"You cannot overtake outside the white line," claims Verstappen after his fierce battle with Norris

Having won the Austin F1 Sprint, reigning world champion Max Verstappen was unable to beat the dominant Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz at the United States Grand Prix, but he still left Texas buoyed after having extended his lead to Lando Norris in the championship.

Having started from P2 on the grid, Max Verstappen took an aggressive approach at the start, slightly forcing his championship rival Lando Norris wide at Turn 1, which allowed Ferrari's Charles Leclerc through.

The Dutchman hung on to second after the first-corner melee, but he then lost out to Carlos Sainz in the pit stops, who elected to pit earlier than his direct rivals.

The closing stages of the race saw Norris close in on Verstappen, who started to struggle on his aging tyres. Despite being on six laps older tyres, the reigning champion defended superbly for lap after lap to keep his rival at bay. However, Norris eventually make it through, overtaking his rival in the run-off zone at Turn 12 for which he was later handed a five-second penalty.

Reflecting on his fierce battle on the track, Verstappen was left puzzled by the fact that he managed to extend his lead in the championship despite failing to challenge the dominant Ferrari for the victory.

“Today wasn’t the best for us but the most important thing is that we have gained a lead in the Championship, which means a lot for the Team. I tried everything I could but we just didn’t have the pace that we have had over the last few days and unfortunately couldn’t fight the Ferraris on track.

"We had some balance issues, it was difficult to turn and break and I couldn’t attack the corners because of the tyres. The battle with Lando at the end was cool as we were racing hard and it was actually a lot of fun. You cannot overtake outside the white line and I have lost a podium here before overtaking outside the track, so that is unfortunate but it is the rules.

Speaking of the lack of pace in the 56-lap Austin F1 round, Verstappen continued: "We need to analyse a bit more why we didn’t have the same pace as we did yesterday as we did expect to be more competitive, which is a shame. However, this weekend we have made some positive steps and have had flashes where it looked like we were coming back to the front, so we are going in the right direction.

"0It is still not enough but we will keep working and improving the car where we can. As we said, ultimately the fact that we have extended the gap is the biggest thing for us," concluded Verstappen.

His team-mate Sergio Perez started from P9 on the grid after gaining a position with the penalty for George Russell. The Mexican lost valuable time in the midfield pack, and he complained about the behaviour of the car later on during the race.

“I lost quite a bit of time getting stuck behind the midfield pack at the beginning and the people who were on the hard seemed to have the best strategy, therefore I lost position to George in the end.

"It was quite strange towards the end of the first stint, my pace was better but I started to suffer badly with front pitching and the ride was quite bad. Generally, it then got a bit worse, and I thought it was maybe that tyre, but then I fitted the hard and it was the same issue and the same pace.

Perez has noted that he did not have a perfect feeling in his upgraded RB20, but he hopes that his car will work better when he will receive the full extent of the upgrade kit.

"I was really struggling with a bit of car balance today and it awkward to drive. The upgrade seems to help us quite a bit in the high speed and I did not have the complete upgrade this weekend, so that’s part of it and the rest of it is car balance. I am not sure how much having the total package would have put us back into contention.

"We lacked pace the whole weekend; it has not been a straightforward weekend and we have plenty of work to do. I am looking forward to next week but we need to make sure we learn from Austin to make sure Mexico is more successful," concluded the Mexican.