AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Charles Leclerc won a memorable U.S. Grand Prix in which a late time penalty pushed Lando Norris to fourth behind title rival Max Verstappen.

After a long battle, Norris caught up with Verstappen towards the end of the race and overtook him for third place, but in the process exceeded the limits of the track.

This earned Norris a five-second penalty, which put him behind Verstappen in the final standings, even though he ended up ahead of the Red Bull driver on the track.

Verstappen inherited third place and was 57 points ahead with five regular races and two sprint races remaining.

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Verstappen said afterwards: “It was a tough battle, I tried everything to keep him behind me and to be on the podium at the end is a very good result for us.”

Regarding the punishment, he added: “I have my opinion, I don't have to say it here, I'll let the sports commissioners do it. For us it was a race where we learned a lot and we will analyze that.”

Ferrari took its second double victory of the season after the Australian Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz coming second.

Sainz said the result “takes us exactly where we want to be in the battle for the designers.”

While Verstappen still has a mathematical chance of winning the title, the race result dealt a significant blow to Norris' hopes of erasing the Dutchman's lead.

The McLaren driver complained about Verstappen's change over the team radio. “He clearly pushed me away. “He didn’t intend to end up in the corner,” said the Brit. “Even he got off the track. I had to avoid colliding with him or him with me.”

McLaren boss Zak Brown said his driver had suffered “some sort of dive bomb”.

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Leclerc took the lead right from the start as Verstappen aggressively pushed Norris into Turn 1.

The two title rivals ran too far and let the Ferrari driver take the lead.

Leclerc's victory, his third win of the season after Monaco and Monza, ended Verstappen's streak of three consecutive US Grand Prix victories at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.

Leclerc said he was “really happy with today, a double win for the team, we couldn't have imagined anything better.”

On winning Turn 1 he said: “It was a really good Turn 1, that's exactly what we wanted to do and we got a really good start and I knew it was going to be really close… we are.” I still have that one Title in our sights and there’s still a long way to go, but a good start for this treble.”

McLaren's Oscar Piastri was fifth, Mercedes' George Russell was sixth and Sergio Perez was seventh for Red Bull.

Nico Hulkenberg scored valuable points for US team Haas in eighth place, while New Zealander Liam Lawson made a great comeback with Red Bull-owned RB in ninth place despite starting at the back of the grid.

Argentinian rookie Franco Colapinto also continued his outstanding form with the final point for Williams.

The safety car was deployed for the first time since Canada in June when seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton spun on lap two and left his Mercedes in the gravel at Turn 19.

The failure ended a miserable 24 hours for the Brit, who only qualified 19th and started 17th on one of his favorite tracks.

Esteban Ocon set the fastest lap for Alpine, but finished 18th and received no bonus point.