Charles Leclerc took his third win of the season with victory at the United States Grand Prix over Carlos Sainz for a Ferrari one-two, while Lando Norris lost third place with a five-second penalty in a bitter battle with Max Verstappen.

The Monegasque man got off to a quick start and pounced on the battling front row duo of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, cutting inside at Turn 1 and escaping through the sweeping corners with the lead.

At the end of the first lap he immediately built a lead of 1.6 seconds to fend off the threat of Verstappen with DRS, as the Dutchman had benefited from a conservative approach from Norris in the first corner to secure second place.

Leclerc then had to defend against Verstappen after a safety car retirement midway through the third lap, caused by Lewis Hamilton spinning at Turn 18 and leaving his Mercedes stranded in the gravel, capping off a torrid weekend.

Although Verstappen stuck with Leclerc on the restart, the Ferrari driver covered the Red Bull in the corner complexes from Turns 2 to 8 to ensure there was no danger from behind.

After a long period of starting the race with a one-stop, which proved to be the most popular strategy, Leclerc left the pits after his stop on lap 26 behind the long-serving McLarens as Norris and Oscar Piastri attempted to get a tire offset in the final stages of the race.

After the McLarens stopped, Leclerc took the lead again, but this was now over his teammate Carlos Sainz; The Spaniard had successfully overcome an earlier performance problem to stay at Verstappen's side, and then undercut the Red Bull with a stop four laps earlier.

Sainz occasionally took the lead from Leclerc, cutting his lead from seven seconds to under six seconds, but Leclerc got ahead of Sainz in the final laps and consolidated his victory from fourth on the grid.

But the blockbuster action came to the fore in the battle for third place, as Verstappen's troubles on the hard tires and Norris' pace on a set of white-walled Pirellis six laps younger left the two in a breathless battle for the final spot on the podium.

Norris cut a six-second lead and came within DRS range of Verstappen on lap 45, setting up a series of overtaking attempts as their fight for the championship manifested itself brilliantly on track.

But Verstappen's defense was excellent and he kept Norris at bay; Norris struggled to get within the half second he needed to make a real attempt to overtake on the back straight into Turn 12.

It all came to a head on the 52nd lap when Norris tried to get to Verstappen on the outside – but both drivers missed and Norris went off the track and moved into the lead. Hoping to stave off the threat of a five-second penalty, Norris tried to drop Verstappen but only built a lead of 4.1 seconds.

The stewards duly gave Norris five seconds for overtaking off the track, ensuring that Verstappen finished on the podium with a lead of just 0.9 seconds.

Piastri was a further 1.5 seconds behind Norris in the final race times and finished fifth, 34 seconds ahead of George Russell, who, after crashing in qualifying, turned a pitlane start into sixth thanks to a late overtake from Sergio Perez.

Nico Hülkenberg finished eighth, ensuring Haas was able to put two points between himself and RB in the battle for sixth place in the constructors' championship, although Liam Lawson celebrated his return to F1 with ninth place, with the opposite strategy heavy wheels to start.

Franco Colapinto took the final point after also benefiting from starting on the hard tyre, eight seconds ahead of Magnussen, whose impressive race was canceled out by two stops.