Max Verstappen drove to a simple win in Saturday’s (Oct. 18) F1 Sprint race at Circuit of the Americas and picked up another eight points as he continues working to cut into his deficit to the two McLaren drivers.
George Russell and Carlos Sainz completed the podium after the former made a brief attempt at the lead before Verstappen stretched the gap and drove away. The race eventually ended under the Safety Car and Verstappen drove to the win under neutralized pace for the last few laps.
“The start was good then, of course, there was a Safety Car because of the turn 1 incident,” Verstappen told Sky Sports’ Jenson Button after the race. “It took a few laps after the Safety Car to have decent pace, so we need to figure out what was going on there. But nevertheless, we won the Sprint, which is, of course, the most important. But already looking at tomorrow, I think we need to be a bit better in race trim to be able to fight the McLarens, because haven’t seen anything from them.”
The start of the race was derailed when Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso were caught up in a first-corner collision which left both McLaren drivers out of the race.
From the time the race restarted on the sixth lap, Verstappen only had to defend one major attack from Russell before his Red Bull came to life and he was able to stretch his lead beyond DRS range of the Mercedes driver.
Behind the top three, the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were running fourth and fifth, collecting solid points but failing to show any pace that would indicate the team is looking ahead to a weekend worth remembering.
Alexander Albon, Yuki Tsunoda, Oliver Bearman, Kimi Antonelli and Liam Lawson completed the points-paying positions when the final Safety Car of the race was deployed on lap 16.
Despite being scheduled for 19 laps, fates were sealed when the lap-16 Safety Car neutralized the race after Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll collided in turn 1, littering the track with debris that could not be cleared in time for the race to resume.
2025 F1 Sprint COTA Results
Qualifying for the United States Grand Prix is set for 5 p.m. ET on Saturday, with the Grand Prix to follow at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday (Oct. 19) with coverage on ESPN.
Alex is the IndyCar Content Director at Frontstretch, having initially joined as an entry-level contributor in 2021. He also serves as Managing Director of The Asia Cable, a publication focused on the international affairs and politics of the Asia-Pacific region which he co-founded in 2023. With previous experience in China, Japan and Poland, Alex is particularly passionate about the international realm of motorsport and the politics that make the wheels turn - literally - behind the scenes.