Max Verstappen held off a hard-charging Lewis Hamilton in the final stages of the US Grand Prix to claim an important victory and extend his Drivers' championship lead to 12 points.

Some had predicted that the Circuit of the Americas track in Austin, Texas would be another opportunity for Mercedes to win, in fact, with both the Russian and Turkish Grands Prix in recent weeks seeing improved performances from the Silver Arrows.

Verstappen, though, had other ideas with him starting from pole and eventually having the better race pace between himself and Hamilton, though it was a close-run thing.

Hamilton, in fact, led away from the line as he jumped Verstappen at the start and took the advantage into turn one but he could not build a lead, and after the first set of pit-stops Verstappen was back in front, boasting better pace than his title rival at the time.

Taking to fresher tyres earlier than Hamilton, the main risk to Verstappen's victory would be in the closing stages as the Briton would then have more life in his rubber towards the end of the Grand Prix, setting us up for a grandstand finish.

Indeed, Hamilton pushed incredibly hard in the last few laps to try and overhaul his title rival but Verstappen had enough performance left in his tyres to keep him behind, sealing victory in the process.

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Another dramatic race, then, and Verstappen will be delighted at how he dealt with everything Hamilton tried to throw at him.