Mexican Grand Prix – Max Verstappen wins the race and breaks the historic record for most victories in a season

On the tire side, the Red Bull driver Max Verstappen is on soft tires, just like his teammate Sergio Perez and the Ferraris, while the Mercedes are on medium tires. Over 395,900 spectators attended the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez this Sunday, hoping for a spectacle that would meet their expectations.

Max Verstappen makes a very good start, while Lewis Hamilton tries to gain an advantage over his teammate, which he will succeed in doing after the first corner and the over 800 meters that separate the starting line from the first turn. Starting in second position, George Russell loses an additional position when Sergio Pérez overtakes him and positions himself behind Hamilton. It is Lance Stroll who gains the most positions at the start (5) and finds himself in 15th place, while Fernando Alonso gains two places to sit in 7th position behind Charles Leclerc (who gained one place), the same number as Yuki Tsunoda, who is 11th after the start.

From the 5th lap, Valtteri Bottas attacks Fernando Alonso, while his teammate Guanyu Zhou in 12th place struggles to keep Daniel Ricciardo, eager to make up for his very unfortunate United States Grand Prix, behind him. The Australian will eventually gain one position on the 11th lap. Apart from these attempts, the start of the race proves to be rather calm, with the drivers holding back considering the 71 laps ahead of them.

It should be noted that Max Verstappen fails to break away in the early laps and remains within 1.5 seconds of his pursuer, Lewis Hamilton.

While the drivers are completing laps without much happening, Lance Stroll complains on the radio about a lack of grip on the track. The Canadian tries to defend himself against Pierre Gasly, who overtakes him after forcing him off track, a move that is quickly announced to be under investigation by the FIA. The Frenchman will receive a 5-second penalty and 2 points on his license, now being 1 point away from a one-race suspension.

On lap 16, the drivers start to pick up the pace. Max Verstappen sets the fastest laps and slightly extends the gap with Hamilton, flirting with a 2-second lead, but the Briton also pushes the accelerator. George Russell also increases his lead over Carlos Sainz, with a 10-second gap to the Ferrari driver. One can sense that the first pit stop is approaching, along with the urgency to widen the gaps. It is Lance Stroll, who skates around every corner, who will kick off the pit stops.

Changes in tire strategies

On his side, Charles Leclerc, in 6th position and 4 seconds behind his teammate, asks on the radio to consider plan C, because “we have nothing to lose,” but his engineer warns him about the traffic with this plan.

The Sergio Pérez pit stop is witnessing a poor stop of 5 seconds, as Red Bull is not used to such slow stops. The race leader Max Verstappen, who has been suffering from the degradation of his soft tires for several laps, makes a stop on lap 26 and comes out just ahead of Carlos Sainz in 3rd position. The Red Bulls are now equipped with the medium tires. These tires greatly benefit Mercedes, with the drop in temperature.

It is then Charles Leclerc’s turn to put on the medium tires, coming out in 12th position just before the halfway point of the race. Lewis Hamilton follows directly on lap 30, along with Carlos Sainz. Now equipped with hard tires and therefore not planning to stop again until the end of the race, Hamilton comes out behind Verstappen in 3rd place, while the Spaniard suffers from a poor pit stop. On the other hand, George Russell is taking a risky strategy: trying to make his mediums last as long as possible to switch to softs at the end of the race. But Mercedes will call him to the pits a few laps later to also put on hard tires. At the halfway point of the race, the German team is thus counting on an additional pit stop for their Red Bull rivals and thus gain an advantage towards the end of the race.

Meanwhile, Sergio Perez is closing in dangerously on Lewis Hamilton amidst the cheers of the Mexican crowd. The Briton informs his team that the hard tires are not as performant as the mediums, a confirmation given by his engineer. Mercedes seems to have – once again – poorly chosen their tire strategy…

Esteban Ocon puts on (a little) show

It should be noted in this regard, the good management of Fernando Alonso, in 5th position but overtaken on the 40th lap by his compatriot Carlos Sainz. A signal for his team to bring him into the pits? Alpine calls him in on lap 41 to put on…the hard tires, a questionable choice when we see the underperformance of the Silver Arrows. Meanwhile, Esteban Ocon makes several impressive overtakes, first on Pierre Gasly, then on Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou, to settle in 8th position, currently in the points.

In the lead, Max Verstappen is widening the gap to just over 10 seconds with Lewis Hamilton, the latter struggling with hard tires and increasing pressure from Sergio Perez, at just over 1.5 seconds. The Mercedes drivers can’t seem to stop complaining about their tires to their engineers, while the Red Bull drivers will likely have no issues managing their mediums until the end.

While this race suffers from a lack of action, Ricciardo makes contact with Yuki Tsunoda on lap 51 to take the 11th position and damages the Japanese’s car, who stops at the pit lane to try to fix the damages but is forced to retire. The Australian receives 10 seconds of penalty for this dangerous maneuver.

The invisible Ferraris at the Mexican Grand Prix

With an abyssal gap of nearly 30 seconds between Carlos Sainz and George Russell, while Charles Leclerc is 3.5 seconds behind the Spaniard, it can be said that the Ferraris have been very discreet during the race in Mexico. Invisible on the screen, the Scuderia continues the disappointment that began in the second half of the season.

Another driver to suffer greatly is Nicholas Latifi, in last position… 44 seconds behind Kevin Magnussen’s Haas. The gap will widen even further to 52 seconds. The extreme slowness of the Canadian is even more striking when we see his teammate Alex Albon in the middle of the pack, in 12th place behind Lando Norris.

On lap 65, Fernando Alonso is forced to retire due to an engine issue. A sad conclusion for the Spaniard, who was having a remarkable race up until then. And yet another engine failure for Alpine, who should prioritize addressing this issue for the next season…

The race is slowly coming to an end without any major events, with George Russell stopping at the pits in hopes of securing the fastest lap point, which he will achieve without any difficulties. Therefore, it is Max Verstappen who wins the Mexican Grand Prix without much surprise, thus breaking the historical record of wins in a single season with his 14 successes. Lewis Hamilton finishes in second place, closely followed by Mexican driver Sergio Perez, much to the delight of the local crowd.