The sprint format in Formula 1 rarely yields perfection from drivers - and sure enough there were a number of imperfect weekends at the United States Grand Prix, including some poorly-timed misjudgements.
But there were two drivers who stood out head and shoulders above the rest at Austin. So who got the nod from Edd Straw? Here are his US GP rankings:
Started: 1st Finished: 1st
There's no doubt the Verstappen/Red Bull combination was the quickest package at Austin, as proved by his clean sweep of pole positions and wins in both the sprint and main event.
What stood out about his weekend was the sheer imperiousness of it, never looking like tripping himself up and looking largely at one with the car.
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Yes, he benefitted from the absence of the McLarens in the sprint, in which he battled more-than-anticipated rear deg, and could pull away early on Sunday thanks to Leclerc getting ahead of Norris, but in a car that's fast but, as his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda will attest, is still tricky to extract the potential from he was in a class of his own.
Verdict: Never looked like dropping the ball.
Started: 11th Finished: 8th
Hulkenberg was on top form at Austin, hitting the ground running in practice and playing a key role in Sauber getting the car dialled in. He set himself up for a big result in the sprint with a shock fourth on the grid, only to be eliminated in the first-corner melee. While that was not of his making, his switch to the ‘middle lane’ approaching the corner opened the door that allowed Fernando Alonso to attack, meaning his decision-making could have been better.
His main qualifying performance was less eye-catching, although he would have made Q3 but for an ill-timed gust of wind that made his final lap "not so clean".
But he jumped Alonso to run 10th at the start, not putting a foot wrong and, having been passed by Tsunoda, later picked up more positions thanks to the Carlos Sainz-Kimi Antonelli collision and Ollie Bearman's spin.
Verdict: His mighty form deserved double points.
Started: 2nd Finished: 2nd
Norris wasn't perfect at Austin, but he was extremely strong - as demonstrated by his decisive advantage over Oscar Piastri in terms of both qualifying and race pace. What he couldn't do was threaten Verstappen, which in qualifying was probably beyond the machinery despite him not producing perfect laps in either session.
The sprint race was over almost before it had begun through no fault of his own, while Leclerc's soft-tyre bite allowed him to jump into second and left Norris spending much of the race searching for a way past the Ferrari - something he had to do in both stints.
Once in clear air he was quick, but it's impossible to say if he could have threatened Verstappen had they been together from the start.
Verdict: Convincingly outpaced Piastri.
Started: 3rd Finished: 3rd
Leclerc would have been a real threat for top spot but for untidiness in the sprint part of the weekend, ending up last in SQ3, fractionally slower than Lewis Hamilton, and then having a brief off in the Esses in the sprint that allowed Hamilton to attack and pass him, turning fourth into fifth.
When he spun on his first Q3 lap, it seemed qualifying proper might also go wrong but Leclerc nailed his final lap to line up third. After turning that into second thanks to starting on softs, he fought Norris hard in both stints before eventually losing a place he held onto for longer than he should have.
While the Ferrari improved between the sprint and main parts of the weekend, third place was probably the maximum that was realistically possible even if he was just five laps away from pulling off second.
Verdict: Shaky sprint, excelled in the grand prix.
Started: 10th Finished: 10th
There's little to say about Alonso's weekend, primarily because it was just typically well-executed. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with his Turn 1 attack after Hulkenberg opened the door approaching the corner, although it meant Alonso lost the chance of points thanks to being eliminated in the clash with Hulkenberg and the McLarens.
Qualifying proper could have gone slightly better as there were several places on offer for a tiny gain on his final lap, and that meant that perhaps he left a few points on the table.
He got boxed in at Turn 1 at the start of the grand prix, costing him places, but returned to the points thanks to the Sainz-Antonelli collision.
Verdict: A good but not great weekend.
Started: 4th Finished: 6th
In both qualifying sessions, Russell was good but didn't quite approach perfection, although the sprint start chaos allowed him to jump to second and even have a go at passing Verstappen.
While that was perhaps a misguided move and not well-executed, forcing Verstappen off track, you can understand why he was willing to go all or nothing.
The wind conditions made main qualifying difficult but losing two places at the start, thanks to being on the inside line with Hamilton and Piastri sweeping around him, meant the die was cast. He held sixth in the procession throughout.
Verdict: Fractional loss in qualifying cost podium shot.
Started: 5th Finished: 4th
Recently, Hamilton's pace has compared decently to Leclerc's and that was also the case at Austin, edging ahead of his team-mate by 0.069s in sprint qualifying then losing out by a tenth in the main session.
Track position defined his races, although he was given the chance to attack Leclerc by his team-mate's error in the sprint, which allowed him to turn fifth into fourth. In the grand prix proper, he held fourth place throughout and was never under any real threat from Piastri until a last-lap puncture scare left him struggling to the line.
