AUSTIN, Texas — The fight for the Formula 1 world championship is heating up under the blazing Texas sun with a charging Max Verstappen taking victory Sunday at the United States Grand Prix.
Verstappen's perfect weekend re-establishes the Red Bull racer as a real title threat to the McLaren drivers who lead the standings, marking a major turnaround after the reigning champion all but dismissed his own prospects earlier this year.
“I know that we need to be perfect till the end to have a chance, so that’s what we just need to focus on,” Verstappen said after the race in response to a question from NBC News. “It’s super close, and just attention to detail will make the difference. Trying to get the best set-up on the car every weekend and then try not to make mistakes. So that’s what we’ll try to do.”
Completing the podium Sunday were McLaren’s Lando Norris in second place and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in third place, who delivered the most entertaining wheel-to-wheel racing throughout the Grand Prix, trading places multiple times.
“Good strategy. Some good driving. And a fun race,” Norris said, while praising Leclerc for giving him a “tough” battle.
Championship leader Oscar Piastri of McLaren finished in fifth place after struggling all weekend, saying he has “not gelled with the car at all” at the U.S. Grand Prix weekend.
Overall, Piastri still leads the title standings with 346 points, ahead of Norris, with 332 points, and Verstappen, with 306 points.
There are five Grand Prix races left in the season, which award a maximum of 25 points for the winner, and two sprint races, which award 8 for victory. That means 141 points are up for grabs.
Verstappen, who gained maximum points by also winning the “sprint” race Saturday, is increasingly making it a three-way fight for the trophy with five Grand Prix — and two “sprint” races — remaining in the season.
After an eight-race drought at the top step of the podium, Verstappen has now won three out of the last four races — and, equally concerning for the papaya-colored team, beaten both McLaren drivers in all four.
Before the last four races, Verstappen sat 104 points behind Piastri’s lead. Now he’s just 40 points behind, netting 23 points on Piastri just this weekend.
Verstappen said that if someone had told him four races ago he’d soon be in contention for the championship, he wouldn’t have believed it, and “I would have told him he was an idiot.”
“We found a good way with the car. It’s as simple as that,” he told reporters. “Of course we put some upgrades on the car. But we understood our car a bit better — where we wanted to perform better.”
Norris still remains runner-up and has narrowed his own deficit to Piastri by finishing ahead of him in each of the last four races. He said he's just taking it one race at a time when asked to size up his gains on Piastri, and his prospects of holding off Verstappen.
“I can only score the most points I can every weekend,” Norris told reporters. “It’s quite simple. Just try and beat both drivers, and my life’s easy then.”
Asked if he worries that the championship may be slipping away, Piastri sounded a note of confidence.
“Not really. I’d still rather be where I am than the other two,” Piastri quipped. “Obviously this weekend has not been what I wanted or what I expected.”
Verstappen is “obviously there and he’s quick,” he said. “But I think for me the biggest focus is just trying to work out why this weekend was tough, and try and get back on the form we had earlier in this season.”
At the race in Austin on Sunday, Verstappen held his lead at the start and pulled away with the help of a battle behind him. Norris lost a place to Leclerc and spent more than 20 laps squabbling with the Ferrari driver before overtaking him. Leclerc got back ahead of Norris during the pit stops for fresh tires, before Norris once again overtook Leclerc.
Piastri qualified in sixth place and gained a position at the start, which he held throughout the race.
The drama between the two McLaren drivers grew over the weekend as both fight for their first-ever championship and tussle over “papaya rules” — slang for the terms of engagement between the two teammates and rivals on track that are established internally by team bosses, and have fueled criticism and controversy during the season.
At the sprint race Saturday, Norris and Piastri crashed out after falling victim to a multicar collision at the start. Norris was hit by Piastri after the latter made contact with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg while attempting an overtake. Verstappen’s victory in that race netted him 8 points on both drivers.
The paddock was abuzz with questions about whether Piastri’s “switch back” maneuver into Turn 1 was too aggressive or if it was fair racing that just ran into bad luck. Piastri staunchly defended his driving and called it a “racing incident.”
“The cars behind were going in pretty deep to the corner. So, could I have done something a bit different? Maybe, yes. But that different thing would have been to potentially let two or three cars go by,” Piastri told reporters. “So I can’t just drive around the outside of the track and let everyone use up all the space.”
