Formula 1

Verstappen dominates Mexican GP after bold first-corner move

by Matt Beer
8 min read

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Max Verstappen stretched his Formula 1 world championship lead by dominating the Mexican Grand Prix, as his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez narrowly failed to deprive Lewis Hamilton of second.

Verstappen had surged down the outside of the front-row-starting Mercedes into Turn 1 on the opening lap, braking later and instantly sweeping into the lead.

Polesitter Valtteri Bottas looked set to fall into third behind Hamilton, but was tapped into a mid-corner spin by seventh-place starter Daniel Ricciardo – who was passing Perez down the inside on the dusty line.

Motor Racing Formula One World Championship Mexican Grand Prix Race Day Mexico City, Mexico

The ensuing traffic chaos triggered by Bottas spinning in front of the pack led to Yuki Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher sandwiching Esteban Ocon and both sustaining race-ending damage, though the Alpine they had both bounced over continued.

After a four-lap safety car period, Verstappen simply stormed away. By lap 20 he was 8s clear of Hamilton, who could not shake Perez off.

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Mercedes brought Hamilton in for his sole pitstop long before the two Red Bulls in the hope of gaining an undercut advantage.

While that made no difference to Verstappen’s comfortable margin, Red Bull responded by extending Perez’s first stint so that he came in a full 10 laps later than Hamilton.

That long run on older tyres dropped Perez 8s away from the Mercedes by the time he rejoined, but the hope was he could hunt down Hamilton on his fresher tyres.

Sure enough, Perez caught Hamilton with 10 laps to go. Despite his best efforts, and amid various traffic headaches, the home favourite couldn’t quite make it a Red Bull 1-2.

Verstappen’s points lead is now up to 19 as he was denied a fastest lap point by Mercedes bringing in the delayed Bottas (who had made little progress from the back after his spin then had a poor second scheduled pitstop) for two extra pitstops for fresh tyres late on so he could deny Verstappen that bonus point.

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Bottas’s first effort to take fastest lap was ironically denied when he came across Verstappen on track. The second attempt finally proved successful on the last lap.

Pierre Gasly spent most of the race in a comfortable fourth for AlphaTauri, but did have to be wary of the closing Carlos Sainz late on. The Ferrari driver had left his sole pitstop very late and was charging on fresh tyres, being let through by team-mate Charles Leclerc along the way. They swapped places back as it became clear Sainz wouldn’t catch Gasly.

Ferrari’s fifth and sixth places meant it swept past McLaren into third in the constructors’ championship as its rival only scored one point for Lando Norris’s 10th place – achieved from 18th on the grid. Ricciardo smashed his front wing hitting Bottas and could only recover to 12th.

Sebastian Vettel took Aston Martin’s best result in nearly two months with seventh, while Kimi Raikkonen’s eighth place ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Alpine was Alfa Romeo’s highest finish all season.

Raikkonen’s team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi looked like he would be Alfa’s hero as he emerged from the first-corner mess sixth, but pitting too early for his sole stop left him in the midfield and he finished 11th.

George Russell and Nikita Mazepin had also leapt forward through the lap one chaos and briefly ran ninth and 11th for Williams and Haas. That proved unsustainable and they fell back to 16th and 18th respectively by the finish.

Race Results

Pos Name Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 71 65 1h38m39.086s 1m18.999s 1 25
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 71 0 +16.555s 1m19.82s 1 18
3 Sergio Pérez Red Bull-Honda 71 6 +17.752s 1m19.468s 1 15
4 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri-Honda 71 0 +1m03.845s 1m20.51s 1 12
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 71 0 +1m21.037s 1m20.665s 1 10
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 70 0 +1 lap 1m20.081s 1 8
7 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin-Mercedes 70 0 +1 lap 1m20.46s 1 6
8 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 70 0 +1 lap 1m20.713s 1 4
9 Fernando Alonso Alpine-Renault 70 0 +1 lap 1m20.711s 1 2
10 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 70 0 +1 lap 1m20.617s 1 1
11 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 70 0 +1 lap 1m21.523s 1 0
12 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren-Mercedes 70 0 +1 lap 1m21.069s 2 0
13 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault 70 0 +1 lap 1m21.348s 1 0
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 69 0 +2 laps 1m20.93s 2 0
15 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 69 0 +2 laps 1m17.774s 4 0
16 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 69 0 +2 laps 1m22.016s 1 0
17 Nicholas Latifi Williams-Mercedes 69 0 +2 laps 1m21.546s 2 0
18 Nikita Mazepin Haas-Ferrari 68 0 +3 laps 1m21.402s 2 0
Mick Schumacher Haas-Ferrari 1 0 DNF 0s 0 0
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Honda 1 0 DNF 0s 0 0
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