2025 United States Grand Prix

Sprint victory from pole, Grand Prix victory from pole, start-to-finish in both cases: What were the essential ingredients to Max Verstappen’s perfect weekend around the Circuit of the Americas as he continues to transition his title challenge from very unlikely to perfectly feasible?

It’s been seriously quick ever since its bigger, more flexible, front wing was combined with the Monza floor. The balance window has opened up, it can be run lower. It’s always been great through the sort of high-speed curves we see in Sector 1 here, it’s now a lot better under braking than the McLaren, especially over the bumps. This place has a lot of bumps. Verstappen was revelling in it here on Friday, delighted with how the rear felt so planted that he could add as much front end as he wished and still it would stay in balance. He put it on Sprint pole like this, 0.071sec faster than Lando Norris’ McLaren.

But the gusty, hot Austin track is a capricious place and come Saturday’s Sprint race, Verstappen wasn’t so happy with it. The rear ride, he said, was poor (certainly it looked something of a handful over the kerbs) and the rear tyres were degrading fast. He was pushed hard by George Russell’s Mercedes and doubted whether he would have been able to hold the McLarens off had they made it through Turn 1.