AUSTIN: Red Bull’s Max Verst­appen dominated the US Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday, leading every lap to take another significant chunk out of Oscar Piastri’s Formula One championship lead on a perfect weekend in Texas.

McLaren’s Piastri finished fifth with his team-mate and closest rival Lando Norris second after passing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, last year’s winner, five laps from the chequered flag.

Piastri now leads Britain’s Norris by 14 points with five rounds and two sprints remaining, while Verstappen has slashed his gap to the Australian to 40 after being 104 behind at the end of August.

Verstappen also won the Saturday sprint from pole position at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas, while the McLarens collided and retired, on a weekend of maximum points for the four-times world champion.

McLaren have already sealed the constructors’ title.

“For sure, the chance is there,” Verstappen said of the title battle. “We just need to try and deli­ver these weekends until the end.

“We will try whatever we can. It’s exciting,” he added after his third win in the last four races and 68th of his career.

Piastri said he still had full confidence in his ability to become Australia’s first champion since Alan Jones in 1980, and no worries.

“I’d still rather be where I am than the other two,” added the 24-year-old.

Norris lost out to Leclerc at the start and then took 21 laps to find a way back past the Monegasque before pulling away and finishing 7.9 seconds behind Versta­ppen and 7.4 ahead of the Ferrari.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was fourth, with Piastri just 1.1 seconds behind, and George Russell — winner last time out in Singapore — taking the chequered flag in sixth for Mercedes.

Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda finished seventh, ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Haas’s Oliver Bearman. Fernando Alonso took the final point for Aston Martin.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2025