Dominant, untouchable and bearing a broad, beaming grin in the Texas sunshine, the transformation in Max Verstappen after he took victory at the US Grand Prix could not have been starker.
The disillusioned and dissatisfied driver who felt his title defence was long over has, against all the odds and indeed his own expectations, restaked his claim as a genuine contender in a deliciously tight Formula One world championship battle. Little wonder there were smiles, Verstappen knows he is back in the fight.
Verstappen beat title rival Lando Norris into second and with Norris’s McLaren teammate, and championship leader, Oscar Piastri managing only fifth from sixth on the grid, the meeting in Austin has set up an enormously tense run-in as the season enters its final five meetings. Norris has now closed to within just 14 points of his teammate.
For Verstappen the victory has put him emphatically back in the title fight. He now trails Piastri by 40 points and Norris by 26. His hopes for a fifth drivers’ title remain a long shot, he needs to keep winning and for McLaren to fumble, but on this form and with the car looking increasingly impressive he will revel in bringing the pressure to bear and has far more experience than Norris and Piastri in closing out at the sharp end of a championship.
Once Verstappen had held his lead from the start he was indomitable out front. He was without doubt aided in that any potential challenge from Norris was stymied when the McLaren driver lost second place to Charles Leclerc through turn one. The Monegasque made a blistering opening on the quicker soft tyres, a gamble from Ferrari that paid off at Norris’s expense.
After which Norris duelled with Leclerc all race until with a spirited effort at the death he claimed back second for good, but all the while Verstappen had made hay and was gone. Leclerc took third but Piastri, never really on the pace all weekend in Austin, could make no charge forward as his championship lead became slender indeed.
With the leaders all one-stopping, strategies were largely matched and Verstappen, enjoying clean air out front, needed no second invitation to grind out the kind of relentless win that notably marked his previous titles.
The turnaround for Verstappen has been little short of extraordinary. Piastri had 104 points over him after the Dutch GP at the end of August, with the main consideration at the time being when and which McLaren driver might secure the championship.
Since then, in the space of four grands prix and one sprint, well over half that advantage has been erased and Verstappen has taken three GPs and one sprint win from four meetings. Five races and two sprints are still to come and it is worth observing that since the Dutch GP neither McLaren driver has finished in front of the world champion.
The timing has played its part. McLaren ceased development of their car some time ago, shifting resources to the 2026 model, but Red Bull continued to address the failings that had stymied them all season. Since the new team principal, Laurent Mekies, took over from Christian Horner in July, that they have been successful in doing so has been increasingly evident.
In recent meetings on a variety of circuits and conditions the team appear to have solved the narrow operating window that was hampering performance, an achievement Verstappen has admitted that “nobody expected”.
When asked his reaction had someone suggested he would be in this position back at the Dutch GP, he was blunt. “No I would have told them he was an idiot,” he said.
He has cited a “different philosophy”, a new working approach that suggests the RB21 was never quite the undriveable beast the first half of the season indicated but rather that its consistent performance had to be teased out. Every indication after this sweeping victory in the US is that they have done so and Verstappen is now wielding it with joyful precision.
Notably, the McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, who has refused repeatedly to write off Verstappen this season, made his position clear on Saturday after the world champion had cantered to victory in the sprint race and claimed pole. “We need to be ready as a team and as drivers for Max and Red Bull being competitive and possibly the fastest car at every one of the remaining races,” he said.
That assessment looks all the more indisputable after this win and a sobering consideration indeed for the team that had until recently exerted an iron grip on the title race. Yet at no point this weekend did either of the McLaren drivers look like they had the edge on Verstappen.
The sprint crash was costly with both Norris and Piastri taken out, but in qualifying Norris was still three‑tenths off Verstappen’s pole time and in race pace, even McLaren’s previous ace in the hole for so long, being able to work its tyres harder and longer, had been at least matched in the US by the Red Bull.
1 Max Verstappen (Neth) Red Bull 1hr 34mins 161sec
2 Lando Norris (GB) McLaren at 7.959sec
3 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari at 15.373
4 Lewis Hamilton (GB) Ferrari at 28.536
5 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren at 29.678
6 George Russell (GB) Mercedes at 33.456
7 Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) Red Bull at 52.714
8 Nico Hülkenberg (Ger) Sauber at 57.249
9 Oliver Bearman (GB) Haas F1 at 1:04.722
10 Fernando Alonso (Sp) Aston Martin at 1:10.001
11 Liam Lawson (NZ) Racing Bulls at 1:13.209
12 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin at 1:14.778
13 Kimi Antonelli (It) Mercedes at 1:15.746
14 Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams at 1:20.000
15 Esteban Ocon (Fr) Haas at 1:23.043
16 Isack Hadjar (Fra) Racing Bulls at 1:32.807
17 Franco Colapinto (Arg) Alpine at 1 lap
18 Gabriel Bortoleto (Br) Kick Sauber at 1 lap
19 Pierre Gasly (Fr) Alpine at 1 lap
DNF: Carlos Sainz Jr (Sp) Williams 5 laps completed
Fastest Lap: Antonelli 1min 37.577secs on lap 33
Drivers' standings: 1 Oscar Piastri 346pts, 2 Lando Norris 332, 3 Max Verstappen 306, 4 George Russell 252, 5 Charles Leclerc 192, 6 Lewis Hamilton 142, 7 Kimi Antonelli 89, 8 Alexander Albon 73, 9 Nico Hülkenberg 41, 10 Isack Hadjar 39, 11 Carlos Sainz Jr 38, 12 Fernando Alonso 37, 13 Lance Stroll 32, 14 Liam Lawson 30, 15 Esteban Ocon 28, 16 Yuki Tsunoda 28, 17 Pierre Gasly 20, 18 Oliver Bearman 20, 19 Gabriel Bortoleto 18, 20 Franco Colapinto 0, 21 Jack Doohan 0
Constructors' standings: 1 McLaren 678pts (champions), 2 Mercedes 341, 3 Ferrari 334, 4 Red Bull 331, 5 Williams 111, 6 Racing Bulls 72, 7 Aston Martin 69, 8 Sauber 59, 9 Haas 48, 10 Alpine 20
Stella was insistent this weekend that the team had no intention yet of prioritising either driver to see off a threat from Verstappen – but after the US GP that consideration has surely become all the more pressing and one amplified by the inexorable assuredness Verstappen demonstrated in Austin.
Lewis Hamilton was fourth for Ferrari and George Russell finished sixth for Mercedes.
