the 2025 austin grand prix: back to 2023
max verstappen took both poles, both wins and every lap of the grand prix, and the title fight is now a three-way one.
this weekend’s austin grand prix was oddly reminiscent of 2023. max verstappen not only took both poles and both wins but also led every single lap of the grand prix, in the kind of dominant fashion that was considered normal 2 years ago. meanwhile, oscar piastri’s failure to perform over the last few races (a DNF, a P4 and now a P5) has let lando norris and verstappen close right up on the championship leader.
before the race, we got a grid walk from not only our good friend martin brundle but also top gun: maverick and running man actor and native texan glen powell, who surprisingly does have a decent amount of wheel knowledge. the american national anthem was sung by a young boy who actually hit the high notes without any voice cracks. after the formation lap, everyone lined up where they qualified, apart from lance stroll, who was dropped to P19 for his terrorism against esteban ocon in the sprint.
after crofty’s usual “it’s lights out and away we go”, we were all on the edge of our seats for turn 1 chaos, but unfortunately there weren’t any incidents. the closest thing to drama was charles leclerc, the only driver in the top ten starting on softs, getting past norris for P2.
that gave us the best fight of the race. norris needed until lap 21 to get back past the ferrari, lost the place again through the pit stops, and only took P2 for good on lap 51. by then max was long gone. to top it all off, ferrari didn’t mess up their tire strategy for once: leclerc finished P3 and lewis hamilton P4.
there were some incidents. on lap 7, carlos sainz attempted a risky move on kimi antonelli at turn 15, which ended with sainz out of the race and kimi at the back of the pack (he recovered to P13). sainz was also given a five-place grid penalty, which he’ll serve in mexico.
later on, ollie bearman went for the inside of yuki tsunoda at the same corner, yuki moved across to cover it, and ollie ended up on the grass and spun. they never actually touched, but bearman was not happy. he still made a great recovery to finish P9. stroll, meanwhile, climbed his way through the backmarkers in a surprisingly clean fashion, going from P19 to P12.
although the race didn’t give us as much action as we’ve gotten from texas in the last few years, it did spice up the three-way championship battle drastically. piastri still leads on 346 points, but norris is now just 14 behind and verstappen 40. oscar’s drop in performance, lando’s better results and max’s domination have made this battle far more competitive, and they’ve raised the chances of it going all the way to the last race, which is abu dhabi in december.
there are only 5 races left on the calendar, with mexico city coming up this weekend. i’ll keep writing the beginner’s guide series and keep you updated with hot takes on the championship battle. have fun reading.