New cars, new engines, change in qualifying, one rookie are among the many updates from the 2026 F1 season.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday but McLaren's Lando Norris had one hand on the Formula One title after finishing second and stretching his lead over teammate Oscar Piastri to 30 points.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri ended a long win drought with a pole-to-flag victory in the Qatar Grand Prix sprint race in Doha.
Four-times World champion Max Verstappen was given an aerodynamic tow by teammate Yuki Tsunoda to go top on his first flying lap.
Lando Norris held off McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to win the Hungarian Grand Prix on a one-stop strategy and slash the Australian's Formula One lead to nine points going into the August break.
Verstappen wins in Qatar to ensure three-way title showdown
Australian Piastri, winner of four of the last five races, lapped the Imola circuit with a fastest time of one minute 16.545 seconds on the softest tyre compound with Norris 0.032 slower on a sunny afternoon.
The aftershock of Sunday's double disqualification in Nevada hangs over champions McLaren ahead of a sprint weekend in Qatar that could hand Lando Norris his first F1 crown -- or erode his lead.
Lando Norris completed a Hungarian Grand Prix practice double on Friday as runaway leaders McLaren dominated both sessions while leaving something in reserve and almost colliding at the end.
With eight points on offer to the winner of Saturday's 100km race, he and Norris -- 22 points behind Piastri -- both have a good chance to reduce the gap to the Australian who was three tenths slower than his teammate.
Each of the three title contenders had them in 2025: Norris might have had an easier run to his first crown had he not driven into the back of Piastri's car and retired in Canada three laps from the end.
The two McLaren drivers were ruled out for excessive skid plank wear hours after the race had ended and the podium champagne been sprayed.
Formula One leader Oscar Piastri put his McLaren on pole position for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola on Saturday
Lando Norris can be crowned champion on Sunday but a win for Oscar Piastri would take the battle down to a final showdown in Abu Dhabi next weekend.
Leclerc brought out the red flags when he hit the wall at the second chicane with 45 minutes remaining, causing extensive damage to his Ferrari.
India's Kush Maini won his maiden Formula 2 Sprint Race at the Hungarian Grand Prix after initial winner Richard Verschoor's was disqualified due to a technical infringement.
Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were disqualified from the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix after their cars failed post-race checks on Sunday.
Drivers returned to the pits, under a darkening sky, with engineers using torches in the garages before back-up generators came on and the session resumed about an hour later.
Lando Norris celebrated his first Monaco Grand Prix win from pole position on Sunday.
Norris had shown his pace in final practice when he became the third different driver to top the timesheets in the three sessions, punching out an impressive lap 0.345 faster than anyone else.
Verstappen is third overall in the standings, 61 points behind Piastri who leads Norris by 15, and chasing his third win of the campaign to make up for retirement in Austria last weekend.
Max Verstappen seized pole position for Sunday's US Grand Prix while Formula One leader Oscar Piastri qualified sixth after a costly sprint race collision with his McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
Norris last led the standings in April, a gap of 189 days, and had not won a race since Hungary in early August. Sunday was his sixth victory of the season, one less than Piastri, and career 10th.
George Russell said he was driving better than ever and ready to fight for a Formula One championship with Mercedes after taking the team's first win of the season in Canada, but this year still looks a long shot.
Piastri now leads Britain's Norris by 14 points with five rounds and two sprints remaining, while Verstappen has slashed his gap to the Australian to 40 after being 104 behind at the end of August.
Days after the Red Bull driver and partner Kelly Piquet welcomed daughter Lily, his first child, the four-times champion set a blistering lap of one minute 26.204 seconds around the Hard Rock Stadium.
McLaren's Lando Norris edged out championship-leading teammate and Formula One title rival Oscar Piastri to take pole position for what could be a wet and chaotic Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Red Bull's reigning champion Max Verstappen will join the Australian on the front row.
Carlos Sainz completed a double race distance for previously struggling Williams and pushed his Ferrari successor Lewis Hamilton off the top of the testing
Formula One will crown its champion in Abu Dhabi on Sunday with McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both seeking to dethrone Red Bull's Max Verstappen and deny the Dutchman his fifth title in a row.
Present rivalries and past collisions hang over Red Bull's home Austrian Grand Prix as Formula One braces for the next round of Max Verstappen v George Russell and more title-chasing drama at McLaren.
Verstappen starts new Red Bull era with Spa sprint win
Here's a look at some key moments which helped decide the championship fight.
George Russell put his Mercedes on pole position in Canada for the second year in a row on Saturday with Red Bull rival Max Verstappen alongside on the front row.
Lando Norris won the Austrian Grand Prix and revived his Formula One title bid after fending off championship-leading McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri under race-long pressure on Sunday.
But there were no bold statements on race day as he struggled to take a point and his team mate Charles Leclerc laboured to an eighth-place finish.
F1 leader Oscar Piastri seized pole position from teammate and title rival Lando Norris by a hefty margin as dominant McLaren locked out the front row in Spanish Grand Prix.
Bernie Ecclestone says his money is still on Red Bull's Max Verstappen to win the Formula One championship
Hamilton told reporters at pre-season testing in Bahrain that he had yet to broach the subject of 'Hammer Time' with race engineer Adami.
Oscar Piastri won the Dutch Grand Prix to take a mighty 34 point lead in the Formula One championship on Sunday as McLaren teammate and title rival Lando Norris saw his hopes go up in smoke.
