THE BIG PICTURE: Even though they did not win, Red Bull proved they have solved their "Singapore" problem. And thus, should be competitive the rest of the way. Can Verstappen go on a typical Red Bull untouchable streak? Does this put pressure on McLaren to force them to drop papaya rules and focus on one driver?

EVENT: One of the few events left not to have a long term contract in place. Can't believe Singapore and F1 doesn't want to continue. It may come down to facility improvements F1 wants.

TRACK: It is still better than the original layout (which they eventually want to go back to), but it was still an old style hard to pass Singapore.

QUALIFYING: Russell bounces it off the wall with a scintillating lap to take pole, but the story is Red Bull finally being quick at Singapore and Verstappen taking advantage for the front row. Piastri grabs the upper hand over Norris, while Antonelli also wants to play spoiler.

RACE: No safety cars, virtual or otherwise. Everybody finished. Nobody more than one lap down. At Singapore no less.

START: Despite soft tires Verstappen falls victim to the dirty side, so Russell is able to sail away, Norris gets super, super aggressive with his teammate to take third, and Antonelli drops two positions.

RUSSELL: A solid, solid performance. And still without a contract...

ANTONELLI: Mega pass on Leclerc to get fifth place.

MERCEDES: Where did that weekend performance come from? Even they don't know!

VERSTAPPEN: Only a superb performance by Mercedes and Russell prevented another amazing Max victory.

TSUNODA: Lapped by your own teammate. Yuki is done.

RED BULL: They truly have corrected their downforce issue on bumpy tracks.

NORRIS: Turned the tables on his teammate by being the more aggressive one this time. But after all that, only gained three points on the title chase.

PIASTRI: Oscar is being disingenuous as he did the exact same thing to his teammate at Monza last year, which could have resulted in a collision had Norris not backed out.

MCLAREN: It seemed so anticlimactic this time as McLaren won their second consecutive constructor's title. That achievement sure wasn't a result of their pit stop efficiency...

ALONSO: Fernando is being disingenuous with his sarcastic remarks about Hadjar. They are fighting for driver and team positions. A younger Alonso would have done the same thing.

SAINZ: Quite a comeback from the back row.

WILLIAMS: But the team put themselves on their back foot with a sloppy self check of their own DRS gap allowance.

ALPINE: Going nowhere. Still.

F1 ACADEMY: American Lia Block went from rally to pavement, taking her first win in the reverse grid race. A wild last lap shootout in the second race on a wet track with slick tires saw a daring pass for the win by Dutchwoman Maya Weug over Doriane Pin. This shrunk Pin's lead over Weug to just nine points with only Las Vegas left.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Edgy.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 10 -- The number of championships for McLaren, moving ahead of Williams for sole possession of second all time, behind Ferrari's 16.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: This is the first back-to-back world titles for McLaren since they won four in a row from 1988 to 1991. Those included the Ayrton Senna-Alain Prost intra-team battles for the first three years. Senna won the driver's title three times and Prost once (1989). Arguably, those were the most storied years in McLaren's's history. It was also arguably their most difficult years keeping their drivers in check, as flare-ups and controversy reigned throughout between the two.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Fernando Alonso channelling his inner Kimi Raikonnen, "If you speak to me every lap, I will disconnect the radio."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Isack Hadjar responding to Alonso's unwillingness to have another driver actually race in what is supposed to be a race, "If he didn't enjoy that fight, then he's really grumpy and there's nothing I can do for him."

SCHEDULE: Back to the USA. And the intrigue of whether Verstappen really will start making the McLaren drivers nervous.

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