THE BIG PICTURE: This is nothing new. Many people are saying the same thing. Rules should not restrict passing, but at the same time, they should not reward situations where the victim is penalized. Simply saying whoever gets to the apex first is all sorts of wrong. For so many obvious reasons. F1 and the FIA should be able to figure it out.

EVENT: Want to easily nab a ticket at a reasonable price for the Mexico City GP? Wait till Sergio Perez retires...

TRACK: Even though they shortened a key DRS zone, which had some worried, it was still very racy.

QUALIFYING: Sainz is brilliant, the title protagonists split the Ferraris, Haas is impressive, Albon makes a statement while Colapinto is brought back down to Earth, RB and Aston Martin were disappointed, Piastri is stunned in Q1, and Perez has never been more useless.

RACE: Once again, a great battle for not first overshadows a great winning drive by a Ferrari driver.

START: Sainz gets off slowly, Verstappen takes advantage of it, Norris goes with Max, Sainz goes off but gives the spot back, and the midfield squeeze job pitches Tsunoda hard into the wall and Albon out of the race.

SAINZ: Talk about being one with the car and the confidence it gives a driver. Carlos was on top of his game all weekend and made a strong statement to Red Bull and Ferrari, who dissed him.

LECLERC: What a save at the end. But, Charles struggled being in dirty air in the high altitude.

FERRARI: Now they are second. And firmly believe they can take first. Twenty-nine points isn't much for a team lead.

NORRIS: Could he have won without the shenanigans of Verstappen? Perhaps. But the what ifs keep mounting for Lando.

PIASTI: Made up for a terrible qualifying. In other words, did what a certain other local driver is incapable of after a bad qualifying performance.

MCLAREN: What must be going through Zak's head watching his drivers get mugged by Verstappen.

MERCEDES: Nice to let their drivers race. And that battle was very entertaining.

VERSTAPPEN: Max knew exactly what he was doing -- limit the point spread gain Norris was going to get over him. Verstappen didn't care about the penalties. He only cared to hold up Norris, so Norris couldn't win.

PEREZ: Just when you thought it couldn't get anymore embarrasing. Sergio lines up with the whole front of the car past his grid spot. Then, he actually tells his team he didn't, and they should double-check. It wasn't even close! Has Sergio become that clueless on how to drive a Formula 1 car?!

RED BULL: No surprise they fell to third place. After all, they only have one driver scoring points.

HAAS: Both drivers in the points this time, and gained more space over RB. They keep looking impressive.

GASLY: Grab a points finish he should have had last week.

LAWSON: Liam is certainly not acting like a rookie. He's there to take names. Even battling hard (and rough and throwing a middle finger) with a driver from the Mother Ship.

COLAPINTO: Another rookie willing to be tough. Franco keeps making a statement, and apparently the Red Bull folks are listening.

SAUBER: Still zero points.

FIA: They need to consider bringing back immediacy penalties. IMSA and WEC use them to great effect. Make drivers do drive throughs or if it makes sense, force them to give positions back. Don't allow them to purposely take a time penalty when they know in the long run, it's to their benefit.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Passing.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 6 -- The number of drivers with multiple wins this year.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: Not too long ago, just making 100 races was considered significant. Getting to 200 was a rare occurance. Now, thanks to longer seasons, and most importantly safety, we have seven drivers who hit the 300 mark. And Alonso is the first to 400. And he even skipped a total of three years (2002 as a Renault test driver after his rookie year with Minardi and 2019-20 when he went off doing such events as Indy, Le Mans, and Dakar.)

TWEET OF THE WEEKEND: From @NobleF1

George Russell on when the FIA want #F1's Driving Guidelines revised.

"They wanted to wait until '25, so it's something consistent through this year. I would say 19 out of 20 drivers said, 'well, if it's incorrect, make the change today'."

I guess we know who the one is...

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Max Verstappen when asked if there was anything he would do differently, "Maybe get a drink during the [20-second] pit stop."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Christian Horner on Sergio Perez's struggles, "From the team's perspective we are working with him as hard as we can to try and support him, we've done everything that we can and we'll continue to do so in Brazil next weekend, but there comes a point in time that you can only do so much."

SCHEDULE: This is a heck of a tripleheader stretch, when two of those races are sprint weekends. Brazil is usually the best of the sprint weekends.

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