F1 - United States GP

The last quarter of the 2025 Formula 1 season has begun with the 75th world championship event to be held in the United States at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Let's see how it all went down.

Performances

Red Bull - another dominant weekend from Max Verstappen. Pole and victory in both the sprint race and normal race. That Red Bull looks absolutely dominant again in his hands. He pretty much got exactly the result he needs to stay in the championship hunt - maximum points, and all the momentum is going his way. Could he really pull it off? It would be incredible. He's just at a completely different level it seems when he feels comfortable with the car. Yuki actually had a decent weekend for once, with points in both the sprint and regular race to help Red Bull stay in the hunt for second in the constructors'.

McLaren - another tricky weekend for them. They suffered from an unfortunate incident in the sprint taking out both cars (no one really to blame imo it's a completely normal turn 1 incident) and then didn't have the best pace in the regular race either. Lando honestly had a decent weekend, gaining more points on Oscar but losing out to Max. He might have been able to catch up if he didn't get stuck behind Leclerc but honestly it felt like Max was untouchable this weekend, so P2 is probably the best he could get. Oscar really struggled for pace throughout the race and could only get a P5. The last few races have been pretty poor for him - needs to refocus for Mexico.

Ferrari - an actually decent weekend for the first time in a while. Sprint qualifying pace was awful but got both cars in the points during the actual sprint and then for the regular race part had great pace in both qualifying and the race. Leclerc especially did some fantastic defensive driving with Norris in the early stages but ultimately didn't have the pace to keep him behind. Also his strategy was really good, and probably earned him that P3 finish. Lewis also had better pace but still couldn't quite match Charles and he got a puncture at the end I believe. P4 is solid but we need that podium please!!!!

Mercedes - didn't have the pace this weekend. Russell got the most out of the car in both the sprint and race. Kimi was once again just a little bit too far away from George this weekend, and his race was ruined after Sainz hit him. They lose ground to both Ferrari and Red Bull and now just 10 points separates those 3 teams for that P2 spot in the WCC. (Also finally George got his multi-year deal, honestly it was a no-brainer for Mercedes imo)

Aston Martin - Fernando qualified in the top 10 for both the sprint and race, but got taken out in the sprint and finished where he started to get P10 in the race. He has to be the unluckiest driver this season imo, it feels like he always gets caught in some incident every weekend. Stroll did some terrorism and took out Ocon in the sprint, getting a 5 place penalty for the race but honestly had decent pace from the back of the field to get P12.

Haas - pretty much a copy paste from Singapore here. Great job from Bearman to qualify in the top 10 and bring home some points in P9. He was pretty unlucky that the Tsunoda incident wasn't looked at by the stewards but honestly points are still very welcome. Ocon honestly got outmatched again this weekend, didn't make it out of Q1 for both sprint and race qualifying.

Sauber - Hulkenberg with a nice P8 finish to get his first points since his podium in Silverstone. I have no idea if the car had pace or not because Hulkenberg had good qualis in both the sprint and race, while Bortoleto didn't really feature. Outscoring Aston and Racing Bulls is decent though for that P6 battle in the WCC.

Williams - this was a weekend of two halves for them. Great sprint portion, both cars qualifying in the top 10 and scoring points, with Sainz even in P3! The race portion didn't go so well, Albon spun after contact with Bortoleto (another pretty standard lap 1 incident) while Sainz was at fault with the incident with Antonelli, DNFed and now has a grid penalty for Mexico.

Racing Bulls - Lawson was on the verges of the points in both the sprint and race, finishing one place outside of the points for each event. Hadjar had a pretty terrible weekend and didn't really have any pace.

Alpine - no pace once again. This has to be the stupidest team orders I think I've ever seen. Your drivers are literally P17 and P18. Why are you doing team orders??? I swear I try my best every weekend to be nice to Alpine but there's nothing to be nice about. This team came 4th in 2022. 4th in the WCC!!! It's an absolute masterclass on how to destroy an F1 team.

Race rating - 6/10 - some nice racing (liked the Lando and Charles battle) but ultimately not enough in the points-paying positions to give it a better rating.

Driver of the race - Leclerc and Bearman were two decent shouts but really it has to be Max Verstappen. Pole and victory from lights to chequered flag in both the sprint and the race. As the commentator said... the T-Rex is coming!!!!

Next weekend - the Mexican Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, an historic track named after two Mexican F1 drivers that first held a world championship race in 1963. The high altitude and long straight mean that this track sees some of the fastest speeds recorded in F1, reaching over 350 kph (218 mph)! The section that passes by the baseball stadium is also fantastic to watch an F1 car go through there. Some of the best Mexican Grand Prix races from the past have been: 1964 (Surtees takes the title by a single point), 1987 (Mansell wins one of the weirdest races ever with the cumulative time rule meaning we basically got a second race), 1990 (Prost wins from 17th after Senna's late puncture and Mansell makes a brilliant move on Berger, great racing throughout the field and imo one of the best races in F1 history) and 2021 (very tense win from Verstappen with Hamilton defending furiously from Perez at the end).

Also Lewis becoming the first driver to get 5000 points in F1 (I know it's only because the points system changed in 2010 and ruined all the old drivers' records but let me have it!!)🐐🐐🐐🐐