VIDEO: Beautiful fights, great manoeuvres or a big accident! Watch the best of the US Grand Prix

On Sunday, Formula 1 had its nineteenth race of the season on the agenda, namely the US Grand Prix. It was eventually dominated by Max Verstappen, who was joined on the podium by Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. The race at the Circuit of the Americas showed many things, besides the dangerous accident, also many great and beautiful battles for the standings.

Moment number 1: Russell shoots down Sainz

The very first lap of the US Grand Prix brought great drama when Carlos Sainz made a very bad start from pole position. But that was far from all, as the Spanish Ferrari driver was then shot down by George Russell at the first corner.

So “skillfully” that Russell damaged the sidewall of Sainz’s car with his front wing and the race was over for him after the first lap. The British Mercedes driver was subsequently handed a five-second penalty by race directors.

Crash between Stroll and Alonso

Round 22 of the US Grand Prix brought more drama when Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso were involved in a major accident. Notably, it was at this time that the starting field was brought together, due to the safety car from earlier in the event exiting due to Valtteri Bottas’ disabled Alfa Romeo.

The responsibility for causing the collision in this case goes primarily to the Canadian driver. This is because Alonso was taking advantage of the so-called slip stream, or air pocket behind the other car, which made the Spanish driver faster and made him want to overtake Stroll.

However, the latter decided at the last moment to take a defensive manoeuvre and did not give Alonso a chance to react. The Spanish legend’s Alpine even took off with the front wheels for a moment, but fortunately there was no major moment.

A beautiful duel between Leclerc and Verstappen

Already on lap 30, Charles Leclerc made a stunning manoeuvre to take the podium positions by overtaking Sergio Pérez. Then on lap 36, the Monegasque driver defending the Ferrari colours pitted, along with Verstappen, who thanks to his lead was with his mechanics much earlier.

Verstappen’s stop, however, was prolonged due to problems with the tightening of the left front wheel and the fresh double world champion dropped to fourth place, and thus behind Leclerc.

The following laps then saw some truly beautiful battles, and you can see one of them for yourself in the attached video below. Later, however, Verstappen overcame Leclerc to get back to the podium.

The incredible Verstappen!

The fresh-faced double world champion not only moved into second place over the next few laps, limiting the losses caused by a bad pit-stop, but set out to chase down leader Hamilton. The seven-time champion tried to hold on to his top spot, albeit in vain.

In the closing laps, this is how Verstappen sent Hamilton to the brakes and snatched back the lead in the US Grand Prix. It must be said, the speed and functionality of the Red Bull compared to the Mercedes was truly eye-popping.

5. A beautiful manoeuvre by Sebastian Vettel

The German driver had a really great run at the US Grand Prix, at one point even leading it. But then came lap 42 and a pit stop.

Unfortunately for him, and despite a great race, his pit-stop didn’t go well at all, whereupon Vettel subsequently dropped down to 13th, although some of the drivers ahead of him in the standings hadn’t yet stopped.

However, the later voted best driver of the day managed to get back into the top ten points by the end of the race. First, Vettel produced a spectacular manoeuvre on lap 52 when he overtook Alexander Albon on the outside of Williams. He then put on another show at the very finish of the US Grand Prix when he overtook Kevin Magnussen.

The German Aston Martin driver was at least eighth, but a post-race penalty awarded to Alonso, which dropped the Spanish legend down to a final fifteenth position, eventually moved Vettel up to seventh.

The full final top ten points standings can be seen in the attached Twitter post below.

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