21 October 2023 , 22:35
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Lewis Hamilton pushed Max Verstappen hard in the opening laps of the United States Grand Prix Sprint, but was unable to stop the Dutchman from winning.
The Mercedes man got the better of Charles Leclerc early on and avoided a penalty despite appearing to overtake off the track. Hamilton was allowed to keep the place and was gunning for Verstappen, but he just did not have the race pace to trouble the Red Bull.
Leclerc came home third, but his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz was unable to hold off the charge of Lando Norris. The McLaren man had given a glum prediction of his chances this weekend, but is proving himself wrong after qualifying second for Sunday's Grand Prix and showing good pace in the Sprint.
Sainz had started on the soft tyres which began to lose grip around half-way through. Sergio Perez soon swallowed him up. George Russell didn't but he still scored a point despite picking up a penalty for an illegal overtake on Oscar Piastri.
Leclerc got an excellent launch off the line and put Verstappen under pressure, but the Red Bull racer was in no mood to let the Ferrari man through. He squeezed Leclerc as much as he could on the inside of the track while still giving his rival enough room on the track.
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That pinched him into the first corner and made sure the Monegasque could not complete the overtake. And Hamilton took advantage of the scrap to slip by the Ferrari and into second place.
He wasn't there simply to settle for the runner-up spot. He was able to keep up with Verstappen's Red Bull with particularly strong pace in the first sector of the track helping him to remain within DRS range of his rival.
And Verstappen was feeling the heat as he complained over the radio about a lack of rear grip. However, as race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase reminded him, it was particularly gusty at the Circuit of the Americas and the wind was likely a major factor in that.
Behind them, the two Ferraris had got the better of the McLarens and were comfortable in third and fourth. Norris was keeping up with them but Piastri had picked up damage on the opening lap and was tumbling down the order.
Russell needed to go off the track to get past though and, despite his protests over the radio, the Brit was handed a five-second time penalty for that move. Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon managed to get past Piastri legally with relative ease as the Aussie struggled with his ailing McLaren.
And Sainz soon began to have problems of his own as his soft tyres lost grip, degradation clearly much higher than Ferrari had expected. Norris and Perez made light work of getting past the Spaniard, but Russell could not manage it – though he stayed far enough ahead of Albon to avoid gifting the Williams driver a point.