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Max Verstappen tightened the championship battle Sunday, claiming victory at the United States Grand Prix while significantly cutting into Oscar Piastri's lead with five races remaining in the season.
The Red Bull driver led wire-to-wire from pole position, finishing 7.959 seconds ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris in scorching conditions at Circuit of the Americas. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc rounded out the podium in third place.
Piastri, the Australian championship leader, finished fifth for McLaren, watching his once-commanding advantage shrink to 40 points. The margin stood at 104 points before recent races, but Verstappen has collected 119 points from a possible 135 over the last five Grand Prix weekends.
"It's been an unbelievable weekend for us," Verstappen said. "I knew it wouldn't be straightforward and the pace between us was close. But my first stint did it for me."
The victory marked Verstappen's fourth in Texas, seventh on American soil, and 68th of his career. More significantly for the title race, it represented the fourth consecutive race where the four-time world champion outperformed both McLaren drivers in qualifying and racing.
Verstappen now sits third in the standings with 306 points, trailing Piastri's 346 and Norris's 332. McLaren has already secured the constructors' title for the second straight year.
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton finished fourth for Ferrari, ahead of Piastri and Mercedes driver George Russell.
The race unfolded in extreme heat, with air temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius and track temperatures hitting 44 degrees Celsius—conditions that prompted officials to declare it a "heat hazard" race.
Verstappen seized control immediately, building a three-second lead by lap four as Leclerc, the only top-ten driver starting on soft tires, initially passed Norris for second position.
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The battle for second became the race's defining subplot. Leclerc defended aggressively against Norris, who accumulated three track limits violations in his pursuit before finally overtaking on lap 21. However, pit stop strategies shuffled the order, dropping Norris back to third behind Leclerc.
The contest intensified in the final six laps as Norris mounted a renewed attack on worn medium tires. After several attempts, he executed a decisive move at Turn One on lap 52 to reclaim second place.
"It took me long enough!" Norris said. "It was a good battle with Charles, he fought hard. It was tough... But I'm happy to take second."
The result trimmed Piastri's advantage over Norris to just 14 points in the battle for second place in the championship.
"Now we have a chance to be there (in the title race) and we just have to keep delivering like that in all the weekends to the end of the season and see what happens," Verstappen said. "It's exciting. We just need to keep up the momentum."
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