Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc clinched his third victory of the F1 season with a dominant Ferrari 1-2 ahead of Max Verstappen who extends his championship lead at the Circut of the Americas.
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Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri rounded out the top five, with George Russell finishing sixth from a pitlane start. Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg, Liam Lawson & Franco Colapinto also scored points in the top 10.
The talk of the weekend was how Norris could close the gap to Max Verstappen at the top of the World Drivers Championship.
The two drivers battled for the final podium spot, but the McLaren driver was given a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage after an attempted move into turn 12.
The McLaren driver had a good launch off the start line, but the current World Champion sent it down the inside at turn one and just made the corner but Norris had run wide.
It resulted in a dream start for Charles Leclerc who capitalised with a better exit to overtake the two Championship contenders to lead, with Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz overtaking Norris for third place.
But further back, there was a collision between Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon which saw the latter spun around in the early stages in what was a difficult afternoon for Alpine.
At the end of the second lap, Hamilton had lost control of the car in Turn 19 and ended up in the gravel trap which saw the safety car deployed for the first time since the Canadian Grand Prix.
From the restart, leader Leclerc pulled out of the one second window from Verstappen in what was an excellent start for the Ferrari driver.
In the midfield, it was a brilliant opening for Liam Lawson who moved up to P11 on lap 11 after overtaking Fernando Alonso down the back straight into turn 12.
The day for Mercedes didn’t get much better as George Russell was given a five second time penalty for forcing Valtteri Bottas off the track at turn 12.
Sainz was the first of the front runners to pit at the end of lap 21 to try and undercut Verstappen.
The Dutch driver pitted at the end of lap 25 but fell behind of Spanish Ferrari driver, with the undercut working.
Leclerc pitted the following lap and exited the pitlane six seconds ahead of his teammate.
The stops meant that the two McLarens were in front, matching Vertsappen’s pace despite the Redbull being on fresher tyres, but were gunning for a one-stop strategy.
But with fresher tyres, Leclerc overtook Piastri on lap 31 before Norris made his pitstop at the end of the lap. The Australian driver stopped a lap later as the two McLarens were 4th and 5th.
Norris had the tyre advantage on Verstappen and was closing the gap. Elsewhere, a spin for Yuki Tsunoda at turn 1 on lap 42 ended his chance of a points finish.
On lap 44, the Brit managed to get within DRS range of his championship rival, three laps later, Norris made his first attempted move into turn 12.
Norris eventually got the move done on lap 52 into the hairpin, but did the move off the track on the exit, with Verstappen defending aggressively on the inside.
But Norris was given a five second time penalty as he left the track and gained a place.
Mercedes’ Russell capped off a brilliant recovery drive when he overtook Perez on the penultimate lap. Whilst it was an excellent outing for Liam Lawson on his return to Formula 1 to finish P9 from 19th.
The F1 season continues next weekend in Mexico, with Verstappen leading the championship by 57 points over Norris, but it was Ferrari’s day in the Austin sun.