Verstappen keeps his calm and wins COTA Sprint, Norris P3

Max Verstappen has won the Sprint at the Circuit of the Americas. Carlos Sainz finished in second place, while Lando Norris rounded off the Top 3 ahead of qualifying later this evening in the United States.

Max Verstappen was only briefly under pressure by Lando Norris, but the Dutchman could keep his rival out of DRS distance, and managed to win the fourth Sprint of the year comfortably. On the final lap, Lando Norris made a mistake into Turn 1, and lost second place to his former teammate, Carlos Sainz. Charles Leclerc finished fourth ahead of the two Mercedes drivers, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

It was a positive day for the two Haas drivers, as Kevin Magnussen finished in P7, and Nico Hulkenberg finished in P8. Starting from P16, Oscar Piastri could get up to P10, while Sergio Perez also missed out on points this Saturday, finishing in ninth position at COTA.

As it happened

Every team chose to start on used mediums this session. Starting from pole position, Verstappen got off to a great start, and could keep the lead into Turn 1, while Norris could get up to P2. During the first laps, Leclerc tried to get past Russell, but the Briton could defend well and remained in P3. Then it was the other Ferrari driver, Sainz putting pressure on the Monegasque driver.

On Lap 2, Perez was nearly out of the session, as he locked up into Turn 12 and almost hit Franco Colapinto. On Lap 5, when Sainz could get past Leclerc in Sector 3, as the Spaniard left close to no room to his teammate. Meanwhile, Norris lost ground to Verstappen at the front, with Russell and the Ferraris chasing the Briton.

By Lap 9, Norris could begin to pull away from Russell and closing the gap to Verstappen, and Sainz could overtake Russell into Turn 15 with a hard maneouvre. A lap later, Leclerc also pulled off the same move in the same corner on Russell, and got up to fourth place.

At the front, Verstappen could fight off Norris trying to get into DRS distance, and got a comfortable lead by Lap 13, with the two Ferraris chasing the championship rivals hard. Piastri and Perez continued to climb up the grid, and by Lap 14, the Mexican was in P9, while Piastri was in P11 fighting hard against Yuki Tsunoda. In a tough battle, the Australian could get past the VCARB driver on Lap 16, however, for one of his previous maneouvre, the Australian already got a five-second penalty.

Entering the final two laps, the two Ferraris could catch up to Norris. On the final lap, Norris locked up into Turn 1, and Sainz could move up to second place. Leclerc then later almost knocked Norris as the Briton braked hard, but the Monegasque driver could avoid contact. Following the session, Norris will be investigated for driving erratically.