Motor racing-Verstappen wins Austin sprint to stretch lead over Norris

By Alan Baldwin

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) -Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the U.S. Grand Prix sprint from pole position on Saturday to end an eight-race losing streak and extend his Formula One championship lead over McLaren's Lando Norris to 54 points.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz finished second, 3.882 seconds behind Verstappen, after passing Norris on the 19th and last lap at Austin's Circuit of the Americas when the Briton went too deep into turn one.

"It feels a bit like old times. I'm very happy with today. If you look at the whole race, Ferrari was also very quick," said Verstappen, who also won last year's sprint and grand prix at the Texas track.

"For us, finally we are racing again. Normally we are always looking back but now we can just do our own race, so we had good pace."

The victory was Verstappen's first of any sort since a sprint in Austria in June and meant the triple champion has now won all four 100km sprints so far this season with two more still to come.

Norris made a great start from fourth on the grid, seizing second place on the inside after passing Mercedes' George Russell and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc into the first corner and holding on until the 19th lap.

The Briton almost lost third place too as he went wide at turn 12 with Leclerc right behind and they almost tangled at turn 15.

Stewards noted potential erratic driving by the McLaren contender but decided to take no further action after reviewing data and in-car video evidence.

"It was a tough one. I thought I could hang onto second but Carlos did a good job. My front tyres were completely finished, so there wasn't a lot I could do," said Norris.

"A disappointing end but I'm happy with the race result and a good amount of points."

Leclerc was fourth, after an entertaining early scrap with Sainz, and Russell and seven-times world champion teammate Lewis Hamilton finished fifth and sixth despite a major car upgrade.

Russell complained already just after half-distance that his front left tyre was "toast".

The Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg took the final points in seventh and eighth, a big boost for the U.S.-owned team in their home race.

Red Bull's Sergio Perez was ninth and McLaren's Oscar Piastri 10th after a five second penalty for forcing Alpine's Pierre Gasly off the track.

Their failure to score meant champions Red Bull trimmed McLaren's lead in the constructors' standings to 39 points.

The main U.S. Grand Prix is on Sunday, with qualifying following the sprint.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Andrew Heavens)