While there was nothing excessively flashy about this weekend, Hamilton seemed as comfortable as he could be with the Ferrari.
Verdict: An unobtrusively good weekend.
Started: 12th Finished: 11th
Given the Racing Bulls car behaved reasonably well but seemed to be missing that final fraction needed to be in the mix with the fastest midfield cars, Lawson had a decent weekend spent largely hanging around just outside the key positions.
While his qualifying execution could have been slightly better, notably on the second run of Q2 in which he struggled with the gusty conditions, the fact he finished one place outside the points in both races was a good return - getting boxed in at Turn 1 in the grand prix start costing him his best chance of gaining a crucial place.
However, Lawson felt "there have been points available throughout the weekend", so could have done slightly more.
Verdict: A good, solid weekend but not at the ceiling of the car.
Started: 8th Finished: 9th
Bearman's speed again impressed at the Circuit of the Americas, adapting well to a Haas upgrade package that made the car less stable in the high speed despite it only being bolted to his car for the first time in sprint qualifying.
He finished eight-on-the-road in the sprint but dropped to last thanks to a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, having exceeded the limits at Turn 15 to reclaim a position lost to Antonelli's block-pass.
After qualifying well for the main race, Bearman lost a place to Hulkenberg after his mishap while attempting to pass Tsunoda. While he was legitimately annoyed with Tsunoda's small swerve left when he saw him coming, the gap was never entirely there, so he had a stake in his own losses there.
Verdict: Fast but in-race judgement could have been better.
Started: 11th Finished: 13th
Antonelli was a step behind Russell on pace during the weekend, but after a disappointing exit in SQ2 with lock-ups costing him he salvaged a point after surviving the first-corner melee.
In qualifying proper, he struggled with the gusty wind and left a few tenths on the table, which cost him several slots on the grid.
He held seventh early on, only for Sainz to clatter him thanks to a misjudgement that, ironically, was partly created by Antonelli's intelligent racecraft in not letting the car run out too far wide approaching Turn 15. After that, it was a tough recovery but he did what he could to climb back to 13th with points never a realistic possibility.
Verdict: Lacked the edge of pace and execution.
Started: 9th Finished: DNF
Proved to be the stronger Williams driver all weekend, albeit with the caveat of Alex Albon's differential problems that weren't resolved until qualifying proper.
Sainz aced the sprint, producing a good qualifying performance then gaining from being forced to take the wide line at Turn 1 by getting around the chaos to jump to third.
Although he could have qualified a few places higher, partly thanks to being unable to carry as much speed as he'd have liked through Turn 19, he was set up for a good race after passing Bearman for eighth when he misjudged his attempt to pass Antonelli early on and clattered into the Mercedes, putting him out of the race and earning himself a grid penalty for Mexico.
Verdict: Destined for a high ranking until he clattered Antonelli.
Started: 14th Finished: 19th
While there were hopes the Alpine would be more competitive at COTA, it was only a Q1 car on pace and reaching the second stage in qualifying for both races was primarily the result of others being eliminated.
However, Gasly, delighted to be using a fresh floor in the belief that an ageing one had cost him performance in recent races, did what he could and dealt with the car trouble better than his team-mate.
After spending the sprint battling in vain to hold a top-10 position thanks to early gains, his race was straightforward but frustrating given the Alpine's lack of pace, particularly on high fuel, and losing time at his pitstop. He was passed by Colapinto and Bortoleto late on while under instructions to manage the pace and finished last.
Verdict: On a hiding to nothing.
Started: 18th Finished: 14th
Differential problems that first manifested themselves in practice and carried through the sprint component of the weekend (despite attempts to fix them) held him back, and although he was outperformed by Sainz he did a good job to make SQ3 and finish seventh.
The downside was that this meant the car was transformed and unfamiliar by the time qualifying started, although even with that disadvantage he really should have found the pace to advance to Q2 without exceeding track limits.
Any hope of recovery in the race was lost when he clipped Gabriel Bortoleto at Turn 12 on the opening lap, a classic first-lap racing incident, and spun, leaving him to toil to 14th on a strategy that was never going to work after starting on hards.
Verdict: Diff problem and knock-on effects made this a lost weekend.
Started: 15th Finished: 17th
Colapinto's recent run of good progress came to a juddering halt at Austin, where he wasn't helped by the sprint format. He spoke of it needing time for him to "get in rhythm with the car" during race weekends, something the reduction in free practice denied him the chance to do. Despite set-up changes, he found the stiff car unpredictable on the bumps and was unable to get to Gasly's level.
