Max Verstappen converted pole position into a dominant Sprint victory in Austin as the Dutch driver took the chequered flag comfortably ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen and Leclerc came close at the start as the former defended stoutly into Turn 1. But, once he did, he pulled away from his rivals to take his third Sprint victory of the season.

Hamilton overtook Leclerc on the exit of Turn 1 at the start, and while he stayed within DRS range of Verstappen early on, he had to settle for second, with Leclerc holding off Lando Norris at the end to take the final spot in the top three.

The drivers met a much cooler track for the Sprint than the one they had for the Shootout. As the start approached the tyre blankets were raised, showing every driver had opted for a set of the medium tyres, except for Carlos Sainz, who made the bold call to go with the softs.

When the lights went out, Verstappen made a strong getaway from pole as he covered off the attack from Leclerc in second. But as Leclerc looked to tuck in behind Verstappen, Hamilton came past the Ferrari driver on the exit of Turn 1.

Sainz, on the softs, was on the charge and he had got past Norris for fourth after making slight contact with Piastri at the start. Russell made up for his three-place grid drop to go from 11th to eighth right behind Perez in seventh.

As we headed on to Lap 2, Perez was looking incredibly racy in his RB19 and looked to make a move on the outside of Piastri at Turn 12. The rookie driver held off the challenge, with Russell behind looking to take advantage of the ongoing squabble.