THE BIG PICTURE: On the verge of crowning the youngest ever champion, eyes are already on the 2027 season. Better power distribution and the possibility of four teams truly being in contention. The rest of this season could be a preview of that.

EVENT: Keeps getting bigger and bigger. With the world's largest cowboy hat. And they added that absurdly luxurious turn 1 hospitatliy area complete with swimming pools at a reported ticket cost of a million dollars.

TRACK: Bumps add character. Just ask Sebring.

QUALIFYING: Antonelli wants to end this championship as soon as possible, Verstappen is keeping him honest, as is Hadjar, the Ferraris inexplicably lost their speed again this time in Q3, Russell is folding over, and the Williams are just pure garbage.

RACE: As Antonelli ran away with it, the fight for second early and late was entertaining enough.

START: Antonelli is flawless combined with Verstappen getting a terrible start (as did the other Red Bull) allows Leclerc to get by and nearly Hamilton as well, and the Haas duo gain the most spots.

ANTONELLI: Talk about putting an exclamation point on the championship. What absolute domination.

RUSSELL: Talk about not even putting up a fight.

MERCEDES: Think about this. Without Antonelli, Mercedes may not win the driver's title. Seriously.

HAMILTON: Because Lewis is only one point behind Russell.

LECLERC: And Charles isn't too far behind.

FERRARI: Need to figure out where all that weekend speed goes when qualifying starts.

VERSTAPPEN: And Max can also easily finish in second place, lending further credence to a championship winner without Antonelli in the picture.

HADJAR: Isack got a very quick lesson on how Red Bull team dynamics work when it comes to the second driver.

RED BULL: Caught McLaren for third.

MCLAREN: Need to rediscover that late season upgrade magic to hold off Red Bull.

GASLY: Much better race for Pierre who got himself back in the points.

LAWSON: Continues to impress down the stretch.

HULKENBERG: Despite not scoring points, Nico ran a solid race.

BORTOLETO: Not a bad finish considering the record breaking 80-place grid penalty...

ASTON MARTIN: Couldn't convert Alonso's qualifying effort.

SAINZ: The master of getting in the way of lapping cars.

WILLIAMS: Worse than Aston Martin now.

COLAPINTO: Finally spoke out aginst his fans social media abuse towards other participants. Franco is not wrong. It hurts him even more. After all, what team would want to put up with that if they can find a driver just as good with just as much sponsorship backing, but a different nationality.

FIA: Please explain to us where Russell gained an advantage when going off the track. After all, the key part of the rule is gaining an advantage. And he actually lost distance to the driver behind him who was able to pull alongside Russell.

F1 ACADEMY: Brit Alisha Palmowski clinched the 2026 title with one weekend to go thanks to starting the opening race from her sixth pole position and leading every lap and then wrapped it up with a second place in the reverse grid race. Dane Alba Larsen won it for her first victory. Dutchwoman Nina Gademan took the feature race starting from third spot.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Almost.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 2,184 -- Days since the 2020 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix that Max Verstappen is no longer fighting for the world championship title.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: This was Honda's 500th grand prix. Their first was when they entered the 1964 season as a full factory effort with chassis and engine (but with an American Driver, Ronnie Bucknum), just four years after producing their first road car. They didn't start off till the sixth round of the season, the German GP at the Nurburgring. Bucknum, also in his F1 debut, qualified 22nd out of 24 cars, 59.5 seconds behind pole position. He crashed on the 11th (out of 15) lap, classified in 13th place. Honda has come a long way since then. Bucknum on the other hand, only scored in one race in his three year career, a fifth at the 1965 Mexican GP.

TWEET OF THE WEEKEND: From @Nachez98

Leclerc to Antonelli:

"So probably Mexico, huh?"

Verstappen out of nowhere:

"TEQUILAAAA"

#F1 #USGP

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Gabriel Bortoleto’s reaction to finding out he now has an 80-place grid penalty: "Eighty?! I'm starting from Malaysia in 2017!"

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Fernando Alonso about his collision with Alex Albon, causing damage to Alonso's car which spoiled a potentially nice finish, "Albon forgot there was a curve there."

SCHEDULE: Will Rwanda actually happen? They do have government support and (Qatari) investment money. And that country isn't as farfetched of a choice as it would have been a decade ago. But we're still skeptical. After all, other countries signed contracts years in advance (can you say Vietnam, Thailand?) and nothing came of them (and Vietnam actually built the track!).

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