Verstappen takes record for most season wins in Mexico

In a dominant lights-to-flag display, aided by the correct tyre choice, champion Max Verstappen notched up his 14^th victory of the season in a somewhat lacklustre Mexican Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodrigues.

In-charge from the off

A race that never really produced the fireworks often expected, bar a brief late Virtual Safety Car following an engine failure for Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, Verstappen led the field into the first corner as Mercedes teammates, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, swapped placed from their respective second and third starting positions.

The younger Brit immediately fell another position to fourth behind local hero, Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez, with the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz keeping a watching brief in fifth and sixth places.

An almost processional race then followed with the only blight being a somewhat slow first stop for Perez and an incident between the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly and the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll on lap 14.

While no contact occurred, the late lunge by the Frenchman on the Canadian saw both running wide with Gasly being cited by the stewards a short while later for forcing another car off of the road.

A subsequent five second penalty followed with the team electing to serve it during the pit stops rather than having it added to Gasly’s eventual race time.

A different silver arrow

It was, however, the second batch of stops that put paid to Mercedes’ chances of a first win for Hamilton or Russell, as the decision to put both on the slower but more durable hard compound tyres stood in contrast to the slightly faster but also softer mediums chosen by Red Bull for Verstappen and Perez.

By this stage, the pair of teammates were well ahead of the Ferraris, Alonso and the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas as the call to pit occurred.

The decision was not welcomed though with both Hamilton and Russell complaining throughout the latter stages of the race about the tyres – Russell, who had in the run-up to his second stop asked for the faster soft tyres to be fitted, remarking, “I am not happy with this tyre. Sliding around a lot”.

Aside from a lack of grip, intermittent power drops were hindering Hamilton as the seven-times world champion dropped further behind Verstappen and in danger of being overtaken by Perez for second place.

ALSO READ: US Grand Prix: Max Verstappen secures record-tying 13th win

The rapid Honey Badger

Further down the field was where the action was taking place thanks to the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo. From one of his better qualifying sessions of the year, 11^th, the Australian had selected the soft tyres at his final stop, which paid off massively as he proceeded up to field at a rapid rate.

Attempting an overtake on the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda though went wrong as both cars locked heading into turn six, the former going briefly airborne after riding over the left front wheel of the McLaren.

Despite being able to limp back to the pits, reported suspension damage resulted in Tsunoda being retired on lap 51 of the 71 lap race.

Though still mobile without any significant damage, Ricciardo received a second penalty that failed to diminish his charge n order to mitigate dropping places on track with the finish in touching distance.

By lap 62, the charging Australian had forced his way past the Alpines of Alonso and Esteban Ocon as the Spaniard’s engine proceeded to die three laps later.

At the end

The eventual “deployment” of the Virtual Safety Car lasted less than a lap and despite Mercedes pitting Russell on the penultimate tour as a means of obtaining a single point for fastest lap, which he duly did, it didn’t have any outcome on the final positions.

In the end, his record victory, one more than what Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher amassed during a season, saw Verstappen cross the line over 15 seconds ahead of Hamilton with Perez a further three adrift.

Behind Russell in fourth came the Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc, who never seemed capable of breaking into the top three at any stage. Ricciardo’s march netted a seventh place finish ahead of Ocon, his McLaren teammate Lando Norris and Bottas.

Outside of the points came Gasly, the Williams of Alex Albon, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, Aston Martin teammates Vettel and Stroll, the Haas pair of Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen, and the second Williams of Nicholas Latifi.

With both the drivers and constructors’ titles having fallen to Verstappen and Red Bull at the previous rounds in Japan and last week in the United States, attention switches to the runners-up spot, now headed by Perez with Leclerc dropping to second five points behind.

After two back-to-back, the series takes its customary two week break before roaring back into action in Sao Paulo for the Brazilian Grand Prix on 13 November.

Mexican Grand Prix results

Top 10

1. Max Verstappen – Red Bull
2. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes: +15.186 sec
3. Sergio Perez – Red Bull: +18.097 sec
4. George Russell – Mercedes: +49.431 sec
5. Carlos Sainz – Ferrari: +58.123 sec
6. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari: +1 min 08.774 sec
7. Daniel Ricciardo – McLaren: +1 lap
8. Esteban Ocon – Alpine: +1 lap
9. Lando Norris – McLaren: +1 lap
10. Valtteri Bottas – Alfa Romeo: +1 lap

Driver’s Championship

1. Max Verstappen – 416 pts
2. Sergio Perez – 280 pts
3. Charles Leclerc – 275 pts
4. George Russell – 231 pts
5. Lewis Hamilton – 216 pts
6. Carlos Sainz – 212 pts
7. Lando Norris – 111 pts
8. Esteban Ocon – 82 pts
9. Fernando Alonso – 71 pts
10. Valtteri Bottas – 47 pts

Constructors Championship

1. Red Bull – 696 pts
2. Ferrari – 487 pts
3. Mercedes – 447 pts
4. Alpine – 153 pts
5. McLaren – 146 pts
6. Alfa Romeo – 53 pts
7. Aston Martin – 49 pts
8. Haas – 36 pts
9. AlphaTauri – 35 pts
10. Williams – 8 pts