Five Winners, Five Losers: United States Grand Prix
- Peter Johnson
- 8 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Written by Peter Johnson, Edited by Meghana Sree
Formula One headed stateside for the second time in 2025 as Max Verstappen made huge inroads in the Drivers’ Championship.
Winner - Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen enjoyed a dream weekend in Austin, cutting his deficit in the title race from 63 to 40 points as both McLarens encountered trouble.
The four-time world champion was just a fastest lap shy of achieving a Grand Slam, too, as he qualified on pole and led every lap on the way to victory.
Add his dominant Sunday display to a delightful sprint for the Dutchman, which saw both McLarens collide while he took a maximum eight points, and it is clear that he is not ready to relinquish his title just yet.
With another 33 under his belt in Texas, Verstappen has now scored as many points over the last five rounds (119) as both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris combined.
While Helmut Marko admitted Red Bull had “given up” on the title over the summer break, it is clearly game on once more.
Winner - Red Bull
With Yuki Tsunoda climbing from 18th and 13th in the sprint and Grand Prix respectively to score to seventh-placed finishes, Red Bull left Austin as the highest-scoring team across the weekend.
This leaves the battle for second in the Constructors’ Championship beautifully poised, with just ten points now separating Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.
Winner - Ferrari
Austin proved to be a rare weekend of positivity for Ferrari in the context of recent races.
Despite an underwhelming sprint qualifying session on Friday, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were some of the biggest beneficiaries of the McLaren-Hülkenberg-Alonso shenanigans to finish fourth and fifth, with Hamilton threatening Carlos Sainz’s Williams for a podium throughout.
Both qualified in the top five for Sunday’s main event, with Leclerc’s defensive masterclass against Norris over second place the highlight of the race. The Monégasque could not hold on until the chequered flag, but nevertheless came home for Ferrari’s first podium in seven races.
Hamilton, too, looked more competitive. His fourth place should have been more comfortable than it ultimately was, with an issue to his front-right tyre on the final lap almost costing him a position to Piastri.
The seven-time world champion said after the race that he felt he was “finally” on top of his new machinery - not the first time he has felt such a way this season, but it does bode well for him in his pursuit of a first Grand Prix podium in Ferrari red.
Winner - Nico Hülkenberg
It has been a barren run for Nico Hülkenberg since his historic podium at the British Grand Prix in July, but despite a false dawn after sprint qualifying on Friday, the German finally returned to the points in Texas.
Hülkenberg qualified an impressive fourth for the sprint, but his chance to fight for points was over by Turn 2 after being caught in a Piastri-Alonso sandwich.
He narrowly missed out on Q3 in Saturday’s qualifying session, before going long during the race on his medium tyres to bring himself into play on soft tyres for the final stint.
Further aided by Ollie Bearman’s spin after the rookie’s collision with Tsunoda, Hülkenberg came home eighth to collect his first points since his British Grand Prix podium in July.
Winner - COTA
It was not a classic US Grand Prix this time around, but COTA’s presence in Formula One continues to be a hit overall.
As the sport continues to expand its foothold in the United States, with the recent additions of the Miami and Las Vegas Grands Prix, as well as the imminent arrival of Cadillac, it remains clear that the Circuit of The Americas still is the American capital of F1.
Attendance at the US Grand Prix is consistently over 400,000, with the 2022 edition breaking the then-record for F1’s highest attendance over a three-day event.
A popular track with drivers and fans alike, which draws inspiration from several other iconic venues, the announcement that COTA will remain on the calendar until at least 2034 is fantastic news for the sport.
Loser - Oscar Piastri
The man with most to lose currently in F1 did indeed lose almost an entire race victory’s worth of points to Verstappen over the course of the weekend at COTA.
Arguably the man responsible for the Turn 1 carnage in the sprint race as a result of his aggressive attempted cutback on Norris, the Australian hemorrhaged eight points of his championship lead to the charging Verstappen before the weekend had properly begun.
Only able to muster a sixth place on the starting grid for the Grand Prix, Piastri languished several tenths shy of the frontrunners’ pace, bemoaning the condition of his medium tyres.
Despite a very late charge on Hamilton, the championship leader could only manage a fifth-placed finish, seeing another 15 points ebb away in his advantage over Verstappen, while he now sits only 14 points ahead of Norris.
Loser - Lando Norris
He may have taken a chunk of points out of Piastri, which a few races ago would have made for a successful weekend, but losing 15 points to Verstappen actually now constitutes a worrying loss for Norris.
He was absolutely not at fault for his race-ending incident at the start of the sprint, being the final domino to fall in a four-car chain reaction.
Norris probably maximised his race on Sunday, despite labouring for most of the race to pass Leclerc. He was unlikely to have the pace to challenge Verstappen for victory and took a chunk of points out of his teammate.
It does, however, feel that the pendulum has swung so strongly that it is Verstappen against whom the McLaren drivers need to be performing each week, rather than each other. On that analysis, Norris comes away from Austin in a weaker position than he was when he arrived.
Loser - Alpine
It has been a difficult season for Alpine at the best of times. The team has just five points finishes all season (including sprints), all courtesy of Pierre Gasly, and is rooted to bottom position in the Constructors’ Championship.
In the closing stages of the US Grand Prix, with Gasly and Franco Colapinto both well out of contention for points and fighting over 17th place, the team ordered the Argentine to maintain position.
A bemused Colapinto went for the move nevertheless, while Gasly was subsequently passed by Gabriel Bortoleto too to finish 19th and last of the finishers.
Alpine’s Managing Director Steve Nielsen said the team was “disappointed” with Colapinto’s actions and would deal with the matter internally. For a team which has had such a torrid year anyway, such petty in-fighting was arguably inevitable but nevertheless enormously counter-productive.
Loser - Lance Stroll
One of the more farcical moments of the US Grand Prix weekend saw Lance Stroll attempt to slide up the inside of Esteban Ocon’s Haas at Turn 1 on Lap 16 of the sprint race.
The Canadian completely misjudged his move, wiping out both himself and his rival, and causing a Safety Car which remained in place until the end of the race.
The manoeuvre also landed him with a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Grand Prix and two penalty points on his licence, taking his total to seven.
Stroll made decent inroads on Sunday, however, moving from 19th to 12th by the chequered flag and finishing just four seconds behind his teammate Alonso who took the final point.
What might have been, without that penalty.
Loser - Isack Hadjar
It was a rare off-weekend for the young French rookie, who exited in Q1 for only the second time this season following a shunt, which he described as “unforgiveable”.
Starting and finishing 12th in the sprint and only being able to improve to 16th after starting at the back on Sunday, it was an underwhelming weekend for the man from Paris.
