Verstappen dominates U.S. Grand Prix; cuts points gap to McLaren - ESPN

AUSTIN, Texas — Max Verstappen's remarkable pursuit of a fifth world title continued at the United States Grand Prix after an assured victory further cut the gap to championship leader Oscar Piastri.

Piastri could manage only a fifth-place finish after struggling all weekend with his McLaren, meaning Verstappen outscored the championship leader by 15 points and reduced the gap in the standings to 40.

Lando Norris also made inroads on Piastri's championship lead with a second-place finish, meaning his gap to his McLaren teammate now stands at 14 points with five races remaining.

The result means Verstappen has closed the gap to Piastri by 69 points over the past four rounds and is now 26 points behind Norris in second place.

«It was an unbelievable weekend for us,» Verstappen said after the race. «I knew that the race was, of course, not going to be super straightforward. I think if you look at the whole race, the pace between myself and Lando was really close. I think just in that first stint, that's where we made the difference. I could eke out a little bit of a gap, and that's basically what we what we kept till the end.»

On the battle for the drivers' championship, Verstappen confirmed «the chance is there. We just need to try and deliver these kinds of weekends now till the end. So, just try whatever we can. I think it's exciting, and I'm just very excited to the end.»

To underscore Verstappen's momentum, it was the Red Bull driver's third win in four races, and followed victory in Saturday's sprint race, which both McLaren cars failed to finish.

Verstappen's Sunday victory never looked in doubt after Norris, who started second, was passed by Charles Leclerc in the first corner and then became bottled up behind the