And the sprint race is underway in Austin, Texas. Great reaction time for Max Verstappen, for Oskar Piastri as well. Lando Norris dropping down to third position at the moment. He'll be late on the brakes. Piastri is going to be hit by Hülkenberg and the McLaren's made contact as well. Lando Norris, Nico Hülkenberg and Oskar Piaastri involved in contact in the opening corners.
And we talked about Turn 1 and it's proved hugely consequential. Max Verstappen is miles clear on his way to 8 points further out of the lead of the McLarens. The first corner of this track lends itself to that moment. Verstappen went in deep, Norris went in deep, Piastri looked to cut back and found a car sitting on the apex. It was Nico Hülkenberg and Tsunoda's dragging a bit of front wing round as well,
which flicks out now.
And it's Hülkenberg's front wing is gone at the moment. It's Verstappen, then Russell, Sainz, Leclerc, then Hamilton, Albon, Tsunoda and Behrmann.
The point scorers at the moment. Max absolutely aced the getaway. And then look at Oscar Piastri right over, side by side, thinks about playing it on the brakes, backs out of it quite late, look at that, and then cuts in and he finds himself with Hülkenberg.
It's a sensible play from Piastri though, I think. I don't think there's any malice in that, but Hülkenberg's fighting with Alonso in their own scrap and they get side by side. Norris and Verstappen have actually gone in too deep for the corner. So Piastri's in the right place there. This is going to be the man that has the contact. Watch the reaction time for Norris. He's immediately slow from second place.
Piastri momentarily ahead. But diving in is the right thing for Norris. Hülkenberg, it's Hülkenberg but with a car on his inside as well. So for me, that's... It's a slam-dunk racing incident, that. Yeah. Okay, well, look, this is on board with Oscar.
He's thinking, right, good start. Let's play it on the brakes. You find out where you are. He's got room, leaves for the cutback. And as he does the cutback, of course,
you've got Hülkenberg coming in like a torpedo. suspension damage. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. See that. Nightmare for McLaren. I don't think Piastri, I don't think that was a ridiculous move from Piastri. I don't think this was ridiculous from Norris. It was punchy and aggressive on the brakes, but he had to go for it. And then he just gets a whack. Piastri gets a whack. Yeah, someone just wiped me out. I'm out. I'm out, I'm sorry. Alonso to the inside of Hülkenberg. Hülkenberg into Piastri. Piastri into Norris. Did that reset the World Championship battle with six Grand Prix and at the end of it,
two sprint races remaining. We're on board with Yuki Tsunoda, the driver who started in 18th position. He's now 7th. So things are going to work out for him at the first turn. He's going tight to the inside, and then contact ahead is going to open the door. He runs over Hülkenberg's front wing, which is why we saw it depart at turn 9. He avoids Alonso on the left, he avoids Piastri on the right.
Trample with Charles Leclerc. the inside of the Mercedes, I think that was Antonelli, firmly parked at the apex, a little bit of wheelbanging through the middle of the corner, and then navigates around all of the cars. It's like Demolition Derby. Big moment now for Russell. How close can he get? He knows that Verstappen will want to convert this. We go back racing once again. Slightly wide moment for Max Verstappen. The green flag flies at the circuit of the Americas
And that has been judged perfectly, seven tenths of a second across the line It signs closer to Russell than Russell is to Verstappen So this is now your top three from the Baku Grand Prix Sainz now once again up in the sharp end as he was in that one, having had a good weekend for Williams And we'll see if he can actually hold off the Ferraris or pull away from them. Williams has got good race pace. Verstappen managed it well.
I think Russell was maybe too close at the final corner and caught a load of dirty air and actually dropped away. And he's going for it! He's looking to the inside! That is absolutely outrageous for a late set for George Russell, who went for it immediately, and Max Verstappen had to take avoiding action.
You know what? Love it. Love the aggressive dive and brilliant pitting reaction from Max as well. They've both gone wide.
Pete, what is that? Completing this, the corner.
He went off the track, mate.
He's from three car lengths back, gets to the apex, lock up. You know, it's not absolutely ridiculous.
It went off, but I like the attempt.
Love the attempt. Love the fact that we're seeing Grand Prix racing. But you can understand why Max is a bit...
Well, hold on. If I didn't react and open the steering, that would have been a crash. The two Ferraris now are side by side with Lewis Hamilton getting to the apex first and he improves to fourth position. Well, we've had a melee at the first turn, Charles Leclerc looking for the switchback move. We've had Russell trying a dive bomb from halfway down the straight. We've got Verstappen 1.3 seconds clear and now Lewis Hamilton on the charge up to P4.
As we've got the car off the track ahead and that's where the opportunity came in.
Sorry.
Charles Leclerc going off at the S's in the first sector by the time they got to turn 12. The error punished by Lewis Hamilton. Just getting a replay of the moment that is under consideration now. Oliver Behrmann trying to hang on to the position and I think he might be in trouble for that one. Kimi Antone diving to the inside trying to take the place and Behrmann under investigation for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. More contact! We have Stroll and Ocon. The wheel is ripped off.
He'll have to park it up and chaos in the sprint from the first to the last. We have a safety car out. Turn number one and that was ambitious stuff.
Coming from a fair way back, locked up, not turning. That's ambitious to say the least.
Optimistic, that is just... Fairway back, locked up, not turning. That's ambitious to say the least, this.
Optimistic, that is just... Yeah, no question. Who's to blame for that one?
The ooh from the crowd told you everything you needed to know, and they'll just be relieved it wasn't for points. The Aston Martin mechanics won't be delighted, neither will the Haas ones. He didn't believe he would win again in Budapest. It's happening all the time in Formula 1. Max Verstappen wins the sprint race in Austin
to take eight points out of the total of the McLarens and heap the pressure on for the remainder of the championship. The top three completed by George Russell and Carlos Sainz, who held position.
Hold up, got a bit of work to do but hold up.
Yeah, good race. I think that's golden. We'll analyse the race.
We have got some end of the World Championship coming your way in the remaining six weekends because Verstappen is going from an outside bet to a tangible threat to the bet to a tangible threat to the McLaren hopes of a first driver's title since 2008.
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