Mexico City, Mexico – Oracle Red Bull Racing were back in action in Mexico City this weekend, the highest-altitude track on the Formula 1 calendar.
When the lights went out, Max had the best start off the line and managed to pull alongside the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard braked late but cut the corner going into Turn 1. He quickly gave the place back to the World Champion.
Further back, there was a collision going into Turn 1. VCARB’s Yuki Tsunoda attempted to pass Alex Albon on the outside, but with the Williams driver being squeezed by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, there was no room to move and Tsunoda clipped Albon’s front left.
Tsunoda spun into the wall and slid down into the run-off area. Albon, meanwhile, broke his front-left suspension and was forced to stop at the side of the track.
With Tsunoda unharmed, the Safety Car was deployed. Checo had made an excellent start rising from 18th to 13th position. However, he was handed a five-second penalty for being too far forward on his grid slot before the race began.
Max managed the restart well on lap 6 to deny Sainz a tow along the pit straight, but on the following lap the Spaniard managed to muscle past with the advantage of DRS. The danger wasn’t over for the World Champion. Championship rival Norris, running in 3rd, closed in.
A tense duel ensued, with Norris cutting over the grass at Turn 1 and the pair both going wide into Turn 7. That allowed the watching Leclerc to pounce, and the Ferrari driver slipped through to P2, leading to a Ferrari one-two.
The tussle between Max and Norris was placed under investigation by the Stewards and Max was soon handed two 10-second time penalties for his involvement in battling against the McLaren.
Further back, Fernando Alonso’s 400th grand prix appearance ended on lap 16 as he was told to retire his Aston Martin and that boosted Checo, who had already passed Williams’ Franco Colapinto to P11.
On lap 18, aided by DRS, the Mexican attacked VCARB’s Liam Lawson into Turn 1. The Mexican was forced to the inside by Lawson and that pushed them wide on exit. Checo attacked again into Turn 3 but Lawson resisted. There was contact and Checo was forced off track.
Lawson maintained the position and Checo faced a charging Aston Martin of Lance Stroll. Checo managed to resist all the Canadian’s attempts to overtake but with a damaged car, he was called into the pits.
He made the switch to medium tyres, had tweaks made to his damaged car, and emerged at the back of the pack in 17th.
On lap 25, Sainz had stretched to a 4.5s lead over Leclerc, with Max a further five-seconds back in third. The Dutchman was again coming under pressure from Norris, and complaining about his tyres, Max pitted on lap 27.
After serving his 20-second penalty in the pits and switching to Hard tyres, the champion rejoined in 15th, behind Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and ahead of Checo who had made up a place to 16th.
Max immediately set off on a charge and over the next 10 laps, aided by strong pace and pit stops, the Dutchman powered past a group of midfielders, and when McLaren’s long-running Oscar Piastri made his sole pit stop, the Dutchman rose to sixth place.
With pit stops out of the way, at the front Sainz remained ahead of his teammate with Norris five seconds further back in 3rd. Max was running in sixth, behind the two Mercedes, pushing his hard tyres to the limit.
Norris had closed the gap to Leclerc, and on lap 62, the Ferrari suffered a snap in the final corner and slip wide allowing the McLaren to take 2nd place.
Sainz was firmly in control and after 71 laps the Spanish driver sealed his fourth career win, a little under five seconds clear of Norris with Leclerc in third place. Hamilton got past Russell in the closing stages to take 4th. With Max in 6th, followed by Haas’ Kevin Magnussen McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. Sergio Pérez came home in 17th.
Max Verstappen, taking his 12th podium of the season, said “It was a tough weekend. The start was good, but after that we had no pace, we struggled on both compounds for the rest of the race. Because of the penalties we had a long pitstop, and it was a recovery drive to score as many points as possible after that.
“It is what it is. We need to understand what went wrong this weekend, but there was not much else we could have done today. There’s a lot of things that we want to do better, and we will need to work hard to come back stronger in Brazil.”
Sergio Pérez, after a tough homecoming, said “It was a very difficult one today, we were recovering well in the race, we had a really good start and although we unfortunately got the time penalty, I think we were making progress and were going to score good points.
“Then I had the incident with Liam, he was the first hard tyre and we were a lot faster, we targeted the inside, we had the corner and I wasn’t expecting him to be there, I had the position going into turn five, he was off the track, came back on and I wasn’t expecting him to carry on straight.
“He took the whole side of the car off, he damaged my whole sidepod and my floor. I don’t really get it, it was totally avoidable, he just went for the incident and it ruined both our races. I am very frustrated at how this weekend went, and I am very sorry for my team and my people, it was simply the worst GP I have had at home.”