Everything Trackside

Max Verstappen wins the Austin sprint race, aggressively keeping the lead from Charles Leclerc off the line. 

Pushing Charles Leclerc nearly off track, protecting his position, the Dutchman remained unchallenged during this weekend’s sprint weekend. 

While Leclerc tried to take the lead, Verstappen’s defence opened the door for Lewis Hamilton to overtake Leclerc out of turn one and take second. 

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Hamilton during the early stages of the race kept up with Verstappen but eventually began to drop back. 

He remained unchallenged from Leclerc behind as both held second and third comfortably. 

While Lando Norris had a strong start, challenging Hamilton into turn one, Oscar Piastri came into tangles with Carlos Sainz. Initially having poor acceleration, Sainz nudged the Australian.

He then struggled to hold onto position, caught by the faster cars behind of Sergio Perez and George Russell and finished tenth.

Russell was later given a five-second penalty for his move on Piastri, taking the place off track as noted by Pierre Gasly who was behind the duo as they fought.

Despite being unable to overtake Hamilton and initially losing a place to Sainz, Norris was able to fight back, overtaking Sainz on lap 10.

Sainz then came under pressure from Sergio Perez a lap later and eventually Russell in the closing stages of the race. 

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The only driver on the soft tyre, the Spaniard suffered from poor pace due to degradation. Using great race craftmanship, he was able to hold off Russell to the chequered flag to finish sixth. 

Russell finished eighth after the penalty was implemented with Gasly able to move up to seventh. 

Alex Albon painfully missed out on another point, finishing ninth, three-tenths of a second outside of the need gap to the Mercedes driver. 

Elsewhere, Perez, who started seventh, was able to make a strong comeback, overtaking Sainz before challenging Norris ahead. He was eventually unable to keep up, settling for fifth as Norris finished fourth. 

Already a difficult weekend for Aston Martin, it was made worse following Lance Stroll’s retirement on lap 17. 

Suffering from brake issues all weekend, the team had struggled to keep pace with their closest competitors, making it easy for McLaren to close in on fourth in the sprint. 

His teammate, Fernando Alonso, also continued to struggle, finishing a place behind where he started in 13^th. Leaving pointless in the sprint race, it’s unlikely the team will score points in the main race both starting at the bottom of the grid.

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Sprint race full results:

1. Max Verstappen – Red Bull
2. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes
3. Charles Leclerc – Scuderia Ferrari
4. Lando Norris – McLaren
5. Sergio Perez – Red Bull
6. Carlos Sainz – Scuderia Ferrari
7. Pierre Gasly – Alpine
8. George Russell – Mercedes
9. Alex Albon – Williams
10. Oscar Piastri – McLaren
11. Esteban Ocon – Alpine
12. Daniel Ricciardo – Alpha Tauri
13. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin
14. Yuki Tsunoda – Alpha Tauri
15. Nico Hulkenberg – Haas
16. Valtteri Bottas – Alpha Romeo
17. Guanyu Zhou – Alfa Romeo
18. Kevin Magnussen – Haas
19. Logan Sargeant – Williams
20. Lance Stroll (DNF) – Aston Martin

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