Mexico City Grand Prix 2024: Carlos Sainz Makes History with First Pole and Victory, Full Race Recap and Highlights

Several interesting statistical calculations based on the results of the Mexico City Grand Prix …

Certification

After qualifying in Mexico City, Carlos Sainz won the sixth pole position of his career and the first of the season. He is equal in number of pole positions with Ralf Schumacher, Carlos Reutemann, Alan Jones, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Emerson Fittipaldi and Phil Hill.

Every year Sainz qualified better and better in Mexico City (11th, 10th, 9th, 8th, 7th, 6th, 5th, 2nd and 1st place).

Sainz’s pole is the 253rd for Ferrari (overall record) and the 28th for Spanish drivers. Ferrari is the first team to have both drivers on pole this year.

Max Verstappen qualified second for the first time in his career in Mexico City, and for the third time he started from the front row at this track. The last time Max qualified was ten stages back – at the end of June in Spielberg.

Lando Norris showed the third time – this is his best result in qualifying in Mexico City. This is the best result for McLaren since 1991, when Ayrton Senna was also third.

Charles Leclerc’s fourth place is a repeat of his starting position in Austin, where he won. The only result (4th place at the start and victory) was his result this year in Monza. In the second Grand Prix in a row, Leclerc lost his team in qualifying.

Fifth place allowed George Russell to qualify ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the 15th time this season.

Kevin Magnussen’s seventh place is his best result in Mexico City. For the second weekend in a row, he reached the finals, although he had never finished higher than 11th this season.

Pierre Gasly’s eighth place is his team’s best qualifying result in Mexico since 2018.

Alex Albon qualified in ninth place, repeating (for the fifth time) his best result of the season. It is Williams’ first top-10 qualification at this round since Felipe Massa’s 10th place finish in 2017.

Just like a year ago, Fernando Alonso qualified 13th in Mexico City.

After qualifying 15th, Valtteri Bottas failed to qualify for the final session in Mexico for the first time in his career, but broke a streak of five consecutive eliminations in the first part of the certificate.

Sergio Perez qualified in 18th place, having fallen out of contention on his home track for the first time in the first session. This is his fifth time hitting early in qualifying this season.

Race

After winning the Mexico City Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz got his second victory of the season and the fourth of his career, equal to Eddie Irvine, Bruce McLaren and Dan Gurney in this mark.

For Sainz, this is the 9th Grand Prix at the Rodriguez Brothers Circuit; he has not been on the podium before, his best result was 4th in 2023. The podium in Mexico City is the 25th of Sainz’s career.

Sainz is the first Spanish-speaking driver to win in Mexico City, the largest Spanish-speaking city in the world.

This is just the third time Ferrari have won in Mexico – with Jacqui Ickx in 1970, Alain Prost in 1990 and now Carlos Sainz in 2024.

Finishing in second place, Lando Norris reached the podium for the 25th time in his career, 12th time this season, and for the first time in Mexico City. It is McLaren’s 19th podium of the season, the best since 2007.

Charles Leclerc finished third in Mexico City for the second year in a row and set the fastest lap of the race for the 10th time in his career. Graham Hill, Mario Andretti and Lando Norris have the same number of fastest laps.

In Mexico City, Ferrari moved into second place in the Constructors’ Championship, 29 points behind McLaren and 25 points ahead of Red Bull Racing.

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, having surpassed 20,000 laps in the race.

George Russell finished fifth, earning points in his 60th career Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen’s sixth place is his worst result in Mexico City since his debut season in 2015, when he drove for Toro Rosso and finished the race in ninth place. His other sixth place was in Mexico City in 2019.

Seventh place is the best result of Kevin Magnussen from Bahrain’22, where he finished in fifth place. For Haas, this is the best finish in Mexico City in the history of the team.

In his second year, Oscar Piastri finished the Mexico City Grand Prix in eighth place.

By finishing ninth, Nico Hulkenberg scored points for the 108th time in his career and the eighth time this season.

For the third time this year, Haas F1 got two cars in the points.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez finished last in his home Grand Prix.