Leclerc wins Formula 1 US Grand Prix, Verstappen finishes ahead of Norris

Charles Leclerc won Sunday's United States Grand Prix with Spaniard Carlos Sainz completing a Ferrari double while Max Verstappen succeeded in a contentious battle for the podium with his rival in the World Championship, Lando Norris, according to AFP.

Dutchman Verstappen (Red Bull) increased his lead in the overall standings over the British McLaren driver, who was fourth at the Austin Circuit of the Americas (Texas).

Norris came in ahead of the three-time world champion but his third place was withdrawn due to a five-second penalty for running off the track with three laps to go. The decision was deemed "inappropriate" by the McLaren team.

Norris, who had started from pole position, is now 57 points behind Verstappen with five races remaining in the season. Leclerc is third at 79.

Meanwhile, Argentine Franco Colapinto (Williams) scored again by finishing tenth. The young driver, who had started in fifteenth place, showed off his talent in a race in which he even lapped in eighth position. "I'm happy, we did a good job," Colapinto said. "The pace was very good and when I had free air we proved to be the strongest in the middle part of the grid."

Mexico's Sergio Perez (Red Bull) was seventh and Spain's Fernando Alonso came in (Aston Martin) thirteenth.

"We couldn't have dreamed of anything better"

The Austin race, attended by music celebrities such as Sting and sports celebrities such as Armand Duplantis, was another chapter in the Verstappen-Norris head-to-head but ended up serving as vindication for Ferrari.

Leclerc, who jumped from fourth at the start to the lead at the first corner, won by 8.562 seconds over Sainz and celebrated the eighth win of his career and third this year after Monaco in May and Italy in September.

"It hasn’t been an easy weekend until now. I’ve been struggling a bit with the car but I had the confidence that in the race, the feeling was was better," said Leclerc. "Really happy with the one-two for the team... we couldn’t have dreamed for better.."

Collapse in points

Under the hot Austin sun, the start of the race was a nightmare for Norris, who lost first place within seconds and collapsed to fourth. His McLaren became embroiled in a tussle with Verstappen's Red Bull and allowed Leclerc and Sainz to overtake him on the inside of turn one.

Leclerc emerged with the top spot when Britain's Lewis Hamilton lost control of his Mercedes and got stuck in the gravel. Colapinto came from behind and surpassed Alonso.

Past the halfway point, the Williams driver overtook 'Checo' Perez and moved up to eighth place. In the lead, Verstappen lost second position to Sainz at his pit stop on lap 26 and the excitement then focused on his close battle for third place with Norris.

The duo battled fiercely for a dozen laps until 'Mad Max' was overtaken with four laps to go in Norris' maneuver. Colapinto, who had dropped to twelfth at the pit stop, overtook Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly and went on to hold the fastest lap of the race until it was snatched from him by Esteban Ocon with two laps to go.

The Argentinean scored his fifth point of the course and will now travel to the Mexican Grand Prix to continue working on improvinf for next season.