Sprint high for Max in Austin!

Sprint race winner Max Verstappen celebrates at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, on Saturday. Pic/Getty Images

Max Verstappen will be hunting a "fun" 50th career victory from sixth on the grid in Sunday's United States Grand Prix after cruising to victory for Red Bull in Saturday's sprint race. The newly crowned three-time world champion led from pole position to the chequered flag to finish 9.465 seconds clear of revitalised seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.

Charles Leclerc came home third for Ferrari, 17.997 adrift. "The pace of the car was really good today," said the 26-year-old Dutchman, who wrapped up his third consecutive drivers' title with victory in Qatar earlier in October.

‘Hopefully, we can have fun'

"But I'm going to need it tomorrow because starting P6 is going to be a bit more difficult and different from today. It makes it more interesting and hopefully we can have a bit of fun out there with quite a bit of passing...It won't be easy because I need to pass five cars to win."

Verstappen admitted he had to survive a real challenge from Leclerc at the first corner where the Monegasque driver tried to find a way through on the inside and then when Hamilton sought to maintain close contact in the opening laps.

Also Read: Leclerc takes US Grand Prix pole as Verstappen slips to sixth spot

"It was quite tight, but luckily there was a lot of space going into turn one so that definitely helped, but after that we could settle and do our own race and control the pace a bit. It was always around eight or nine-tenths [to Hamilton] for a few laps, but that was controllable and once I had cleared the Drag Reduction System [DRS] zone, we settled into a rhythm," he said.

Mercedes challenge awaited

Verstappen might face a challenge from not only Hamilton and Mercedes, who showed much improved form with their major update package, but also Ferrari and McLaren in a race where tyre degradation and strategy are certain to be key factors.

Leclerc's Ferrari teammate, Carlos Sainz, was the only driver to choose soft tyres, a decision that ensured the team gathered valuable data ahead of Sunday's Grand Prix, in which Leclerc starts from pole with Verstappen sixth after he had a lap deleted in Friday's sprint shootout for exceeding track limits. "We need to work to try and understand everything better to be a step ahead tomorrow," said Leclerc.

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