The penultimate Sprint race of the 2023 Formula One season took place on Saturday afternoon at the Circuit of the America's just outside of Austin, Texas. As a whole, Formula One brought six Sprint races to the track this season with the final race to take place at the São Paulo Grand Prix, Nov 3-5.

On a Sprint weekend, Friday consists of a practice session and then the qualifying session for Sunday's Grand Prix. Saturday's format includes qualifying for a Saturday Sprint race (the Shootout) and then the Sprint race itself in which teams can gain points.

The top five results of the Sprint Race were fairly static when compared to the Shootout results. Red Bull's Max Verstappen took both the pole and the checkers. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton finished second while qualifying third. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finished third while qualifying second. McLaren's Lando Norris qualified and finished fourth.

The outlier of the pack was Lando's McLaren teammate, rookie sensation, Oscar Piastri, who qualified fifth and finished tenth. At the previous Sprint Shootout in Qatar, Piastri qualified on the pole and went on to win the Sprint race itself.

"We can see that the tyres overheated rapidly after the start and we know that he engaged in battles with cars that were on slightly less used tyres than his starting set," said Andrea Stella, McLaren Team Principal. "After the race we also saw that he picked up some light damage to the front wing, which will have also had an impact."

Sprint race winner, Max Verstappen, saw his Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, finish P5 after starting P7. Perez is currently second in Formula One driver points.

"It was a strong sprint race for us and will provide a lot of data around performance of the tyres and our opponents. Max drove a well controlled race and equally, it was a good performance from [Perez]," said Red Bull Team Principal, Christian Horner.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who was the only driver to opt for soft tires while the rest of the field went with mediums, started P6 and made his way quickly to P4 while dropping back to P6 near the end of the race where he finished.

"Choosing the Soft was a risk that we opted to take, even though we knew we would struggle with pace and degradation at the end," said Sainz. "I started well and some good overtaking took us to P4 in the first laps, but from then on came the difficult part, all about tyre management and defending."

"Keeping Lando (Norris) and Sergio (Perez) behind was very tough and the battle with George (Russell) wasn't easy at all, but we managed to bring it home and score some points," added the Spanish native, Carlos Sainz.

Mercedes driver George Russell started P11 and originally finished P7 but a five second penalty for exceeding track limits earlier in the Sprint dropped the British native down to P8 with Alpine driver, Pierre Gasly, taking the seventh finishing spot.

In the Shootout, Russell originally qualified P8 but a subsequent three-place grid penalty for blocking Leclerc in Q1 sent the five year veteran to the 11th qualifying position.

"It's been a bit of a scrappy day for me. Both penalties that I received today were fair," said Russell. "I was unable to give the position back to Piastri in the Sprint as Gasly had already passed him. If I let Piastri past, I would have had to let Gasly past too. It was a bit of a shame as it was an optimistic move from myself."

Alex Albon, who had a good Saturday for Williams Racing, qualified P9 and finished P9.

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	19	31:30.849
2	Hamilton	Mercedes	19	+ 0:09.465
3	Leclerc		Ferrari		19	+ 0:17.987
4	Norris		McLaren		19	+ 0:18.863
5	Perez		Red Bull	19	+ 0:22.928
6	Sainz		Ferrari		19	+ 0:28.307
7	Gasly		Alpine		19	+ 0:32.403
8	Russell		Mercedes	19	+ 0:34.250
9	Albon		Williams	19	+ 0:34.567
10	Piastri		McLaren		19	+ 0:42.403
11	Ocon		Alpine		19	+ 0:44.986
12	Ricciardo	AlphaTauri	19	+ 0:45.509
13	Alonso		Aston Martin	19	+ 0:49.086
14	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	19	+ 0:49.733
15	Hulkenberg	Haas		19	+ 0:56.650
16	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	19	+ 1:04.401
17	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	19	+ 1:07.972
18	Magnussen	Haas		19	+ 1:11.122
19	Sargeant	Williams	19	+ 1:11.449
	Stroll		Aston Martin	16	Brakes

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:34.538	130.450 mph
2	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:34.593	0.055
3	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:34.607	0.069
4	Norris		McLaren		1:34.639	0.101
5	Piastri		McLaren		1:34.894	0.356
6	Sainz		Ferrari		1:34.939	0.401
7	Perez		Red Bull	1:35.041	0.503
8	Russell		Mercedes	1:35.199	0.661
9	Albon		Williams	1:35.366	0.828
10	Gasly		Alpine		1:35.897	1.359
11	Ricciardo	AlphaTauri	1:35.978	
12	Alonso		Aston Martin	1:36.087	
13	Ocon		Alpine		1:36.137	
14	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:36.181	
15	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:36.182	
16	Hulkenberg	Haas		1:36.749	
17	Magnussen	Haas		1:36.922	
18	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:36.922	
19	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:36.945	
20	Sargeant	Williams	1:37.186

(image provided by Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake)