After an eventful if ultimately predictable Sprint Weekend in China F1 made the long journey to the USA for the first of 3 events this season with the run-up to the weekend dominated by the momentous news that the era of Red Bull's collaboration with Adrian Newey, one of the most successful designers in the history of the sport, is coming to an end. As a result, the rumour mill is already in overdrive as to where he might consider going in the future although one would imagine he's likely to be thinking of this being his last major project... Most of the drivers, when asked, made glowing comments about what it might be like to work with Newey but for me the most telling was Lewis Hamilton who appeared very coy when asked about the topic of Newey in the driver's press conference ahead of the weekend. I guess we shall see... but it's certainly an exciting prospect to think that we might widen the fight at the head of the field.

The Miami event this year was another Sprint Weekend and, for what it's worth, the latest format is the least offensive so far. I'm still not certain what it brings to the table as a purist but it certainly cemented my opinion that the Sprint works much better at a circuit where the tyre wear characteristics mean the drivers are actually able to push! The amended weekend format means there is only a single practice session ahead of Sprint Qualifying on Friday, then the Sprint itself on Saturday followed by the Grand Prix Qualifying session and then the main event on Sunday. The truncated practice schedule meant that it was hard to get a true picture of the formbook from practice as many teams concentrated purely on race setup.

Sprint Qualifying was a bit of a mixed bag as Norris in particular looked ominously fast on the medium tyres but as the field moved into SQ3 many teams struggled with the softest tyre option which left the starting order as Verstappen in front of Leclerc and Perez, with Daniel Ricciardo starring in 4th for RB (or whatever they call themselves now!), then Sainz, Piastri, Stroll, Alonso, Norris and Hulkenberg again getting the Haas into the final part of qualifying, the German on a high from having signed his own contract to race for the upcoming Audi team.

In the sprint itself as the field left the grid there was a predictable melee at the tight first corner as Hamilton made a bit of a late lunge down the inside and collided with the two Aston Matins (who were already having a bit of a tete-a-tete themselves with Norris unfortunately ultimately becoming the victim and crashing out at the first corner. This brought out the safety car while the mess was cleaned up before Verstappen led the field away and cantered to the win ahead of Leclerc and Perez. Ricciardo managed to stay ahead of Sainz for an excellent 4th ahead of Piastri, Hulkenberg in a stellar 7th and Tsunoda. The action was spiced up somewhat by the antics of Hulkenberg's team mate Kevin Magnussen who seemed hell-bent on scoring the most penalties possible during his battle with Lewis Hamilton. The Brit eventually won out but was unfortunately demoted to the back of the field after the event due to a 20-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Following the Sprint came the main qualifying session which saw Verstappen taking pole ahead of Leclerc, Sainz, Perez, Norris and Piastri followed by the two Mercedes, Hulkenberg and Tsunoda.

For the main event Sunday dawned characteristically warm and bright for Florida in May and the sell-out crowd settled in to enjoy their $280 Lobster Rolls (see various posts on X!) while having their eardrums destroyed by the music playing around the circuit. It's different to the European events for sure but you certainly couldn't say the place lacked atmosphere!

As the lights turned green Verstappen led away but there was nearly another crash in the first corner thanks to his team mate who almost hit the Dutchman's car. The early part of the race saw some good battles down the field with particularly Hamilton and Hulkenberg as the characteristics of the circuit helped provide some good close racing. Although I'm not overall a fan of the track due to its general flatness it does seem to be one of those rare events where the DRS does what it really ought to do i.e. brings the following driver into play but requires them to actually overtake on the brakes rather than just breezing past on the straight.

What became clear in the first phase of the race was that, although he was leading, Verstappen wasn't terribly happy with his car and Piastri was keeping him well within sight. This culminated in the Red Bull having a trip across the Mickey-Mouse chicane, collecting a bollard which he then deposited on the back straight which brought out the virtual safety car, triggering a round of pitstops. Norris elected to stay out as, having finally got past one Ferrari he was demolishing the gap in front and this proved to be a masterstroke as shortly afterwards there was a collision between Magnussen and Sargeant which brought out the full safety car, with the Dane earning himself yet another penalty in the process. This meant that Norris was able to pit and maintain the lead. The question was, would the McLaren be as good on the hard tyres with Verstappen behind?

At the restart, Norris left it a little late to go for it and it looked like Verstappen might punish him into turn one but he managed to hold his position and then... well, pretty much checked out. He broke free of the DRS very quickly and was consistently pulling out a few tenths per lap. Behind, Verstappen was quicker than Leclerc but not by much and Sainz was trying his best to get past Piastri before their battle unfortunately ended with the Spaniard locking up into the hairpin, damaging the McLaren's front wing and relegating Piastri to the back of the field.

At the finish, Norris crossed the line to win ahead of Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz and Perez, although the latter two swapped positions in the final result due to Sainz being given a penalty for the Piastri incident. Further back was Hamilton who had a good (by this year's low standards) race for Mercedes, then Tsunoda, Russell, Alonso and Ocon.

I struggle to think of a more popular win in recent times apart from perhaps when Sainz won at Singapore last year as pretty much all of the drivers spent time congratulating Norris on finally getting the win that he's been due for some time. You could see the pride among the whole McLaren team who must have been very satisfied to beat Red Bull on pace even if they did benefit from the safety car... but this is what happens on this type of circuit and credit to Lando for getting himself into a position where he could benefit and seizing the opportunity with both hands.

I'm not for one second thinking that Red Bull's dominance is over but the event this weekend does bode well for the possibility of at least a few more weekends this year where everything doesn't go their way which can only be a good thing for the sport and for what it's worth I hope finally getting the win gives Norris the self-belief that will enable him to win multiple races.

Next up in a couple of weeks it's off to Imola for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix which will feature a tribute to the events of 1994 including Sebastian Vettel giving Senna's MP4-8 a rare outing. Perhaps the team that took Senna to the heights of his success will manage to pay him a fitting tribute by winning the race... here's hoping!