AUSTIN (Texas) — Max Verstappen maintained the pressure on McLaren and cut another chunk out of Oscar Piastri’s lead in this year’s world championship yesterday when he cruised to a commanding triumph at the United States Grand Prix.

In sizzling conditions, Red Bull’s four-time world champion led from pole position to chequered flag to come home 7.959 seconds clear of title-chasing Lando Norris, of McLaren, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finishing third, 4.041 adrift.

Australian championship leader Oscar Piastri of McLaren finished fifth.

It was Verstappen’s fourth win in Texas and seventh on American soil, his fifth this year and the 68th of his career.

It was also, for Verstappen, the fourth race in succession in which he had out-qualified and out-raced both McLarens.

Verstappen has reduced Piastri’s 104-point advantage over him to 40 with five races remaining.

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was fourth in the second Ferrari ahead of Piastri and Mercedes’s George Russell.