The pinnacle of motorsports took on an American classic this weekend. Before Miami, before Las Vegas, before the barrage of influencers and brand trips, there was the United States Grand Prix (USGP). Every year since 2012, when the sport switched from Indianapolis to Austin, the Formula series cars have raced around the Circuit of the Americas (COTA). COTA is thought of by some as the main American race, the one that represents our culture and truly embraces the spirit of the country.
The USGP is one of the six weekends of the 2025 F1 season that showcases a sprint race. Sprint race weekends are slightly restructured from the usual three-day format. Like usual, Friday involved practice, where the drivers refamiliarize themselves with the track. Then came sprint qualifying, where Max Verstappen secured pole position followed by the two McLarens.
Two weeks ago during the Singapore Grand Prix, intrateam contact between cars caused the two McLarens to finish third and fourth, while Verstappen took home second place. Before summer break, all eyes were on the papaya cars to capture both the Constructors and Drivers World Championships. After bagging the former, gazes turned to Oscar Piastri to win the latter.
During the first lap of the sprint race, McLaren’s worst nightmare came true. Contact between Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg and Piastri pushed the McLaren into his teammate, ending the sprint for both papayas. Instead of finishing the sprint race with the points differential to the Red Bull car — similar to how it was before — Verstappen took a big leap toward the Drivers’ Champion title. Before the Sunday race started, he was only 26 points away from Norris who rested in P2. To put this into perspective, the driver who finishes P1 in a race secures 25 points.
In a car that some people have coined a tractor due to its slow nature, Verstappen has proved week after week just how skilled he is. A few hours after the sprint race on Saturday, the cars returned to the track for qualifying, this time for the main race on Sunday. In qualifying, drivers take to the track and attempt to complete their fastest lap possible. The shortest lap time qualifies in the pole position, which this time was completed by Verstappen.
Possibly because of the damage to the car from the sprint, or possibly because it was just an off day for the McLarens, Piastri qualified P6. If the race were to have ended how it started, he would have added a meager eight points to his total. COTA consists of 56 laps, with each around 3.4 miles. That meant that Piastri had around 56 tries in the best corners to gain back the positions he needed to stay in the championship race.
Each race, tire manufacturer Pirelli chooses three types of tires that can be used by the teams: a soft, medium and hard variant. There are also variants meant specially for rain. While hard tires last longer, softer can provide the traction for key overtakes.
Most of the top 10 drivers in the starting grid entered the formation lap with medium tires. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took the risk and decided to start with soft tires. Fans of the Italian team must have let out a ginormous sigh of relief or yelp of excitement when this gamble paid off. Norris is not known for his skill at race starts, and once again he lost a place during lap one to Leclerc. His teammate however rejected this start curse and gained a place to take fifth, also where he would finish the race.
Not even a fifth of the way into the race, the energy spiked when Williams driver Carlos Sainz rammed his front wing into the back of the Mercedes piloted by rookie Kimi Antonelli during a turn. Stunningly, Antonelli didn’t need to take a pit stop to repair any damage. Sainz wasn’t so fortunate, and subsequently DNFed.
After a series of attempted overtakes, Norris finally finished the job during lap 22. One goal was achieved, but the next was a whopping 10 seconds ahead. A host of pit stops returned Norris to his position chasing Leclerc, the two flipping tire types. Ferrari almost mastered their strategy this weekend. I say almost because Norris never gave up his fight, and claimed P2 in the last few laps. Seven out of the 10 teams on the grid ended in the points.
The drivers take to the track again next week in Mexico. It will be interesting to see how the battle for the Drivers’ World Championship plays out and if it will come down to the last race in Abu Dhabi.
