Max Verstappen wins sprint race in Austin: 'It was trickier than expected'

Published on 18 October 2025 by Kees-Jan Koster

Max Verstappen convincingly won the sprint race in Austin. The Dutchman got away well from pole position and retained the lead. Chaos erupted behind the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver as Nico Hülkenberg, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri tangled in Turn 1, causing both McLarens to retire. After the safety car restart, George Russell attempted an overtake on Verstappen, but both went wide, and Max held on to first place. From then on, his victory was never in doubt, giving Verstappen his second sprint race win of the season. Russell finished second for Mercedes, with Carlos Sainz taking third for Williams.

After the race, Max said: “The start was good. Then there was the safety car because of the incident in Turn 1, which worked out well for me. I needed a few laps after the restart to get decent pace, so we will need to find out what is going on there. But nevertheless, we won the sprint, which is of course the most important.”

Verstappen continues: “Looking ahead to tomorrow, if we want to win, we need to be a bit better in race trim to be able to fight the McLarens, because we have not seen anything of them. It was trickier than expected, so that’s something we need to analyse. We have some ideas about what we can do, and hopefully tomorrow will go a bit better.”

It was warm and sunny at the start of the 19-lap sprint race at the Circuit of the Americas near Austin, with a track temperature of 30°C. The entire field started on medium compound tyres. Max made a perfect start from pole and held onto the lead through the opening corner. Behind him, however, chaos ensued. Hülkenberg, starting from P4, finds himself in a squeeze at Turn 1 and touches Oscar Piastri, who in turn hit his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, sending him spinning. Both Norris and Piastri sustained too much damage to continue. Fernando Alonso was also caught up in the incident and had to retire.

The safety car was deployed with Verstappen leading, followed by George Russell and Carlos Sainz. The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were running fourth and fifth. On lap six, the race resumed, with Verstappen holding his lead at the restart and no position changes behind. Russell managed to close the gap to Verstappen and tried an overtake into Turn 12 on lap eight. The Mercedes driver went off track, forcing Max to take evasive action, but the Red Bull driver maintained his lead.

After that attempt, Verstappen was unchallenged, steadily building his advantage over Russell. On lap sixteen, Lance Stroll locked up in an optimistic move on Esteban Ocon and crashed into the side of the Haas driver. Both cars retired with damage, bringing out the safety car once again. With only three laps remaining, the race finished behind the safety car, giving Verstappen his second consecutive sprint race victory in Austin. He also closed the gap to the McLaren drivers in the championship by eight points. George Russell finished second, with Carlos Sainz third. Lewis Hamilton came home fourth, followed by teammate Leclerc in fifth. Alexander Albon, Yuki Tsunoda and Kimi Antonelli completed the top eight, claiming the remaining points.

Qualifying for the United States Grand Prix gets underway at 11:00 p.m. Dutch time.

Contest GP Austin: win a by Max Verstappen signed Red Bull Racing cap!

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Results sprint race United States: