Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen took his fourth Sprint win of the season with a controlled drive from pole to victory at the Circuit of the Americas as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz passed Lando Norris on the final lap to steal second place from the McLaren driver. 

At the start of the 19-lap race Verstappen got away well from the front of the grid to take the lead. Norris, starting from fourth place, took a tight line into Turn and as front-row starter George Russell moved wide to defend against the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, the McLaren driver was able to slip past both Leclerc and Russell to claim P2. 

In the opening phase of the race, Norris was able to stay within DRS range of Verstappen, but when the Red Bull driver managed to break the one-second barrier on lap 5, Norris began to fall back towards Russell who was pushing hard to make ground. 

However, the Mercedes driver was taking too much out of his Medium-compound Pirelli tyres in the pursuit and after complaining that his front right was “toast” he fell back towards both Ferrari drivers. 

Initially it was Leclerc who was in pursuit but after close battle, he lost out to team-mate Sainz who got past in Turn 15 on lap five. Sainz then closed in on the faltering Russell and passed the Mercedes. The Sopanish driver then began to close on Norris, setting up a grandstand finish. 

At the front, Verstappen was in control, creating a three-second gap to Norris and then allowing Norris to get to within 1.5s as he saved tyres before stretching away again. 

Norris, though, was stressing his front tyres too much and in the closing stages Sainz attacked on way to Turn 1. Norris locked up and Sainz eased past to take P2. 

Norris then came under pressure from Leclerc but just managed held onto third ahead of the Ferrari driver. Russell finished fifth, with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in P6 ahead of Haas pair Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg. 

2024 FIA Formula 1 United States Grand Prix – Sprint
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 19 31'06.146 
2 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 19 31'10.028 3.882
3 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 19 31'12.386 6.240
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 19 31'13.102 6.956
5 George Russell Mercedes 19 31'21.912 15.766
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 19 31'24.870 18.724
7 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 19 31'31.307 25.161
8 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 19 31'32.734 26.588
9 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 19 31'36.096 29.950
10 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 19 31'43.205 37.059
11 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 19 31'44.509 38.363
12 Franco Colapinto Williams/Mercedes 19 31'45.606 39.460
13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 19 31'47.382 41.236
14 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 19 31'48.141 41.995
15 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 19 31'48.950 42.804
16 Liam Lawson RB/Honda RBPT 19 31'50.154 44.008
17 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 19 31'50.710 44.564
18 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 19 31'52.953 46.807
19 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari 19 31'58.988 52.842
20 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari 19 32'00.622 54.476