Max Verstappen put on a dominant show to win F1 Mexico GP from Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez to break a record.
It was a clean start from pole-sitter Max Verstappen in F1 Mexico GP in his Red Bull on the soft tyres as the two Mercedes drivers had a hefty fight where Lewis Hamilton managed to clear teammate George Russell who tried a move on the Dutchman.
A kerb moment in Turn 2-3 allowed Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to pass Russell for third as the Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc gained places to be fifth and sixth with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso also jumping up to seventh in the order.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas had a slow start to be eighth with McLaren’s Lando Norris dropping to 10th behind Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. The fight outside the Top 10 saw McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo pass Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu for 12th after few laps of battle.
It was a solid start from Aston Martin pair of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll who were up to 14th and 15th but the Canadian had AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly chasing him. The Frenchman locked-up and forced the Canadian off to pass him.
Gasly was handed a 5s penalty with 11 superlicense points. At the front, Verstappen continued to lead well from Hamilton and Perez. The Mexican was first to pit among the front runners but a slow stop dropped him behind the Ferrari pair.
Verstappen went late and managed to clear both the Ferrari drivers and come out in third. Mercedes waited a bit and eventually pitted Hamilton to switch to the hard tyres who soon had Perez on his tail. Russell – without stopping – led the way in F1 Mexico GP.
He wanted stay longer but his slow times forced them to switch strategy and put on the hard tyres where he returned to track in fourth. Verstappen got the F1 Mexico GP lead from Hamilton, Perez, Russell, Sainz and Leclerc in the Top 6.
Alonso was seventh from Ocon who leapfrogged Bottas in the pits but the Finn was close on his tail in the fight for eighth, as Norris was 10th. Just outside the Top 10, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda had to fend off Ricciardo in the fight for 11th.
The Australian pressed on and tried a move on the inside but Tsunoda turned in as there was a clumsy touch which put the Japanese off. Both managed to continue on but the AlphaTauri suffered way too much damage to continue on and was forced to retire.
The incident was put under investigation as Ricciardo was handed a 10s time penalty. But McLaren wasted no time and allowed him to Norris which got him close to Bottas and he passed the Finn for ninth. He then set off in the chase of the two Alpine cars.
He eventually did so. Ocon first passed Alonso and the Ricciardo followed. The Australian then passed the Frenchman to be seventh as he then had to stretch out a 10s lead to remain in the points where Norris was chasing Bottas for 10th.
The Brit eventually passed the Finn for what became ninth after Alonso retired due to power unit issue. The Spaniard was extremely angry post the retirement as he was in the car and on the radio as Virtual Safety Car was deployed to clear the car.
At the front, Verstappen had a comfortable F1 Mexico GP win by 15.186s to register a record-breaking 14th win in a season with two more races to go. Hamilton was second as Perez was third from Russell, who took away the fastest lap on the final lap.
Sainz was fifth from Leclerc, with Ricciardo in seventh as he managed to retain the track position despite the 10s time penalty. Ocon was eighth from Norris as Bottas kept 10th despite the late push from Gasly and Albon towards the end.
Guanyu ended up 13th from Vettel, Stroll with the Haas pair of Mick Schumacher in 16th from Kevin Magnussen while Williams’ Nicholas Latifi was 18th – everyone from Ricciardo to the Dane ended up a lap down while the Canadian was down by two laps.
RACE CLASSIFICATION (LAP 71/71)
Max Verstappen's remarkable season continues #MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/iVxbH6XrgK
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 30, 2022
UPDATE: Magnussen and Latifi were summoned after the race for driving unnecessarily slowly on the formation lap. Upon reviewing, it was found that the Dane had a technical issue and so he was let off by the stewards with no further action.
“The Race Director’s Note to Teams (document 16) specified a maximum time of 1:36.0 between the Safety Car lines and car 20 recorded a time of 1:59.811. However, the driver and team stated that they had a technical fault, which the Stewards were able to confirm by video.” said the FIA stewards.
But the Canadian was warned as the stewards noted he drove cautiously enough. “The Race Director’s Note to Teams (document 16) specified a maximum time of 1:36.0 between the Safety Car lines and car 20 recorded a time of 1:37.212. The driver of car 6, Latifi, was on his recon lap when he came up to Magnussen’s car, which had a technical fault.
“When he arrived at Magnussen’s car he was 5 sec ahead of the required lap time. He slowed considerably, but when he realized that Magnussen was not going to speed up, Latifi then moved to pass him. This slowing, however, caused him to miss the maximum lap time of 1:36.000 in the Race Director’s instructions. The Stewards consider that he drove with due caution,” stated the stewards note.