The F1 Mexico GP looked likely to be a fight between Ferrari and Red Bull Racing but it was Mercedes with the winning honours in the end.
After Ferrari started off well on Friday, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fought back to take F1 Mexico GP pole on Saturday but the Dutchman was stripped off it due to failing to slow under yellows, which handed a front-row to Ferrari drivers.
Charles Leclerc was ahead of Sebastian Vettel with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton third. The grand prix had Ferrari duo ahead but strategy gamble worked for Mercedes with Hamilton eventually winning the Mexico GP from Vettel and Valtteri Bottas.
The Finn has managed to extend the title battle to US GP but needs a miracle to take the advantage. Despite starting on pole, Leclerc found himself in a sticky situation to be fourth with Red Bull duo Albon and Verstappen in fifth and sixth.
The Dutchman had a scrappy few laps to find himself dead last at the start. The best of the rest mantle bestowed on local driver Racing Point’s Sergio Perez as he fended off charge from Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo in the late in the race.
The Top 10 was rounded out by Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg after a late tangle between Hulkenberg and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. Here’s how the F1 Mexico GP panned from stats point of view:
- Hamilton scored his 83rd F1 career win, second Mexico GP and 10th in 2019.
- Hamilton registered his 100th F1 podium for Mercedes, only Michael Schumacher has 100 plus podiums with a single constructor i.e Ferrari.
- Hamilton needs two more wins in 2019 to better own record of 11 wins in a season. He cannot beat the record of 13 wins in a season, set by Vettel and Schumacher with but can match it if he wins all the three races.
- Mercedes registered its 100th F1 win, third in Mexico to join McLaren and Williams and 13th in 2019.
- Hamilton scored his 149th F1 podium, Vettel his 120th and Bottas his 44th.
- For the second race in succession, the same three drivers have been featured on the F1 podium albeit in different order.
- With Verstappen’s pole taken away, it is Leclerc’s seventh F1 career pole. Verstappen still broke the lap record set by Ricciardo by 0.001s.
- Leclerc scored his third fastest lap of 2019.
- Hamilton and Vettel finished as 1-2 for the 55th time which is already a record with the next best being Hamilton and Nico Rosberg with 45.
- Ricciardo gained the most positions in the race, starting 13th and finishing eighth.
- The results changed after penalty to Kvyat due to his late collision with Hulkenberg. The German finished 11th with Kvyat ninth and Gasly 10th but a penalty to the Russian, allowed Gasly to be ninth and Hulkenberg back in points.
- Hamilton continued his consecutive points finish streak with 30 races now since the 2018 British GP. He has to score in three more to equal his own record and four to better.
- Due to Renault’s DQ from Japanese GP, Hulkenberg and Lando Norris are tied on 35 points but sit 11th and 12th respectively.
- Toro Rosso and Racing Point are tied with 64 points but sit sixth and seventh respectively.
- Magnussen entered his 100th grand prix in Mexico GP. He has 99 starts to his name.
- Only two retirements from Mexico GP with Norris and Kimi Raikkonen.
- Verstappen got two penalty points for failing to slow under yellow flags in qualifying – he has four in all. Kvyat got two penalty points for causing a collision in the race – he has four in all as well.
1.93 seconds! The tire change performed by @redbullracing on @alex_albon’s stop is the fastest of the #MexicoGP and takes them farther ahead of Williams in the classification. #F1
All pit stop times: ➡️https://t.co/J27YVFsufC pic.twitter.com/IW7TuiG1Ha— DHL_Motorsports (@DHL_Motorsports) October 28, 2019
The stats were compiled by Jack Elleker and Darshan Chokhani
Check out the stats from F1 Japanese GP