Favorite Red Bull had suffered a setback in qualifying on Saturday after an initial superiority in practice on the 2,200 m high Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez because Mercedes unexpectedly secured the entire front row with Bottas ahead of Hamilton. In the race, however, Verstappen made a dream start. From third place, the world championship leader overtook both Hamilton and Bottas thanks to the slipstream and courageous braking maneuvers and thus took the lead at the end of the three-part starting curve.
At the same time, Daniel Ricciardo turned over Pole Man Bottas’s car in his McLaren, and Yuki Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher were involved in an accident with Esteban Ocon. After a yellow card and an early safety car, the track was released again on the fifth lap, and Verstappen didn’t let anything go with a perfect restart. The Dutchman quickly broke away from Hamilton and after 25 laps was already almost nine seconds ahead of the defending champion and eleven ahead of his Mexican team-mate Perez.
Perez assaults Hamilton
Hamilton initially reported decreasing rear tires and later radioed the pits, almost desperately, that he could not get away from Perez. “The boys are too fast for me,” said the seven-time world champion. Perez, in turn, received an order from the team to stay tuned to Hamilton. Bottas had long since hit the toughest tires while in P12, but a completely botched pit stop later ruined the unlucky Finnish man’s race.
Hamilton tried the undercut in the 30th and got the final rubber. Verstappen followed four laps later. Without having to change tires, crowd favorite Perez led to the joy of his many fans at half-time. The Mexican did not change tires until lap 41 and from then on had the mission of using fresher tires to dispute Hamilton’s second place and thus more World Championship points in favor of Verstappen.
Ten laps before the end and thus earlier than expected, Perez actually had the British in front of him, to the delight of the 30,000 fans in particular in the huge Foro-Sol Stadium, but did not get past. In the end he narrowly failed, but he was still frenetically celebrated by the home crowd. “It’s unbelievable, of course I wanted more. Second place was very close, but it wasn’t enough, ”said Perez.
Overjoyed winner
“It’s unbelievable what’s going on here,” said Verstappen in view of the celebrations. His start was perfect. “I just tried to brake as late as possible,” confirmed the Dutchman. “Now I’m looking forward to Brazil.” Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko admitted that he was shaking at the start of Verstappen. “Thank god he got around. We are now going to Brazil with optimism. “
Hamilton gave the fair runner-up. “Congratulations to Max,” said the Briton. “His car was much faster, I gave it my all. In the end, it was an uphill battle with Perez. I’ve had the pressure many times, it shows how fast your car is. You did a great job, but I still had a lot of fun. “
Bottas’ final heroic deed was that he took away at least one more championship point from Verstappen thanks to the fastest race lap. “One point won’t matter in the end,” Marko said calmly. After his third victory in Mexico, the 24-year-old Verstappen now has the best cards in the World Cup, as 29 points are to be scored in the next race in Brazil and Red Bull traditionally has the better car there too.
Wolff remains confident
“We had no chance in Mexico. But I believe that we’re closer to Red Bull again in Brazil, ”said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, who spoke of“ damage limitation ”with regard to Hamilton. “We were probably only good enough for P3, but Lewis still made it into second place.”
Four wins and four retirements are still possible in four races. “We have already seen world championships that went very close. You have to fight for every point, never give up “, appealed the Austrian and admitted at the same time:” Mathematically, of course, I would rather be 19 points in front than behind. “
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