A puncture picked up in the first-corner chaos in the sprint led to a pitstop and 14th place, and after getting into Q2 thanks to both Stroll and Albon having laps deleted in qualifying proper he had a tough grand prix in a car that simply wasn’t at the races.
However, he did infuriate his team by disregarding a team order late on in overtaking Gasly, which allowed him to ensure he finished ahead of Bortoleto but won't have done his hopes of staying on in 2026 any good.
Verdict: A poorly-timed bad weekend.
Started: 13th Finished: 7th
That Tsunoda grabbed the attention more for his rage at Lawson having the temerity to share the same track with him than his pace tells you everything you need to know about his weekend.
Running with the older-spec front wing compared to Verstappen, which he said "shouldn't be that huge a difference", he salvaged a couple of points in the sprint from 18th on the grid thanks to a mix of his incisive charge up the inside in Turn 1 and the chaos ahead.
However, his single-lap pace was poor as while not getting around to start a second flier in sprint qualifying contributed to his elimination, so too did his lack of speed and the need to minimise the fuel carried that forced a two-run strategy. That pace problem manifested itself again in qualifying as while he did lose a fraction after being distracted by the out-of-the-way Gasly approaching Turn 15, the car had the pace not to be cutting it that fine and he was neck-and-neck with 10th-fastest Bearman before that happened.
He had a strong first lap, albeit needing Sainz to be very co-operative to avoid a clash, on his way to a solid seventh - incurring the ire of Bearman along the way for his late jink at Turn 14 while defending.
Verdict: Well off Verstappen's pace.
Started: 17th Finished: 15th
Despite the advantage of running the Haas upgrade package in practice before it was put on the other car, Ocon was never as comfortable with the car as Bearman was. Both talked of the car being a little more on the edge in the high-speed corners, although Ocon also struggled with understeer in places.
That can sometimes be a consequence of his more classical driving style compared to his more attacking team-mate, and contributed to his elimination in the first stage of qualifying in both sessions.
Progress was difficult to make in either race, doubly so after starting on hards in the main event, but the real damage was done in qualifying.
Verdict: Qualifying cost any points hope.
Started: 16th Finished: 18th
This was Bortoleto's least-impressive weekend of the season, not because of any notable errors but simply because he was not at Hulkenberg's level. He attributed that to balance struggles and a lack of confidence on a bumpy track that offers a wide range of corner speeds.
Having started at the back in the sprint, which was also partly the result of not getting his second lap in during SQ1, he finished 11th. His race was also anonymous, with an aggressive two-stop strategy offering nothing and the man himself left scratching his head having been unable to find anything like the pace of his team-mate.
It says much for the quality of his season that this is the first time he's seemed lost.
Verdict: A classic rookie learning weekend.
Started: 19th Finished: 12th
This was a weekend in which Stroll underachieved in three of the four key parts, as he was underwhelming in both qualifying sessions and made a terrible misjudgement when he attempted to pass Ocon in the sprint and clattered into the Haas.
To his credit, he was apologising via gesture almost as soon as the impact happened, although it was doubly costly as it earned him a five-place grid penalty.
The race itself was a good one, gaining a total of seven places - including two to the Sainz-Antonelli clash and three to on-track moves on Ocon and the Alpines. That left him within five seconds of Alonso, who had attempted to back up Lawson to help Stroll, come the finish.
Verdict: Did too much damage to his weekend prior to the main race.
Started: 6th Finished: 5th
Piastri has usually thrived when he returns to tracks he struggled at in 2024, but Austin didn't fit that pattern. His deficits to Norris of 0.309s and 0.283s in the two qualifying sessions reflected that, with a lack of confidence and comfort in the car over the bumps as he struggled to feel the limit of the available grip.
That was compounded in the sprint by the high-risk decision to try to cut inside Norris at Turn 1, necessitating him shedding more speed and turning more aggressively across the pack, which led to the elimination of both McLarens - not the percentage play needed and very costly in terms of his ranking.
His grand prix was subdued, holding fifth throughout after some intelligent car positioning in the early seconds, but he simply didn't have the pace to challenge those ahead.
Verdict: His worst weekend of 2025 pace-wise.
Started: 20th Finished: 16th
Crashing at Turn 6 on his first flying lap in qualifying proper was a weekend-defining error for Hadjar, who made very clear his irritation by making both the steering wheel and his own helmet the targets for the trademark 'Isack Smack' in acknowledgement of his anger.
From the back, there was never any hope especially after starting on the slow hards, but he drove a solid enough race in a losing cause. The sprint part of the weekend went reasonably in terms of his own performance, outqualifying Lawson and suffering damage at the first corner on his way to 12th.
Verdict: Shunting on your first Q1 lap is a no-go.
