Formula 1 USA Grand Prix Prediction: Verstappen found his speed

Finally! Formula 1 is back. The first free practice as the only such session in the sprint format of the weekend for the US GP really served the teams to test some upgrades and prepare the settings for the upcoming sessions. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc show the least problems so far, but it remains to be seen what the pace of Max Verstappen and the McLaren duo really is once the car settings are sorted. At the start of this weekend, the focus was on Red Bull's alleged ride height adjustment device. All ride height adjustments are prohibited in parc ferme (i.e. between qualifying and the race) The team quickly denied any blame and conformed to the FIA's instructions. The FIA also did not find that the team broke the rules.

A very interesting sprint race full of battles and overtaking was won by Max Verstappen in Red Bull. Behind him we watched a great fight for second place between the two Ferraris and Lando Norris. In the end, Carlos Sainz in Ferrari took second place, and Lando Norris in McLaren finished third after he pulled a lion's defense against the attack of another Ferrari. The fourth, as we mentioned, was Charles Leclerc in Ferrari. Relatively far behind him were two Mercedes - fifth was George Russell and sixth was Lewis Hamilton. The two Haas had an excellent sprint and grabbed the last points in the sprint – seventh was Kevin Magnussen and eighth was Nico Hulkenberg. Ninth and tenth, positions without points, were won by Sergio Perez in Red Bull and Oscar Piastre in McLaren.

After winning pole position at the US Grand Prix, Lando Norris said his Q3 lap was the best lap of his career… During qualifying at the Circuit of the Americas, Max Verstappen seemed to be the favorite to win the first starting position. The Red Bull driver was the fastest in Q1 and Q2, and in general it seemed that there was something more in the car than what Lando Norris could offer with McLaren. However, when the final qualifying round started, Norris drove an excellent lap in 1:32.330 and was 31 thousandths faster than Verstappen. Now we can only speculate how qualifying would have ended had it not been for George Russell's accident, which prevented any of the drivers from completing their second fast lap. Verstappen was better than Norris in passing, but the yellow flags in the last sector forced Verstappen and all the other drivers to slow down. Verstappen will start from second place, and after winning the sprint, he has the right to be optimistic. The Ferrari drivers will be waiting for places on the second starting row, while on the third will be Piastri and Russell, if his Mercedes has not suffered any major damage. The seventh starting position is held by Gasly, eighth by Alonso, ninth by Magnussen, and Perez was costed dearly by a mistake that caused his time to be deleted and he ended up in tenth place in Q3.

Norris, after third place in the sprint, is 54 points behind Verstappen in the overall driver standings. McLaren welcomes the race in Austin with a 39-point lead in the constructors' standings. Both Ferrari cars, but also both Red Bulls' looked fine during the whole weekend, and in this race, I expect these teams and drivers to steal the show. I expect Sergio Perez to level up and to finish among the best 6 drivers in the USA where he has very loud support from Mexican fans.

OUR PREDICTION: Sergio Perez in top 6