2025 United States Grand Prix Sprint Review

Linus O'Howell
1 day ago
3 min read

Verstappen Wins Again as McLarens Collide

The start of today could well prove to be quite crucial in the fight for the World Drivers’ Championship, with Max Verstappen taking 8 crucial points as Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris came together in a manic Turn 1 incident! This opened the door for George Russell to take second place, whilst Carlos Sainz rounded out the Sprint Podium for Williams!

An Opening?

When all 20 drivers headed down into Turn 1, Oscar Piastri cut inside to try and get a switchback on Lando Norris, onto to get hit by Nico Hulkenberg, and subsequently punt both himself and Norris out of the Sprint! Yes, the two McLarens came together, but it was absolutely not on either driver, Oscar got hit into his teammate, whilst Lando was just incredibly unlucky! This also created mass carnage, with Fernando Alonso being taken out in the process (too), whilst Lance Stroll and Isack Hadjar picked up damage! When the Sprint got back underway, George Russell tried his best to put the pressure on Max Verstappen; making a daring move into Turn 12, but both guys went off the track, meaning Verstappen remained in the lead! Things also got pretty close for the two Ferraris following a mistake by Charles Leclerc, but Lewis Hamilton managed to show off his great Race craft to move into 4th! The next notable battle came between Oliver Bearman and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, with Bearman eventually receiving a 10-second time penalty for overtaking Kimi off the track, and this is when Lance Stroll decided to harpoon both himself and Esteban Ocon out of proceedings! This meant the Sprint ended under a Safety Car, and I have to say, I have no idea what I thought about all of this!

The Highs and Lows of the Sprint

I’ve given out two 10’s for today’s Sprint, and the first one is obviously for Max Verstappen! Max did very well to judge the positioning of George Russell’s Mercedes down at Turn 12, and that was all he needed to do to take victory yet again! The other driver I’ve given out maximum points to is Carlos Sainz, and wow, after struggling to score big results all season long, Carlos has had two Podiums in 3 weekends! Insane, and brilliant once again! Also, big shoutout to both George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda for scoring good points (Yuki went from 18th to 7th), whilst I was impressed with Lewis Hamilton’s driving!

On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve only given out one 1, and that is for Lance Stroll! I honestly have no idea what Lance was doing today; his move on Esteban Ocon was both stupid and reckless, and it will cost him throughout the rest of the weekend too! Otherwise, I don’t think anyone else was particularly poor today; I’m not even going to be that harsh on Nico Hulkenberg as I can’t work out what I thought about that Turn 1 incident!