THE BIG PICTURE: Daniel Ricciardo is certainly looking at his big picture.

EVENT: Talk about letting the air out of a balloon.

TRACK: That stadium section may be "cool" on a festive level, but it really doesn't work on a racing level. It also prevents a good launch out of the last turn, thus limiting passing despite how long the subsequent front straight is.

QUALIFYING: Out of nowhere a Ferrari front row, Perez gets outqualified by the guy who might replace him and currently has a much worse car (think about that!), Alfa Romeo is impressive, Albon is crushed, Norris is shocked, and Stroll continues his useless qualifying.

RACE: Once Verstappen (very quickly) took the lead, it was game over. The red flag was a false flag to bring some excitement. However, there were some epic (and some dumb) passes in the field.

START: An absolute stunner for the home crowd as their hero gets knocked out in the very first turn, Verstappen gets a lightning start to grab the lead before they even turn, Leclerc suffers damage, while everyone else behaves.

RESTART: Surprisingly, Hamilton on medium tires did not take advantage of those ahead of him on hard tires, Verstappen's reaction time is spot on again, and Norris falls down the order.

VERSTAPPEN: Everything continues to go so smoothly for Max.

PEREZ: He can't even pull the same move Verstappen did last year. No matter what Sergio does, it's always subpar to his teammate, as the pressure mounts.

RED BULL: They really have to think about how they want to handle a championship run in 2024.

HAMILTON: Lewis is getting happier and happier. Which means he is once again taking control of the team.

MERCEDES: Despite the DQ at COTA, the car does have speed now.

LECLERC: Still has never won a race from pole position.

FERRARI: Can they translate qualifying pace to race pace next year?

NORRIS: Imagine what Lando could have done had he not messed up qualifying.

RICCIARDO: Might have had fifth place without the red flag. In any case, Daniel was super impressive. And Perez must be really worried.

TSUNODA: Threw away a points finish...

ALPHATAURI: ...Which meant they couldn't take sole possession of eighth place.

WILLIAMS: Fast during the cool mornings, slow during the hot afternoons...

ALBON: ...Which makes Alex's race performance pretty impressive.

ALONSO: What must be going in in Fernando's head.

STROLL: A lousy 25th birthday "present."

ASTON MARTIN: Have completely fallen off the wagon.

MAGNUSSEN: It's been a while since we've seen those kind of crashes -- a sudden suspension failure pitching the car straight into the wall. In the past, those kind of crashes killed drivers. Now, wall and chassis safety are so amazing.

F1 TV: One good thing about Perez dropping out after just one lap, there appeared to be much less crowd shots. Much less.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Groans.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 31 -- The number of races Max Verstappen has won in just the past two seasons (and counting). To put that into perspective, 31 is the same number of races Nigel Mansell won in his career. And he was no slouch.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: Red Bull surpassed Lotus for most number of Mexican GP wins with five. Lotus' first was a shared victory for Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor in 1962 when it was a non-championship event. Clark's car was black flagged after 10 laps due to an illegal push start on the grid. He then replaced his teammate, Taylor, during a pit stop. From third place and 57 seconds back, Clark took the lead with a third of the race left and won by over a minute. It was the last time a grand prix victory was shared by two drivers.

TWEET OF THE WEEKEND: From @hamkkonen:

Horner talking shit about Lewis is how I know we're back on the right track.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: In the cooldown room when Lewis Hamilton saw the highlight of what happened to Sergio Perez, "He did a me in Qatar."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Lando Norris knew he had no other set of tires left when the team asked him if he thought the hards will be able to restart. With a perplexed voice, he said, "I will have to say yes. I can't say anything else."

SCHEDULE: From the festive atmosphere of Mexico to the festive atmosphere of Brazil. And, the third sprint weekend in four events.

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