A lion’s Saturday for Max Verstappen who returns to victory, albeit only in the sprint race, and gains important points in the World Championship. In the mini race of the United States Grand Prix in Austin, in addition to the star of the world champion, Carlos Sainz shines as he engages in a thrilling challenge with teammate Charles Leclerc from the green light to the nineteenth and final lap which sees him finish in an exhilarating second place after also overtaking Lando Norris’ Mclaren in the final laps. Fourth in the end was the Monegasque of the Prancing Horse and then very far behind the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Big party at Haas instead with Magnussen and Hulkenberg both in the points. A sprint that has never been so beautiful which gives Verstappen two points in the standings over the British Norris and now the Dutch three-time world champion leads the standings with a 54 point advantage. Verstappen, starting from first position, got off to a perfect start and managed to maintain the lead of the race without too many worries. «Today wasn’t bad, it was a bit like the old days – said the world champion – If you look at the whole race the Ferraris are also very fast. But we can finally run again, because lately we always had to look behind us. Now we can do our race, we had a good pace. 11 Sprints out of 16 won? I win them because I don’t like them. These are always busy weekends, but the car has always been in a good window here. There’s more pressure, but luckily it works for us.” The true star of the Texan afternoon and the author of a perfect race was undoubtedly Sainz. «Here we always have fun and we managed to get a lot of action – said the Spaniard – We had good battles in the first laps, then at the end I was struggling with the tires but I saw that Lando was also suffering. I knew that if I got into the DRS zone I could finish second. I overtook in Turn 1, it was fun. The reality is that we didn’t manage the tires that much. We found ourselves in so many battles that we couldn’t focus on that. But despite this the pace was good. This is encouraging for tomorrow. In qualifying our car is not in the best condition, but we will try to do our best today.” New missed opportunity for Norris who sees the top of the standings slip away: «Honestly, I’m quite happy with the result today. I was hoping to get second but Carlos did a good job and my front tires were totally worn out. I couldn’t do much. I would have lost the position anyway, even if I defended myself more. Overall I’m happy with third place. Departure? I’ve had some good shots lately and even today I managed to shoot well. I couldn’t do more, I didn’t have the pace either to stay with Max or to beat the Ferraris.”