Max Verstappen secured his 50th Formula 1 win with a hard-fought victory at the United States Grand Prix.
Starting sixth, the reigning world champion delivered a controlled performance to make his way through the field but had to hold on from a charging Lewis Hamilton in second.
Lando Norris took the lead with a great start but couldn’t quite match the pace of Hamilton and Verstappen as he settled for third.
Race Review
At the start, Norris got the jump on polesitter Charles Leclerc to lead into Turn 1 with Carlos Sainz passing Hamilton for third.
Verstappen gained just one place upto fifth as George Russell lost three places down to eighth.
Esteban Ocon and Oscar Piastri made light contact approaching the Esses with the Frenchman suffering sidepod damage to his Alpine.
Both drivers would ultimately retire a few laps later as a result.
After their strong start, the two Ferraris soon came under pressure from Hamilton and Verstappen with Sainz first to be overhauled.
Teammate Charles Leclerc was next in their sights with Lewis sweeping past for second on the run to Turn 12.
Max was more conservative in his approach, needing a few laps before passing the Monegasque for third after a fun battle between Turns 12 and 15.
Verstappen was then the first of the leaders to pit for new medium tyres, attempting to undercut those ahead.
Norris responded a lap later and remained ahead of the Red Bull, giving the lead to Hamilton for the first time.
Further down, Fernando Alonso was among four drivers to start from the pit-lane for taking new parts but enjoyed a strong first stint to run inside the points.
Mercedes attempted to go longer with Hamilton perhaps onto a one-stop strategy, but a lock-up forced the seven-time world champion to pit earlier than hoped and fell behind Verstappen.
Leclerc went the longest of everyone, waiting until Lap 24 to make his first and likely only stop for Ferrari.
That promoted Norris back into the lead with Verstappen closing in before pouncing a few laps later at Turn 12 to take the lead.
Lando attempted an undercut by stopping for another set of hard tyres, but Red Bull would respond to keep Max ahead.
Hamilton bailed on his one-stop strategy bid by pitting again for fresh mediums, giving him a grip advantage over Norris and Verstappen ahead.
And the Briton put it to good use to catch and pass the McLaren, which also had a harvesting problem in the power unit, for P2 after a great battle at Turn 1.
Ahead though, Verstappen, despite some minor braking issues, had just enough in hand to claim victory by 2.2 seconds from Hamilton.
Norris held onto third, fending off a charging Sainz in the closing laps. Perez took fifth while Leclerc slipped to sixth as his one-stop strategy failed.
Russell followed in seventh with Pierre Gasly a solid eighth. Lance Stroll went from the pit lane to ninth for Aston Martin as Yuki Tsunoda snatched the point for the fastest lap on the last lap in P10.
The two Williams’ just missed out on points in 11th and 12th, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in 13th.
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were 14th and 15th for Alfa Romeo, with Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo completing the finishers.
Despite a strong race, Alonso was forced to retire with a suspension issue, joining Piastri and Ocon.
