JULY 30, 2025

(McLaren Racing Ltd.)

Oscar Piastri (No. 81 McLaren F1 Team) claimed victory in the Belgian Grand Prix, holding off teammate and title rival Lando Norris (No. 4 McLaren F1 Team) in a wet-dry affair at Spa-Francorchamps to extend his Drivers’ Championship lead to 16 points. Heavy rain ahead of the 44-lap race delayed proceedings by almost 80 minutes, but once racing got underway on Lap 5, the crucial moment came immediately as Piastri got a better run on his team mate and polesitter through Eau Rouge. The two title challengers finished well clear of Charles Leclerc (No. 16 Scuderia Ferrari) in third, who finished 20s behind Piastri, but having held Saturday’s Sprint winner Max Verstappen (No. 1 Oracle Red Bull Racing) at bay throughout, the Red Bull man just 1.5s away from another rostrum. Watch the Race Highlights from ESPN here. (Thank you to Formula1.com)

(Photo of Alex Palou by Joe Skibinski for Penske Entertainment)

Alex Palou (No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing DHL Honda) dominated the Java House Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday. Palou led 84 of the 95 laps, winning on the California road course for the second consecutive year – again from the pole – and scoring his third win here in the past four years. Palou’s collected the weekend’s maximum number of points, and coupled with the fourth-place finish of Pato O’Ward (No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet), increased his lead to a whopping 121 points, with only three races remaining.

Palou still has work to do to clinch his third consecutive series championship and fourth in five years, but the effort required will be minimal. Effectively, O’Ward needs to win out for Palou to be threatened. Everyone else has been eliminated from contention.

“It’s been an awesome weekend, an awesome year (and) today was something else,” Palou said. “It’s super fun to be here, one of my favorite tracks for sure. I couldn’t be happier right now.”

This win gave Palou his eighth win in 14 races this season. Only three drivers in the sport’s history – A.J. Foyt in 1964, Al Unser in 1970 and Mario Andretti in 1969 – have won more races in a single year. Foyt and Unser hold the season record with 10 wins. Andretti had nine. Palou is one of six drivers with eight; he is the first to do so since Sebastien Bourdais in 2007.

The win also was the 19th of Palou’s still-young career – the 28-year-old Spaniard has made just 95 starts. Only 23 drivers in open-wheel racing history have been to victory lane more often, and the next race is at Portland International Raceway, a track where Palou won in 2021 and 2023.

Palou’s margin of victory was 3.7965 seconds, but he frequently led by more than that. He lowered his average finish in five starts at this track to 1.6, the lowest of any driver in any event on the current calendar.

“It was not easy,” he said. “We had to push; we had to try to be ready for those (late caution periods). We knew that we were not on the (freshest) of tires... but luckily we had enough pace to open a small gap and get the win.”

Christian Lundgaard (No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) finished second with Colton Herta (No. 26 Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda) third. The two had a memorable mid-race moment when Lundgaard muscled his way to the inside of Herta in the track’s final corner. Watch the Race Highlights here. (Thank you to INDYCAR Media)

Editor's Note: This is our dearly departed billboard, which we had at Road America for several years. Peter gifted the phrase "America's National Park of Speed" to the track, which now uses it proudly in all of its communications. -WG

Editor's Note: Click on "Next 1 Entries" at the bottom of this page to see previous issues. - WG