The original American race provided a great deal of excitement over the weekend with some strong performances in qualifying, a plethora of dramatic incidents and Red Bull’s first constructors championship since 2013.

Red Bull – A dominant display from Red Bull Racing with Verstappen securing his 33rd career racing win despite starting from second on the grid after failing to capitalise on two cool-down laps. It was not an easy victory for the Dutchman as he faced a very real threat from his former rival Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages of the race. Perez performed well after receiving a grid penalty and recovered to P4.

Mercedes – Mercedes didn’t seem to have impressively strong pace in the practice session but Hamilton capitalised on a chaotic race to take P2 and was tantalisingly close to the race win. Russell was once again out-qualified by his teammate and caused carnage on the start netting him a five second penalty so he only ended up P5 but with fastest lap.

Ferrari – A tale of two halves for Ferrari as despite an incredible qualifying for Sainz where he took pole he failed to reach lap two of the race after contact with Russell. Leclerc was demoted down the grid due to a penalty despite taking second in qualifying and benefitted massively from a cheap safety car pit stop to take the final podium place in P3.

McLaren – A strong performance from Norris after a decent qualifying but awful start that meant he lost places but fought through to reclaim P6. Ricciardo was nowhere as he struggled throughout the weekend and came in P16, second to last of the finishers.

Aston Martin – A case of what could’ve been for Aston Martin with Stroll starting P5 after a great qualifying but erratic driving during a battle with Alonso meant he failed to finish the race. Vettel briefly led the race but a horrific 16.8 second pit stop meant he lost all hope of a podium and came in P7.

Haas – Qualifying spelt disappointment for Haas with Schumacher P19 and Magnussen P16 but a string of fortunate events and a great tyre management stint from Magnussen promoted him to P8. Schumacher came home P14.

AlphaTauri – Shock points for Tsunoda that I didn’t see coming after his P15 start. Gasly started ahead but failed to stay within 10 car lengths of the safety car and then his team didn’t serve the penalty properly so his race ended in disappointment in P13.

Alpine – One of the most contentious moments of the race involved Alpine with Alonso‘s car doing a wheelie yet finishing the race but netting the Spaniard a retrospective 30-second penalty for driving an unsafe car which put him P15. Ocon rounded off the points in P10 after a decent race.

Williams – What could’ve been for Williams with Albon reaching Q2 and being promoted to the top ten but dropped out of the points in the closing stages of the race which I found rather sad. Latifi spun early on without anyone around (typical) but didn’t make much of an impact on the race and finished last.

Alfa Romeo – Despite being in a good position after reaching Q3, Bottas failed to capitalise on this after beaching himself in the gravel and causing the first safety car. Zhou drove well but dropped out of the points in the closing stages to finish P11.

What did you think to the race?

Do comment your thoughts below.