Verstappen: You cannot overtake outside the white line

It was not the only penalty dished out by the race stewards during the race, as several similar incidents took place and were penalized in the same manner.

After the pitstops, Norris was catching Verstappen rapidly as the latter struggled on the Hard tyres, and towards the end, with around ten laps remaining, the fight was on.

Verstappen used all his skills to keep Norris behind, but the Briton got very close with four laps remaining and made a move stick, but had all four wheels outside the track.

McLaren did not instruct Norris to give the position back as, for some reason, they believed their driver did nothing wrong, and the result was a five-second time penalty for the Briton, who consequently lost the podium finish.

Verstappen reflected on the fight with Norris and the resulting incident in Red Bull's race report; he said: The battle with Lando at the end was cool as we were racing hard, and it was actually a lot of fun.

"You cannot overtake outside the white line and I have lost a podium here before overtaking outside the track, so that is unfortunate but it is the rules," he added, referring to 2017 when he lost a podium to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen for passing outside track limits.

As for Red Bull's difficult race, the triple Formula 1 champion added: "Today wasn't the best for us but the most important thing is that we have gained a lead in the Championship, which means a lot for the Team.

"I tried everything I could but we just didn't have the pace that we have had over the last few days and unfortunately couldn't fight the Ferraris on track. We had some balance issues, it was difficult to turn and break and I couldn't attack the corners because of the tyres," he explained.

It was a swing in performance for Red Bull as Verstappen won the Sprint race on Saturday. He continued: "We need to analyse a bit more why we didn't have the same pace as we did yesterday [Sprint] as we did expect to be more competitive, which is a shame.

"However, this weekend we have made some positive steps and have had flashes where it looked like we were coming back to the front, so we are going in the right direction.

"It is still not enough but we will keep working and improving the car where we can. As we said, ultimately the fact that we have extended the gap is the biggest thing for us," Verstappen concluded.

Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull RB20 finished seventh after starting the race from ninth on the grid and lamented getting stuck behind slower cars for a long time.

The Mexican said: "I lost quite a bit of time getting stuck behind the midfield pack at the beginning and the people who were on the hard seemed to have the best strategy, therefore I lost position to George in the end.

"It was quite strange towards the end of the first stint, my pace was better but I started to suffer badly with front pitching and the ride was quite bad. Generally, it then got a bit worse, and I thought it was maybe that tyre, but then I fitted the hard and it was the same issue and the same pace.

"I was really struggling with a bit of car balance today and it was awkward to drive. The upgrade seems to help us quite a bit in the high speed and I did not have the complete upgrade this weekend, so that's part of it and the rest of it is car balance.

"I am not sure how much having the total package would have put us back into contention. We lacked pace the whole weekend; it has not been a straightforward weekend and we have plenty of work to do.

"I am looking forward to next week but we need to make sure we learn from Austin to make sure Mexico is more successful," Perez concluded.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner summed up his team's race; he said: "Firstly congratulations to Ferrari, they drove a great race from the get go and it was a well deserved win for them.

"For us, we lost pace compared to yesterday, so we need to take a look at and understand that. We got front limited rather than rear limited. It changed round and whether that was temperature or a set up change we made after the Sprint, I am unsure. We will, as I say, need to look into it.

"Max drove brilliantly today I thought, he defended well. There was obviously the issue at the end of the race but the rules are very clear about that situation and the stewards acted quickly, as all teams have been asking of them," Horner said of the Norris penalty.

Red Bull leave Austin 40 points behind McLaren in the 2024 F1 constructors' championship, while Ferrari are now only eight points behind them in third.