THE BIG PICTURE: Technically, Kimi Antonelli did not win the world championship. Yet. Because bizarre events can happen. For instance, he could do something really stupid next race and have points stripped. Or, for instance, the team could be discovered to have committed a major technical rules cheat and be disqualified from the championship. He's only officially the world champion when he gets his hands on the trophy at the FIA Gala. (And yes, we are fun at parties.)

EVENT: Zandvoort. Monza. Mexico City. The podium of best/craziest/wildest fanbases. (With Interlagos and Suzuka proper runner ups.)

TRACK: Thin air. No drafting.

QUALIFYING: Hamilton finds his speed when it counted the most, Russell reminds his team I'm still here, Leclerc adds to Ferraris qualifying redemption, Verstappen losses out with a massive rear lockup, Norris bails, Piastri is stunned, and Alonso is hopping mad.

RACE: For a race that could have been all about follow the leader, there was a lot of intrigue.

START: Hamilton gets a solid start, but Leclerc is even better, gets aggressive on his teammate, too aggressive, goes off trying to pass, allowing Verstappen, who started fifth, to get by Hamilton, giving Max the effective lead. Meanwhile, Russell once again has no energy deployment.

RESTART: Hamilton gets his intra-team revenge by blasting by Leclerc, tries everything to get by Verstappen including contact, while Leclerc massively locks up.

ANTONELLI: Which superlative you want to talk about? 20-year-old champion, beating the previous youngest record by three years. Just five years racing cars. First Italian champion in 73 years, and only third overall. Fourth driver to win in their second season (Juan Manuel Fangio, Jacques Villeneuve, Lewis Hamilton). Doesn't matter. It's simply a brilliant sports story.

RUSSELL: Another energy deployment issue?!

MERCEDES: "Traded" Hamilton for Antonelli. Still got a championship for a lot less money.

VERSTAPPEN: Caught a break and ran with it.

FERRARI: Doesn't matter how. Strategy. Engines. Upgrades. Pit stops. And now drivers. They continue to find every which way to hand sure victories to others.

HAMILTON: He was not always happy with the Mercedes rules of handling drivers. But they were sure better than the Ferrari non-rules of handling drivers.

LECLERC: Amazing he was able to hold off Norris for all that time when Charles had flat spots down to the cords.

LAWSON: Still continues to be best of the rest. And this after being forced to start last.

OCON: Esteban? Esteban? Esteban? Esteban?

HIRAKAWA: Ryo may have backed into a point, but the real story is a 32-year-old making his F1 debut, the oldest since Andre Lotterer in 2014 for Caterham, the same day F1 crowns a 20-year-old. Never give up on your dreams.

HAAS: Going to try that rookie signee early.

WILLIAMS: Thanks to penalties and DNFs, they actually almost scored some points.

HULKENBERG: Hey, Nico, you need to brake. Earlier.

PEREZ: His 300th F1 start. But what are we really to make of Sergio's career?

BEARMAN: Hugely disappointed to be knocked out of a competitive position.

BOTTAS: Is that what you call a half-Buemi? Very lucky he had a relatively long runoff, rear brakes still working, Tecpro barriers, and went in backwards.

ALONSO: Fernando thought he was going to have a solid weekend. But he forgot he was driving for Aston Martin.

ASTON MARTIN: Two separate car failures within a minute of each other. Brutal.

PIT STOPS: What was in the air, besides the thinness, that caused seemingly everyone to have terrible pit stops?

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Youth.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 20 -- You know why.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: Lewis Hamilton became the oldest pole winner since Mario Andretti, whose pole came under unconvential circumstances. Andretti had already left F1, returning full time to Indy car racing in 1982. However, when Didier Pironi was severly injured, Andretti was asked to fill in for the final two races. Upon his immediate return, he won pole at, of all places, the Italian GP, and finished third. His final race at the Caesars Palace GP he qualified seventh and retired with suspension failure.

TWEET OF THE WEEKEND: From @LeeF1Talk regarding Haas firing Ocon early:

He's becoming the F1 team dropout mascot.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Race engineers sometimes drivers a quite observant. Lando Norris, who was running on Charles Leclerc's tail after being told of his opponent's tire situation, "Yeah, I know that! I saw it!"

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: George Russell over the radio after the start, "How is this possible? I'm going to shut my damn mouth..."

SCHEDULE: Las Vegas and then ... well, we don't know what next. MotoGP at Qatar is going to be a very interesting experiment.

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