@Max33Verstappen cruises to dominant #USGP Sprint victory. #F1 #UnitedStatesGP
Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing - Honda-RBPT, RB19, celebrates after winning the F1 Sprint. Formula 1 Lenovo United States Grand Prix 2023, Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, United States of America. Image credit to Mark Thompson/Getty Images. Verstappen US Sprint Victory, 2023 US GP Sprint Results, F1 US GP Sprint Results, United States GP Sprint Results.
Verstappen US GP Sprint Victory – Newly-crowned three-time world champion Max Verstappen cruised to a dominant victory in the US GP Sprint with a 9.965 second gap over Mercedes Sir Lewis Hamilton who was second as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the top three.
When the 19-lap US GP Sprint began, pole-sitter Verstappen got a solid start covering off Leclerc into turn one, as Hamilton ran off the track and overtook Leclerc to snatch second place from the Ferrari for second.
Behind them, used soft-tyre starter, Carlos Sainz made his way ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris after a late lunge on the back straight to jump up into fourth place.
At the end of the opening tour, race leader Verstappen held a 0.700 second lead over Hamilton with Leclerc third, Sainz fourth as Norris rounded out the top five.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez found his way in-front of Mercedes’ George Russell on the back straight diving on the inside of the Mercedes to grab seventh place.
On lap three, Perez overtook Piastri to take sixth place into turn 12 with the latter running wide and also lost another place by Russell to fall into eighth.
With 15 laps remaining, Verstappen held a 0.533 second lead over second-placed Hamilton, with Leclerc a further 3.439 seconds further adrift in third place, Sainz fourth and Norris completing the top five.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly also got within DRS range on the main-straight passing McLaren’s Piastri after a late-lunge into turn one to make the move stick.
On lap six, Russell was hit with a five-second timed-penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage after an overtake on the inside run-off area.
In the battle for fourth, Norris made a move on the side of Sainz at the end of the back-straight but went too deep and allowed the Spaniard to get back in-front.
With ten laps remaining, race leader Verstappen’s gap was at 2.350 seconds over Hamilton with Leclerc a further 3.746 seconds off in third, Sainz fourth and Norris rounding out the top five.
Meanwhile 10th-placed Piastri was hit with a black-and-white flag for exceeding track limits.
On the tenth tour, Norris got within the slipstream with DRS assistance down the back-straight and made a move on the inside of the used soft-tyre running Ferrari of Sainz and made the overtake stick to jump into fourth place.
A lap later, Perez made the same identical move on Sainz to move into fifth place.
On the twelfth lap, Verstappen’s gap in-front increased to 3.382 seconds over second-placed Hamilton as Leclerc was third, Norris fourth, Perez fifth and Sainz completing the top six runners.
Lap 14 saw Russell within the slipstream of Sainz in the battle for sixth and made the move on the Ferrari on the inside into turn one, but the Spaniard managed to remain wheel-to-wheel out of the exit and Sainz kept ahead of the Mercedes.
The positions remained lines astern till the end as Verstappen crossed the line to claim the US GP Sprint victory by 9.465 seconds over Hamilton as Leclerc rounded out the podium holding off Norris.
Perez finished the F1 Sprint in fifth as Sainz fended-off Russell to take sixth with the latter being demoted to eighth behind Gasly due to his five-second timed-penalty.
Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon and McLaren’s Piastri completed the top ten.
BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon ended the F1 Sprint outside the top ten in 11th place and ahead of AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo who took 12th and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who was 13th in the classification.
The second AlphaTauri AT04 entry of Yuki Tsunoda placed 14th and in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg who came 15th and the Alfa Romeo duo of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu who were 16th and 17th respectively.
Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen took 18th as Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant ended his home Sprint race at the rear.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was the sole retirement of the Sprint due to a brakes issue and parked it the garage on lap 17.
2023 US GP F1 Sprint – The Top Three
2023 US GP F1 Sprint Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing – Honda-RBPT, R19, 8 Points:
“The pace of the car was very good today, and I need it tomorrow – starting P6 is a bit different to today. Hope we can have some fun tomorrow, and of course I want to win.”
2nd Place – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team, F1 W14, 7 Points:
“That was a really fun race. Good start down to Turn 1, good battle with Charles [Leclerc] and then I was trying to get closer to Max [Verstappen] but their pace is undeniable at the moment. Nonetheless, I’m really happy to be back on the podium. Hopefully we have a good battle tomorrow.”
3rd Place – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-23, 6 Points:
“There was a gap [into Turn 1] so I went for it but yes, we need to understand what we can do better tomorrow. At the end we have quite a lot of data to analyse, having the two cars on different strategies so I hope we can take advantage of that and win tomorrow.”
Click here to see the full Formula 1 Lenovo United States Grand Prix 2023 F1 Sprint Results Classification: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1222/united-states/sprint-results.html
Click here for the 2023 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings
#USGP #SprintShootout: @MaxVerstappen edges Leclerc to pole by 0.055s. #F1 #UnitedStatesGP
#F1 #USGP FP1 Report: @Max33Verstappen 0.156s ahead of @CharlesLeclerc.
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