Eight weeks ago you’d be forgiven for disbelieving the desperate attempts of Max Verstappen fans in calculating how mathematically he could still win the championship. However, last Sunday in Austin showed that Oscar Piastri really needs to be checking his championship rear-view mirror for a charging Red Bull.
Verstappen’s world championship campaign has rapidly been gaining traction recently, winning two out of the three last races, and the Dutchman cruised to another victory in Saturday’s sprint. On the other side of the championship fight, unfortunate contact with Nico Hulkenberg caused Piastri to crash into Norris – resulting in a double McLaren DNF.
Verstappen further replicated his strong sprint qualifying form to take pole ahead of Sunday’s race, with Norris and Leclerc rounding out the top three of the grid. From the get-go Verstappen was off far into the lead, and remained unchallenged throughout the rest of the race, cruising to victory by a seven second margin – this scored him the maximum 33 points available in Texas. Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda also has had a promising up-turn in performance as of late, finishing comfortably in the points in P7 in both races.
Elsewhere on the podium, Norris started second but was overtaken by Leclerc in the opening lap before an ensuing game of cat-and-mouse; successfully regaining the position in lap 21, before losing it again after being undercut in the pits. Eventually, on lap 51 he definitively took the position back allowing him to pull eight back points on Piastri in the WDC. But by no means was it a promising race for Norris and McLaren, whose broader lack of pace is worrying. Similarly, after a decent overtake on Russell for fifth, Piastri’s trajectory seemed promising, yet he largely failed to convert any momentum, remaining firmly in Lewis Hamilton’s shadow for the rest of the race. This unpromising result adds to Piastri’s tally of poor results as of late – as hopes of a championship begin to falter.
Saturday’s sprint headlines went to Carlos Sainz, who finished third, however, it was a different story on Sunday for the Spaniard. After contact with Kimi Antonelli, he was forced to retire. Promising drives by Nico Hülkenberg, Ollie Bearman and Fernando Alonso rounded out the points, whilst elsewhere, an internal – albeit pointless – team-radio battle between Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto occurred for P17 in the closing stages of the race.
Ultimately, the United States Grand Prix provided Max Verstappen with the perfect arena to display just how much of a threat he could pose to McLaren’s WDC hopes. The momentum it provided him with will undoubtedly prove vital in the closing races of the season and demonstrates that all truly is still to play for.
“Max Verstappen 2025 Italian Grand Prix FP3” by Eustace Bagge is licensed under CC BY 4.0.