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Mercedes might have stunned Red Bull in Mexican Grand Prix qualifying, but the tables were swiftly turned in the race and Max Verstappen duly reeled off a commanding ninth victory of the 2021 Formula 1 season.
How should Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes regard their second place?
A big blow given the size of Verstappen’s pace advantage and a missed opportunity after the qualifying result?
Or very successful damage limitation in the circumstances?
Here are our writers’ thoughts:
Mercedes was too slow and also unsporting
Gary Anderson
I think that Mercedes expected more from today. Yes it will say it was damage limitation but in reality it was beaten hands down by Red Bull.
It got away with a second place but Sergio Perez was ready to pounce if the opportunity had arrived.
Did Red Bull trip up in qualifying or was it really clever and gave itself the opportunity to get the tow down to that first corner?
If it did that then it could be playing with fire – as Valtteri Bottas found out at Turn 1, putting yourselves in the mire of the traffic at the first corner is never a good thing to do. So if that was Red Bull’s plan it is very brave.
It had the fastest car and wholly deserved the win if not a one-two, which it was close to. But still Mexico will be happy tonight and there will be more than the normal amount of margaritas consumed before sun-up.
I’m disappointed that Mercedes felt it had to pull Bottas in twice to get the fastest lap away from Verstappen. Yes it only takes one point to win either championship but Bottas was outside of the top 10 so Mercedes wouldn’t get the points for itself.
I consider that fairly unsportsmanlike. I know that is being a bit hard on Mercedes but I put that in the same category as getting Bottas to drive Verstappen off the road. He is not in the championship battle so stay out of it.
Red Bull needed to restore respectability after qualifying
Scott Mitchell
Verstappen and Hamilton did all they could with the potential of their respective cars today, Verstappen in extending his lead and Hamilton in minimising the damage by keeping Perez at bay.
Flipping the focus onto Red Bull rather than Mercedes, this was the minimum result Red Bull had to achieve after underperforming in qualifying: get Verstappen to beat Hamilton.
Qualifying created a false picture as Red Bull simply didn’t get the tyres working properly but the race showed the true extent of the advantage.
If Red Bull had come away from this losing ground in either championship, knowing that its car was that much quicker, it would have been a big opportunity missed.
Arguably it should still have been even better had Perez qualified ahead and Red Bull earned a one-two. But given what happened in qualifying Red Bull will be more than satisfied.
Valtteri Bottas getting eliminated from contention by Daniel Ricciardo was also a massive boost for Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.
This track will be an anomaly
Mark Hughes
As it turned out, the Friday indications were a much more accurate barometer of respective performance than Saturday qualifying.
As soon as Verstappen put that right by Turn 1, lap one, there was absolutely no way Mercedes was winning this race.
This was very much as the team had expected coming into the weekend. It simply doesn’t generate enough downforce in this thin air to be competitive with the big-winged Red Bull.
Hamilton absolutely maximised the car on the day, arguably even went one better than he should have been able to.
So no it wasn’t too discouraging for Mercedes. Sure it was a very important win for Verstappen but Mercedes need fear none of the remaining tracks the way it was fearing this one.
Qualifying gave false hope
Edd Straw
It’s never a positive thing to finish second from pole position, but given the pace advantage of the Red Bulls during the race second place after holding off Perez was all Hamilton could have done.
Qualifying was the outlier given the overall weekend performance between Red Bull and Mercedes so the race partly restored the natural order. Therefore to be ahead of one Red Bull was still better than par.
Had Hamilton, or Bottas, still been ahead after the first corner then perhaps things might have been different but even then it would have been difficult.
After all, keeping behind a title-chasing Verstappen back would have been even more challenging than keeping Perez at bay.
So from Hamilton’s perspective, it wasn’t so bad a day. But for Mercedes it was a little different as Bottas’s absence from the points means that Red Bull has closed what was once a healthy gap in the constructors’ championship to almost nothing.
The psychological impact of this defeat could be big
Rob Hansford
After yesterday’s qualifying session in which Mercedes surprisingly locked out the front row, Toto Wolff said this championship battle is all about momentum.
But if he felt Mercedes achieved a large momentum swing yesterday then Red Bull regained it in spades today.
Yes, Red Bull was assisted by Daniel Ricciardo wiping Bottas out on the opening lap, but regardless of that, Hamilton simply had no answer to Verstappen’s pace at any stage in the race.
With Mexico being the first race of another demanding triple header, form and momentum are naturally key.
Right now, after the last two races went Red Bull’s way, there is no doubt it has the psychological advantage at a crucial time.
Mercedes can be proud of what it salvaged
Matt Beer
Perhaps Mercedes could’ve pulled off a defensive masterclass and held the Red Bulls at bay all race from its front row starting positions and neatly swapped Bottas and Hamilton around along the way.
But given the size of Red Bull’s performance advantage for all the meaningful parts of the weekend bar a few messy minutes of Q3, that would’ve been a very big ask.
Instead it did very well to minimise Hamilton’s loss in the championship. The aggressive relatively early pitstop proved to be exactly the right call as it prompted Red Bull to get a bit too ambitious with Perez’s response. Had it risked Perez pitting first, a Red Bull 1-2 was all but guaranteed. Instead it ensured Perez had to do all the hard work and then Hamilton played the closing laps well to resist him.
And yes, the seven-time champion team sacrificing its polesitting number two’s race with a string of pitstops just to be a spoiler in Verstappen’s fastest lap chase wasn’t especially elegant. But that point could decide a title. This was Mercedes showing it’ll do whatever it takes to win this championship even with the odds against it.
