Championship Chaos, Lando's Legacy, and more ahead of the season-defining 2025 Qatar Grand Prix

What happened at the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix?

The 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix was, as expected, championship defining.

To start, Max Verstappen took home yet another Grand Prix victory and won his second full race in the United States this season. He took the lead from Norris in the first corner and held his ground throughout the night to take the checkered flag at the front of the grid. Lando Norris came home second after retaking P2 from George Russell early on in the race, but his car began to fail in the waning corners of the race. He was able to hold on to P2 through the final sector, with Mercedes's Englishman rounding out the podium.

Then, hours after the race, breaking news. McLaren's skid blocks had worn out too much, resulting in a double disqualification. Yep, a couple of milimeters of skid block may decide this year's championship. Verstappen sat 39 points behind Norris at the end of the Grand Prix, and now is even with Norris's teammate Oscar Piastri only 24 points behind the championship lead with two races and a sprint to go.

With the double DQ, Russell moved up to P2 and teenage teammate Kimi Antonelli bolted up to P3 to secure back-to-back podiums. Rookies Isack Hadjar and Ollie Bearman scored points for Racing Bulls and Haas respectively, and seven teams were able to score points on the weekend thanks to McLaren's error, namely Ferrari, Kick Sauber, Red Bull, Mercedes, Racing Bulls, Williams, and the Haas duo that moved from P11 and P12 to P9 and P10.

FP1 Breakdown

Free Practice One in Qatar was an intriguing session as all twenty drivers took to the track for the only data collection period before Sprint Qualifying later this afternoon. The main storyline was McLaren's return, as they took P1 and P2 in the session after last weekend's disaster in Vegas. Norris was only 58 hundreths off of his teammate, and was almost three tenths faster than P3.

Williams and Aston Martin were also able to place both of their drivers in the top ten of FP1 with Alonso in third, Sainz in fourth, Albon in seventh, and Stroll in ninth. Both teams have seriously struggled in the past few race weekends, so we'll see if either team can capitalize the strong practice results into points in Qatar.

Elsewhere, Isack Hadjar had about a one second gap over teammate Liam Lawson, and so did Pierre Gasly over a lackluster Franco Colapinto who floated over 2.5 seconds behind Oscar Piastri.

Podium Predictions

Here are my predictions for the podium finishers at the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix:

Qatar Sprint

1. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - Piastri looks primed to get his first victory anywhere since Zandvoort, and McLaren look to be excellent in Qatar's tyre wear conditions.

   
   

2. Lando Norris (McLaren) - Similarly, Lando Norris looks to be very quick in Qatar and will hope to capitalize this weekend to knock his fellow contenders out of the Championship.

   
   

3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - Max Verstappen's car may not be as quick, but he is the quickest driver on the grid at the moment. You never know.

Qatar Grand Prix

1. Lando Norris (McLaren) - Finally. Champion. To seal the deal, Norris should feel he has to win the main race. If he does so, his odds of a championship are extremely high.

   
   

2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - Max's only way of staying in the fight if Lando wins the grand prix is to finish second, but he would also need to outscore the championship leader by six points in the sprint. That won't happen if Lando is careful.

   
   

3. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - He may not be in the championship fight anymore with a third place finish and his teammate taking the checkered flag, but at least Oscar would sit on a podium.

Five Spicy Hot Takes

Now, let’s spice things up with some bold hot takes for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, rated from 1 to 5 spicy pepper emojis:

1. 🌶️ - A McLaren driver wins the sprint. It's looking very likely that McLaren is dominant this weekend, and especially in a short race where tyre wear will play a major factor in determining speed, they should feel ready to take the checkered flag with one of two drivers.

   
   

2. 🌶️🌶️ - Rookie scores. I feel like this one kinda has to happen, and I'm out of ideas.

   
   

3. 🌶️🌶️🌶️ - Constructors' changeover. Haas, Aston Martin, and Kick Sauber sit five points apart for the P7 battle. Something will change in that order this week.

   
   

4. 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ - Mercedes seal second in the constructors'. I'll say it again. Mercedes should take P2 in the constructors' championship this weekend. All they need is to outscore Red Bull by four and for Ferrari to not outscore them by ten. Yes, Red Bull may have Max Verstappen, but Mercedes has two drivers capable of scoring points.

   
   

5. 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ - Lando.

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