AUSTIN, Texas — Max Verstappen won the 2025 United States Grand Prix sprint race, which featured a nightmare start for McLaren, as both its drivers crashed out at Turn 1.
After the Formula One pack had charged up the hill toward Austin’s Turn 1, polesitter Verstappen and Lando Norris slid deep into the left-hand hairpin and Oscar Piastri saw his chance. He’d been briefly ahead of Norris in the other McLaren before braking slightly earlier and falling back behind.
When the leaders went deep, Piastri aggressively cut back to the inside, but this put him three-wide with Fernando Alonso and Nico Hülkenberg, pinching both on the corner’s apex.
The Sauber and Piastri made contact, Piastri hit Norris and both McLaren drivers were out of the race. So was Alonso, caught up in the wave of contact that filtered all the way down the field. The stewards ultimately deemed the chaos to be the result of a racing incident, with no penalties dished out.
“That was terrible, neither of our drivers to blame there,” Zak Brown said on Sky Sports. “Some amateur hour driving. Clearly, Nico drove into Oscar. He had no business being where he was.”
The moment carried heavy implications for the drivers’ championship. Verstappen’s win cut his gap to points leader Piastri to 55, with six grands prix and two more sprint races remaining. That gap had sat at 104 points before last month’s Italian GP.
Debris covered the track, prompting the safety car to be sent out. The race resumed on Lap 6 of 19, with Verstappen still leading the pack. A few drivers had made massive gains on the start – including Charles Leclerc going from 10th to fourth, Yuki Tsunoda gaining 11 spots to be P7 at the restart, with Ollie Bearman moving up eight spots to run P8.
When the racing finally continued, George Russell was second behind Verstappen and stayed within DRS of the Red Bull. Carlos Sainz – another big start gainer – ran third.
Russell stuck close enough to Verstappen to make a divebomb move at Turn 12 on Lap 8 — an incident that the stewards noted but decided to take no further action, as both cars had gone off track.
But this effort seemed to sap the life from Russell’s tires, and by Lap 11, Verstappen had pulled away from the Mercedes to be nearly two seconds clear. Russell was warned at one point that he had two track limits infringements at Turn 12, and if he got a third, he would receive a black-and-white flag warning. If he committed a fourth, it would be referred to the stewards. Such situations usually result in a penalty.
Max Verstappen after sealing the sprint race win at Austin on Saturday (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
But that didn’t matter, as they never came back into battle again, and the race was ended under the safety car again, after Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon collided at Turn 1 on Lap 16, with the Aston Martin slamming the Haas from a long way back.
Sainz held onto third, while behind, Lewis Hamilton beat Leclerc to fourth – nipping by in a close move to Turn 12 mid-race after Leclerc had made a mistake and gone off a few corners earlier.
Considering the 27-point gap between Mercedes and Ferrari for second in the constructors’ championship before the sprint race began, it’s worth keeping an eye on this battle as the season enters the closing stages. Ferrari gained a combined nine points in this sprint, while Mercedes earned the same, thanks to Russell’s second-place finish and Kimi Antonelli finishing eighth (after Ollie Bearman was handed a 10-second penalty while battling the second Mercedes just before the second safety car).
Bearman will not be handed any penalty points for the incident, which means he will not face a race ban, as he remains on 11 points — one away from the race ban threshold.
Numerous teams will face repairs given how this chaotic race unfolded, and they only have a few hours to do it, with qualifying starting at 4 p.m. CT (10 p.m. UK).
Results
1. Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2. George Russell, Mercedes
3. Carlos Sainz, Williams
4. Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
6. Alex Albon, Williams
7. Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull
8. Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
9. Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
10. Pierre Gasly, Alpine
11. Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber
12. Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls
13. Nico Hülkenberg, Sauber
14. Franco Colapinto, Alpine
15. Ollie Bearman, Haas
DNF. Esteban Ocon, Haas
DNF. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
DNF. Oscar Piastri, McLaren
DNF. Lando Norris, McLaren
DNF. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin