AUSTIN, Texas — Four-time reigning Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull raced to his third victory in four races Sunday at the United States Grand Prix, while McLaren’s Lando Norris took a huge chunk out of teammate Oscar Piastri’s lead in the championship standings by finishing second.
Piastri was a distant fifth in the race, allowing Norris — second in the standings — to pull within 14 points of him with five GP races and two sprint races to go this season.
Verstappen also is closing fast with his late-season charge. Third in the standings, Verstappen now trails Piastri by 40 points and Norris by 26, and he has put the McClaren drivers on notice he intends to chase them all the way to the end of the schedule.
Neither of the McLaren drivers has won a season championship on the top international open-wheel circuit. Verstappen is hunting his fifth in a row, and his dominant form of late has given him a real chance to get it.
He also won the sprint race Saturday after the two McLarens ran into each other on the first turn and crashed out.
“It was an unbelievable weekend for us,” Verstappen said. “The chance is there. We just need to try to deliver these kind of weekends until the end.”
Norris’ late pass of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for second earned the 25-year-old British driver a crucial position and points as he chases his 24-year-old Australian teammate and hopes to hold off Verstappen over the final stretch of the season.
Verstappen started in pole position Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas and was never challenged for the lead in collecting the 68th GP victory of his F1 career, as well as his fourth in five years in Austin. The 28-year-old Dutch driver built a 10-second lead by the halfway point as Norris and Leclerc drove a furious battle for second.
“It was a good battle with Charles. He fought hard,” Norris said. “We’ll have to take second. No more we could have done today.”
Piastri’s day never got going. He started sixth and quickly made up a spot in the first few corners, but he was stuck there for the rest of the race.
Piastri’s lead is rapidly shrinking under pressure. He hasn’t won since the Dutch Grand Prix on Aug. 31, and he hasn’t finished on the podium the past three races.
“I’d still rather be where I am than the other two, but obviously this weekend was not what I wanted or expected,” Piastri said.
Verstappen has shaved a 104-point deficit to 40 in just four races. That includes the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where Piastri crashed on the first lap.
Next Sunday’s race is in Mexico City, where Verstappen has five career victories at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
“I think we need to be perfect until the end to have chance” to win the championship, Verstappen said. “We’ve caught up a lot. At the same time, the gaps (between cars) are very small.”
Piastri said before the race he did not expect the team to favor either driver for the championship over the final stretch of the season. He was asked again after his poor race Sunday.
“I don’t think so. We are so incredibly tight, and we both said we want an opportunity to try and fight for the championship because we deserve it,” Piastri told Sky Sports. “I think it is far too close to start picking one or the other.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said the team should relish the chance to fight for a drivers championship.
“It is a privilege to be there, we have the pace to be there. It is about execution, believing in it and we do believe,” Stella said. “We never want to lose the joy of doing that. The tension is part of the game.”
Ferrari is still winless this season, but the team showed flashes with its 3-4 finish from Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time F1 champion and the series’ all-time leader in GP victories.
And it came a day after Ferrari chairman John Elkann issued a statement saying he has “full confidence” in team principal Fred Vasseur amid persistent speculation that former Red Bull racing boss Christian Horner could take his job.
“I’m very happy,” Leclerc said. “It was good day, especially considering the situation. The second part of the season hasn’t been easy. There are completely unfounded noise and rumors around the team. To demonstrate we can stay focused on the job and be rewarded with a podium is really nice.
Mercedes driver George Russell was sixth, followed by Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull), Nico Hulkenber (Sauber), Oliver Bearman (Haas) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) to complete the point-earning positions.
F1 officials announced before Sunday’s race a contract extension to keep the event at the Circuit of the Americas through the 2034 season. The current contract was set to expire after 2026.
The only purpose-built F1 track in the country, the Austin venue has been an important footprint for F1 in the U.S. since it opened in 2012.