Max Verstappen reeled off the most convincing win yet of his late-season charge in the United States Grand Prix to claw back yet more ground in the 2025 Formula 1 title fight.
The Red Bull driver led from pole and was never headed, winning by 7.959 seconds - his route to victory aided considerably by Charles Leclerc jumping Lando Norris for second at the start.
Their battle was the race's main storyline - as Norris's pursuit of the Ferrari was crucial to his own championship hopes on a day where McLaren team-mate and championship leader Oscar Piastri could do no better than fifth.
Verstappen held the lead off the line, but Leclerc was always likely to be a threat on the uphill run to the first corner as he opted for soft tyres at the start, which put him on an offset strategy versus the majority who'd opted for the medium compound.
And that paid off for Leclerc, who was able to sweep around the outside of Norris for second place as the field descended towards the Esses.
Verstappen was able to break away early from there as Norris put Leclerc under pressure, though the Ferrari driver had broken the tow back to the McLaren by the time of an early virtual safety car period on lap six after Carlos Sainz clattered into Kimi Antonelli as he tried to take seventh place into the ever-narrowing Turn 15 left-hander.
The competitive pattern remained the same once racing had resumed, with Sainz's car recovered from the pitlane entrance, before Norris began to close back in on Leclerc and their battle resumed.
Even so, it took until lap 21 of 56 and a couple of failed overtaking attempts for Norris - who'd accrued three track limits warning already by that point - to finally make a move on Leclerc stick at Turn 12, by which point Verstappen was more than 10s clear.
Having resisted an attack from team-mate Lewis Hamilton on the following lap, Leclerc did then dive for the pits and switched onto the medium tyre - which ultimately carried him to the end of the race.
By the time he'd emerged from his own stop to switch to softs, Norris was 3.7s behind Leclerc but quickly recovered that ground.
Having got into DRS range behind the Ferrari, he did briefly back off and complained "I'm just slow" but, having allowed his tyres to cool, Norris did ultimately claim second with six laps to go - this time with an earlier move up Leclerc's inside before the Turn 12 braking zone, having teased an overtake at the start of the lap by lunging late into Turn 1 before slotting back in behind.
Ferrari urged Leclerc to "keep the pressure on" because of Norris's track limits situation but he had nothing left to give at that point and ended up another 7.4s back - albeit claiming his first podium since the Belgian GP in late July.
With Hamilton making it a Ferrari 3-4, 13s behind Leclerc, that meant Piastri was restricted to fifth - his worst grand prix finish since he was ninth in the season-opening Australian GP.
Piastri did at least make up one place, jumping the Mercedes of George Russell at the start, but Norris's late pass for second means there are now just 14 points between the two McLaren drivers in the championship, with Verstappen now 40 points back in third.
Russell was Mercedes' sole points scorer in sixth as Antonelli could only recover to 13th following Sainz's hit, while Yuki Tsunoda was seventh in the second Red Bull via another strong opening lap, an opportunistic overtake on Ollie Bearman after Sainz had got through and then a robust defence of the position against the Haas driver.
Bearman spun in that moment - he tried for a gap up the inside of the Red Bull that was never really there, despite Tsunoda moving slightly under braking - but did score two points for ninth, behind Nico Hulkenberg - who did salvage something from the weekend for Sauber after he was part of a Turn 1 melee in the sprint, having qualified fourth.
Fernando Alonso, also a victim at Turn 1 on Saturday, hung on for the final point after resisting Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) and Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll.
