THE BIG PICTURE: It's on! Norris vs. Verstappen. McLaren vs. Red Bull. Throw Piastri in the mix (but not Perez, because he's useless). It's immaterial who actually wins the championship now. It's on! The rest of the 2024 season is must watch TV.

EVENT: Lots of orange, but not for McLaren. Funny, how the after race track invasion and podium celebrations were lightly attended. Did most of the Orange Army just go straight back to their cars?

TRACK: Three DRS zones in a row on such a short track kind of negates the DRS system. And partially created the mess which evolved in the race.

SPRINT QUALIFYING: Waiting till the very, very last minute creates excitement (just ask the fans) ... and trouble (just ask Leclerc). Ultimately, the fast guys are on top, the pretenders (Perez) behind the fast guys, and the hanger ons (Ricciardo) at the bottom.

SPRINT: Verstappen gets a great start, the McLarens slow each other down by battling hard with each other, and the Alpines drop like a rock.

START START: Red Bull Ring produced another great Sprint. Though, ultimately Verstappen and his Red Bull unsurprisingly took control at this track. Except Perez, of course.

QUALIFYING: Verstappen and Red Bull keep getting stronger here, Leclerc went for a wild ride, Piastri is going to rue losing his best time to track limits, and Perez yet again qualifies behind the four fastest teams ... when his car is the fastest.

RACE: Holy hell! That was some ending. McLaren's car is better suited for the end of the race where they are better on their tires with a light load. While Red Bull is the opposite. So, as past races have shown, no matter what happens in the first two thirds or so, don't turn away for the last segment.

START: Verstappen rockets away, Russell tries a bonzai move on Norris but thinks better of it, Piastri gets beat around a bit, and Leclerc suffers the most being the meat in a sandwich.

VERSTAPPEN: Is it any surprise Max reverted back to his old self once he was under true pressure again? And it didn't help he was angry with his crew for a poor pit stop and with his tires. The collision was 1,000% his fault.

NORRIS: To put it bluntly, Lando isn't going to take Max's shit anymore. Good friend or not. Sure, some of his divebombs were a bit questionable, but he's definitely up for the fight.

RED BULL: This team's culture creates prima donnas who truly believe they can do no wrong like Vettel (Multi-21) and Verstappen (fear of his father). Eventually, the entire grid, if the FIA keeps refusing to do anything, is going to strike back.

MCLAREN: Welcome to the world of Mercedes when dealing with Red Bull.

RUSSELL: A win is a win is a win. In modern racing, "backing" into a win isn't seen much anymore (especially for mechanical reasons). But back in the day, it probably happened more often than earning a win for a whole race.

PIASTRI: Oscar did indeed rue the lost qualifying lap. He very well could have won this race. More intriguing, what would the end be like if it was Verstappen vs. Norris vs. Piastri. The imagination runs wild.

SAINZ: Another podium spot for the jobless driver.

FERRARI: Please, get a little better. We really want to make this even more interesting.

MERCEDES: Despite the win, which they deserve to enjoy, they still need some work to really be up there.

PEREZ: Arguably, there are four teams in the upper echelon. Out of those eight drivers, Sergio finished last in sprint qualifying, last in the Sprint, last in qualifying, and not counting the cars which ran into trouble, last in the grand prix. He couldn't even beat his teammate who crashed! Does Red Bull really expect anyone in the world to believe Perez is the right driver for their second seat? Anyone?

HAAS: In the end, a strong haul of points.

RICCIARDO: Okay, Daniel did score points and outran Tsunoda. We'll see...

ALPINE: Their drivers are getting even testier. And the team fell back to eighth place.

ASTON MARTIN: They are absolutely nowhere lately. Remember when they were the second best team on the grid? That seems like ages ago.

ALONSO: Fernando must be super frustrated. Waiting for an extreme outburst any time now...

SAUBER: Still zero points.

F2: Brit Oliver Bearman finally won an F2 race, albeit the reverse grid sprint race. After pole sitter Dennis Hauger stalled on the feature race formation lap, Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto, who started third, worked his way to victory. Estonian Paul Aron still leads the points without a single win.

F3: Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov won his second sprint race with a late move and then survived a restart with one lap to go. Brit Luke Browning took the feature race honors, leading every lap, but his pursuers were never far behind. The win also put him in the points lead.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Imbroglio.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 6.5 -- The length of Max Verstappen's final pit stop in seconds which ultimately led to the final battle with Lando Norris.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: The two leaders taking each other out is what gave Max Verstappen his first win in his first race after being promoted to Red Bull in the 2016 Spanish GP. That fateful crash took place on the first lap, when Mercedes teammates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton infamously refused to give each other an inch and wound up with parts strewn across the track and the cars beached in the sand trap.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: McLaren's team principal Andrea Stella said it best: "I see it that the entire population of the world would know who is responsible except for a group of people."

TWEET OF THE WEEKEND: Damon Hill on his Twitter account responding to Andrea Stella's quote: "Ah! I recognise that sound. It's the sound of reason and respect. Well done AS who echoed almost exactly what MB said. But we've been here before. Nothing will change. Some people just don't get it. Good race though!"

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: After Pierre Gasly made a great move to pass his teammate, Esteban Ocon, Gasly simply said, "Ciao!"

SCHEDULE: F1 couldn't have asked for a better schedule. After this controversial race, they head to England, where the crowd will surely be wound up.

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