OMNISPORT

Max Verstappen ruined a pair of racing boots at the United States Grand Prix as he battled to keep Lewis Hamilton at bay in the fight for second place.

Verstappen took a grid penalty in Austin and started from 18th position, yet his aggressive driving style enabled him to fight his way to the front of the field. Hamilton's pit stop on lap 37 pushed Verstappen into second place and for a while he was close to eventual winner Kimi Raikkonen.

However, his attentions quickly turned to the Mercedes behind him as Hamilton tried everything he could to potentially wrap up the Formula One title by sneaking into second.

A thrilling couple of corners saw the pair side by side through turns 16, 17 and 18, with Hamilton seemingly ahead before he was forced wide. That enabled Verstappen to hold on, but his shoe did not fair so well. 

"It [finishing second] was a bit unexpected but we had a good start," he said.  "Then very quickly we got back to P5, P4 and we could just follow the leaders. We had a really good pace. Then we made the right call to undercut Valtteri [Bottas] and we could do our own race. 

"At the end, we put a little bit of pressure on but, unfortunately, in the last three or four laps, I ran out of tires on the super-soft - compared to the guys on the soft around me. Still very happy. I've destroyed my shoe, pushing a bit hard, but all good."