With the United States Grand Prix being held to a higher standard than most given how good the Circuit of the Americas in Austin is, Sunday's race won't go down in history as one of the best to be held in Texas over the years.
What it did do, though, was set up a blockbuster end to the 2025 season.
Here are my takeaways from the weekend.
Verstappen back in the mix
I thought people were jumping the gun last month when they said that Max Verstappen was back in the title fight after back-to-back wins. I thought McLaren were just trying to take the pressure off themselves when they said he was a threat. Now, though, he can start dreaming of being a five-time World Champion before the end of the year.
As is so often the case with him when he doesn't have a big disadvantage in terms of machinery, he was on another level than the rest of the field in Austin. The Dutchman claimed pole position for both the sprint race and the main race, and then led every single lap of both of them.
What would have been so encouraging for him is that he didn't have to even push to his absolute limit to produce such dominance, because Red Bull are finally giving him a top car again. As well as his own, teammate Yuki Tsunoda's weekend was clear evidence of that, with the Japanese driver finishing P7 in both races, meaning he's now scored more than half of his points this season in the last three rounds.
So, Verstappen now seems to have a strong car again, and he very much remains in a league of his own in terms of driving abilities. He is unquestionably more capable of dealing with the pressure of a title fight than his rivals.
If there aren't any more disasters from those rivals, which definitely isn't a given, he'll probably need to win each of the last five races plus the two remaining sprints to win the title, but I wouldn't put it past him.
Free-falling Piastri creating dilemma for McLaren
With one of the greatest drivers of all time hunting down both of theirs, it wouldn't be a bad idea for McLaren to throw their full support behind one to ensure they win their first Drivers' Championship since 2008. The problem is that picking which driver to back wouldn't be easy.
Ordinarily, you'd get behind the driver who has more points, who's leading the championship, but what if that driver is in much worse form than his teammate? That's the dilemma McLaren are having to wrestle with.
I wrote in my column after the last race that things were starting to look precarious for Oscar Piastri, and they went from bad to worse for the Aussie in Austin. I think he was partially to blame for the incident at the start of the sprint race that caused both him and Lando Norris to crash out, and an even bigger concern was his lack of pace throughout the weekend.
The Aussie was comfortably slower than Norris in both qualifying sessions and the main race, unable to really challenge the Ferrari pair that the Brit ultimately finished a good distance ahead of, even if he had trouble passing Charles Leclerc.
Piastri now hasn't beaten Norris in four races and has done so in just two of the last nine, so there's little doubt that Norris is in better shape to take the fight to Verstappen. However, he also has a smaller lead over the Dutchman.
With Norris possessing the form but Piastri possessing the points, McLaren are likely to avoid picking a side, and that plays right into Verstappen's hands.
2010 all over again?
Verstappen's rise and Piastri's fall mean that we're heading into the final five races with more than two drivers in with a genuine chance of becoming world champion for the first time since 2010.
Back then, those involved included a generational talent developed by Red Bull, an Englishman from McLaren's academy, and a lower-profile Australian contesting a title fight for the first time. Sound familiar?
The Red Bull man, Sebastian Vettel, headed into the final few rounds as the only one of those in contention yet to lead the World Championship, but ultimately prevailed with a late charge, and that will make fans of Piastri and Norris very nervous indeed.
How things panned out that season shows just how important momentum is in Formula 1, and really drives home the point that Verstappen is in with a chance. He'll most likely head into the final round in Abu Dhabi having not been atop the standings all season, but so too did Vettel. The only thing that matters is where you are at the very end of it.
Piastri should be helped by the fact that the Australian involved in that battle, Mark Webber, is now his manager and mentor and will no doubt be passing on everything he learned, both from being hunted down by a resurgent rival and from being up against a teammate.
While he won't admit it to his protege, though, the former driver must be starting to worry that history is about to repeat itself.
