By Robert Haile

In a statement drive Max Verstappen took his seventeenth win of the season as all the drama took place behind him.

On the formation lap Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc suffered a hydraulic failure taking him out of the race before it started.

At the front Verstappen got away cleanly but further back Williams’ Alex Albon and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen collided bringing out the red flag.

Repeating the first start Verstappen got away keeping McLaren’s Lando Norris at bay as the pair settled into first and second.

Verstappen said: “The starts were very important today. Both of them were very good. After that, the whole race was about the management of the tyres. In the middle stint, we could create a bit of a gap.”

Aston Martin returned, just, to the podium as Fernando Alonso held off Sergio Perez by 0.053 seconds who has put one hand on second place in the drivers championship.

Lance Stroll made it a double points day for Aston Martin with a fifth place finish as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz took sixth with Pierre Gasly in seventh with Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon in tenth.

A rough day for Mercedes ended with Lewis Hamilton in eighth and Yuki Tsunoda claimed ninth for AlphaTauri bring more points to the Italian team.

American Logan Sargeant missed out on points in eleventh for Williams with Nico Hulkenberg in twelfth for Haas.

The last two runners had both suffered at the start of the race as Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri lead his countryman McLaren’s Oscar Piastri home.

Leclerc, Albon and Magnussen’s early retirements were joined by Mercedes’ George Russell and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.

The battle for second has swung back to Sergio Perez has increased his lead to 32 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso is 28 points behind in fourth but has Lando Norris 3 points and Carlos Sainz 6 further back.

The Constructors Championship battle for second is going down to the wire as Mercedes lead with a 20 point gap to Ferrari in third while McLaren have a 21 point gap to Aston Martin.

Formula 1 heads north for its penultimate race of the season and a new track for all the drivers as the glittering lights of Las Vegas call on 16-18 November.