Lando Norris penalty sees Max Verstappen extend drivers’ championship lead, as Charles Leclerc wins US Grand Prix

(CNN) — A controversial five-second penalty for McLaren’s Lando Norris saw the English driver lose ground in his pursuit of Max Verstappen’s drivers’ championship title, on a day when Charles Leclerc eased to victory in the United States Grand Prix.

Having relinquished pole position immediately at the start of the race, Norris overtook Verstappen to take third in lap 52, but was adjudged to have gained an advantage by leaving the track. The resulting penalty saw Verstappen promoted back to a podium finish, and Norris relegated down to fourth.

“If I defended better in turn one and wasn’t driving like a muppet, then I should have led after turn one, and we shouldn’t have had this conversation in the first place,” said Norris afterwards, per Reuters.

“It’s a momentum killer,” he added. “Even if I came around turn one in first, I would never have finished first or second and I only could have finished third. But the one guy I need to beat is Max and that’s the guy I didn’t beat today.”

The McLaren driver has mounted a recent charge for top spot in the drivers’ championship, having finished in front of Verstappen at each of the last four races before Sunday – winning two, including the last race in Singapore.

However, Norris still needed to average 8.67 points more than the Dutchman per race weekend to become champion, and now needs to better Verstappen by more than 11 points per race in the remaining five events.

Meanwhile, Ferrari achieved a one-two finish in Austin, Texas, with Leclerc followed 8.5 seconds later by teammate Carlos Sainz.

The Monégasque driver took advantage of a duel between Norris and Verstappen on the first corner to move to the front of the pack, where he remained for the rest of the race.

“[I’m] very happy,” said Leclerc per Formula1.com. “It hasn’t been an easy weekend, until now I have been struggling a bit with the feeling with the car, but I had the confidence that in the race the feeling was better, and it was the case.

“We’ve seen it yesterday in the Sprint race, we were a bit… not scared, but we thought the others would improve a lot more today, but we still had the upper hand so really happy with today. A one-two for the team, we couldn’t have dreamed for better.”

The result saw Ferrari move to within 48 points of first-placed McLaren in the constructors’ championship standing, and just eight points behind Red Bull in second.

After nearly a month between the races in Singapore and Austin, the drivers will be back in action in Mexico this coming weekend, before competing in Brazil a week later.

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