Verstappen Returns to Winning in Chaotic US Sprint
Max Verstappen led from start to finish to pick up his first victory in nearly 4 months to extend his Championship lead by another couple of points! Carlos Sainz managed to make it up to second with some great overtakes whilst Lando Norris rounded out the Podium for McLaren!
Carlos the Menace?!
Max Verstappen got away well to lead into Turn 1 whilst Lando Norris picked the best line to jump into P2 at the start! The battling at the front was then fully between the two Ferraris as Charles Leclerc continuously defended from his teammate Carlos Sainz before Sainz was eventually able to get through! Lando Norris then did well to hold off George Russell for second, and this is when it sort of went wrong for George as he quickly got passed by both Sainz and Leclerc! After Oscar Piastri got a penalty for an earlier incident with Pierre Gasly, he got into a ferocious battle with Yuki Tsunoda as the Visa Cash App RB driver fully got his elbows out after doing the same with Sergio Perez a couple of laps before! Eventually, Piastri was able to clear Tsunoda, but it definetly cost him a lot of time! Towards the end of the Race, Norris, who was originally catching Verstappen, started to drop off as the two Ferraris started to catch him. And then, on the final lap, a mistake from Lando into Turn 1 allowed Carlos to gain another place and move into second before Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc got ever so close to wiping each other out at Turn 15! Like seriously, this was insanely close!
The Highs and Lows of the Sprint
I’ve given out three 10’s for today’s Sprint and the first one is obviously for Max Verstappen! This was the Max of old, he got a good start and pulled away to take a pretty comfortable victory (a victory that is very important for him)! The second driver I gave out maximum points to today is Carlos Sainz because I thought he was absolutely brilliant! You could tell that Carlos is out to prove a point because some of his moves were insane (and in the best possible way)! And the final driver I gave a perfect 10 to is Kevin Magnussen who continued his amazing run in the Sprint format to score a great 2 points for Haas! Speaking of Haas, Nico Hulkenberg also had a great day to score a point whilst Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc did well to not cause an incident at the end!
In terms of the lowest possible grade, I’ve only given out one 1 and that is for Fernando Alonso! I talk a lot about how Aston Martin and particually Fernando Alonso struggle in the Sprint format, but it’s getting ridiculous at this point because it keeps happening! Alex Albon also didn’t have the most amazing afternoon whilst Valtteri Bottas surprisingly ended up last of the field!
Overall Sprint Race Results and My Ratings
Max Verstappen: 10
Carlos Sainz: 10
Lando Norris: 8
Charles Leclerc: 8
George Russell: 7
Lewis Hamilton: 6
Kevin Magnussen: 10
Nico Hulkenberg: 9
Sergio Perez: 5
Oscar Piastri: 5
Yuki Tsunoda: 7
Franco Colapinto: 6
Lance Stroll: 4
Pierre Gasly: 5
Esteban Ocon: 4
Liam Lawson: 3
Alex Albon: 2
Fernando Alonso: 1
Zhou Guanyu: 3
Valtteri Bottas: 2
My Predictions for COTA Qualifying
Carlos Sainz
Charles Leclerc
Max Verstappen
Lando Norris
Oscar Piastri
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