilton had clearly been the faster of the two Ferraris, and was able to overtake his teammate for fourth place on lap 9, though not without some strong defence from Leclerc.
Antonelli had been harassing Bearman for the final points paying position all race, and had made a nice attempt at a move on lap 15 trying to go on the inside of turn 16, but it did appear that Bearman went off track to keep the position.
The safety car was called out for a second time on lap 16, after Lance Stroll made an audacious attempt to overtake Ocon coming into turn 1, having been very far behind the Haas driver going into the braking zone.
Stroll carried way too much speed going into the corner, and drove straight into Ocon, taking both of them out.
Given the late timing of the safety car, the race would finish with all the cars in formation. This meant that the podium of Verstappen, Russell and Sainz would be the exact same as that at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The result also means that Verstappen gains a crucial 8 points in his bid to keep the championship challenge alive, even if the points gap to Piastri is still 55 points.
