Verstappen turns the screw in Texas as Norris finally finds a way past Leclerc
Max Verstappen didn’t so much win the United States Grand Prix as manage it with a quiet sort of menace. From the moment the lights went out at the Circuit of the Americas, the Red Bull driver covered the inside into Turn 1, slammed the door on Lando Norris, and settled into that brisk, unsentimental rhythm he’s made a habit of. It was the sort of afternoon where the stopwatch did all the talking: a 10‑second cushion built while those behind argued about the order of the chase.
Ferrari rolled the dice at the start, Charles Leclerc lining up on the softs and using the extra bite to pinch second from Norris up the hill. Norris could sit in DRS but not step past, and as he flirted with the track limits—three warnings, one misstep from a penalty—his best chance at an early strike evaporated. Verstappen, out front and unbothered, simply cleared off.
Only when Leclerc’s softs inevitably cried enough on Lap 22 did the picture change. Norris finally broke free into second, but his afternoon became a damage‑limitation exercise against the four-time champion up the road, who had already done the heavy lifting.
Ferrari tried to flip it with Leclerc on a long middle stint on mediums. McLaren went later—Norris in on Lap 36 for a set of softs—and that left the closing act written as a straight fight: Leclerc on older mediums, Norris on newer softs that were quick but starting to slide. For a handful of laps the gap ebbed and flowed, Norris falling back to breathe life into the rubber before attacking again. Leclerc covered Turn 1 with a smart, elbows‑out defense, but Turn 12 told the truth: Norris forced the inside, committed on the brakes, and prised open P2 with four laps left.
Up front, Verstappen mirrored McLaren’s call a lap after Norris, bolted on softs and kept it all tidy. No drama, no radio angst, just a third win from the last four race weekends and a tidy trim off the McLaren pair’s advantage in the championship picture.
Leclerc took third—brave call, hard fight, and probably the right outcome given the pace delta—while Lewis Hamilton backed him up in fourth to complete a solid haul for Ferrari. Oscar Piastri was a distant fifth in the second McLaren, never truly plugged into the lead pace after losing ground early and spending much of the race in no‑man’s‑land.
George Russell brought the Mercedes home sixth, steady rather than sparkling, while Yuki Tsunoda delivered his best Sunday of the year in the second Red Bull with seventh. It wasn’t headline‑grabbing but it mattered: tidy stops, tidy pace, tidy points.
Nico Hülkenberg grabbed eighth for Sauber with the kind of pragmatic, tire‑kind stint that’s kept him relevant for a decade. Then came Oliver Bearman—points for Haas at home in ninth, which doesn’t read like much until you measure it against the midfield traffic he had to weather. Fernando Alonso completed the top ten, hauling an Aston Martin that continues to live off its qualifying rather than its race pace.
Beyond the points, Liam Lawson’s P11 for Racing Bulls hinted at more had the midfield fight broken his way, Lance Stroll was 12th for Aston Martin, Esteban Ocon 13th in the Haas, and Kimi Antonelli 14th on a learning‑heavy day in the Mercedes. Alex Albon’s Williams followed in 15th, Pierre Gasly’s Alpine in 16th, with Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls), Franco Colapinto (Alpine), and Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) line‑astern. Carlos Sainz endured a bruiser of an afternoon and trailed home 20th for Williams.
The texture of the race belonged to the middle phase—Norris holding station, Leclerc nursing grip, Verstappen slipping away by tenths per lap—but the crucial moment was McLaren’s late call and Norris’ clean, no‑nonsense move to get it done. It salvaged the maximum from a day that threatened to trap him behind red paint. It also underlined where the title fight is right now: McLaren can bloody noses, Ferrari can disrupt the script, but Verstappen still controls the pace of the story.
If you’re keeping score, that’s momentum. In this phase of a championship, momentum is currency.
United States GP result (COTA, 56 laps): Verstappen (Red Bull) won from Norris (McLaren) and Leclerc (Ferrari). Hamilton (Ferrari) was fourth, ahead of Piastri (McLaren), Russell (Mercedes), Tsunoda (Red Bull), Hülkenberg (Sauber), Bearman (Haas), and Alonso (Aston Martin). Then Lawson (Racing Bulls), Stroll (Aston Martin), Ocon (Haas), Antonelli (Mercedes), Albon (Williams), Gasly (Alpine), Hadjar (Racing Bulls), Colapinto (Alpine), Bortoleto (Sauber), and Sainz (Williams).
Next stop: a paddock wondering if anyone can choke off Verstappen’s late‑season surge—or if Texas was the warning shot before another run to the flag.
