Verstappen takes podium for Red Bull at United States Grand Prix after penalty

Max Verstappen inherited a podium for Red Bull at the United States Grand Prix after Lando Norris was handed a time penalty.

Norris had passed Verstappen with 5 laps remaining, but a five second time penalty was handed to Norris after the McLaren passed the Red Bull when the two had gone off track.

The penalty for the McLaren meant Verstappen was classified third, giving the Red Bull a third place finish behind the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

The combination of winning the sprint and outscoring Norris in the full United States Grand Prix sees Verstappen extend his Driver’s Championship lead, with the Dutch driver now 57 points ahead of Norris with 5 races remaining of the 2024 season.

Meanwhile, Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez finished in 7th position, having been passed by George Russell in the final stages.

The result sees Ferrari narrow the gap on Red Bull in the fight for a top two position in the Constructor’s Championship , with the Milton Keynes-based team in second in the championship now just 8 points clear of third place Ferrari after the Scuderia’s 1-2 victory in Texas.

Verstappen had started second in the race and made a divebomb to try and pass Norris into turn one on lap one. His move however saw both run wide, allowing Leclerc from fourth on the starting grid to slip past and take the lead, with Verstappen running second.

Leclerc would ultimately prove unstoppable once in the lead, while Verstappen was also unable to keep pace with Carlos Sainz after he was undercut in the pit-stop cycle by the second Ferrari.

The big duel came with Norris after the McLaren proved faster on hard tyres. After several laps of Verstappen keeping Norris in DRS without a pass, a move into the braking zone of turn 12 proved pivotal. Verstappen’s defence lead to both cars going off track, and Norris came back on ahead, only to be penalised with the stewards ruling it was Verstappen’s corner.

Despite McLaren’s protestations, that meant a podium for Verstappen and a result that sees him extend his lead.

Meanwhile, Perez came through from ninth at the start to take seventh in an older-spec version of the car, though struggled to get past long-running midfield cars at various points of proceedings and would ultimately lose out to a battle with Russell for 6th, with the Mercedes passing by on the second-to-last lap.