Red Bull's triple world champion Max Verstappen took the 50th win of his Formula One career, and record-equalling 15th of the season, at the US Grand Prix on Sunday while Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from second after post-race checks.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who finished sixth, was also excluded for excessive wear of the mandatory wooden plank under the car's floor.

Hamilton's exclusion meant McLaren's Lando Norris moved up from third to second with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz completing the podium.

The victory was Verstappen's third in a row at Austin's Circuit of the Americas and equalled, with four races to spare, the record the Dutch 26-year-old set last year for most wins in a single season.

Dominant Red Bull and Verstappen, who started in sixth place and whose win was the first in Austin by a driver not on the front row, have already secured the constructors' and drivers' titles.

Norris, lining up on the front row, seized the lead from pole-sitter Leclerc into the first corner but his hopes of a first win in his 100th start had faded by the half distance.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton provided excitement at the end as he chased Verstappen, starting the last lap only 1.8 seconds behind after being 5.3 adrift when he passed Norris with seven laps remaining.

Verstappen increased his unassailable lead over Mexican Perez to 226 points and became only the fifth Formula One driver to reach 50 wins.

If Verstappen wins in Mexico next weekend he will match the tally of four- time world champion Alain Prost and could overtake former Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel's 53 wins before the end of the season.