Sergio Pérez collides with Charles Leclercom Zdrój: SITA/AP/Fernando Llano
MEXICO CITY – Dutch driver Max Verstappen from the Red Bull team claimed a record 16th victory in one F1 season. The already certain world champion defended his triumph at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday and surpassed his previous record (15 victories) from last year. Briton Lewis Hamilton in Mercedes finished second and Charles Leclerc from Monaco in Ferrari finished third.
Verstappen enjoyed his fifth triumph in Mexico, repeating his victories in 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022. In the current season, he won 16 of 19 races, not only in Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan (both won by Sergio Pérez) and Singapore (Carlos Sainz). It was his 51st career championship, tying Alain Prost for fourth on the all-time charts. Hamilton pulled ahead of Perez in the fight for second place in the championship on Sunday in Mexico, as the home driver did not finish the race after a collision at the very first corner after the start.
Both Ferrari cars with Leclerc and Sainz started from the first row after a successful qualification, but Verstappen skillfully got between them and got to the front of the race already after the first corner. The same turn was fatal for the second car of Red Bull with home co-favorite Perez, who tried to get around Leclerc from the outside after a lightning start, but his rear wheel collided with the Monaco’s front wheel and flew off the track.
At that moment, in the “sandwich” of two Red Bulls, Leclerc had no chance to avoid, but he continued on the second row ahead of Sainz. Perez still tried to stay in the race, headed to the pits, but there the home VC was already over for him due to severe damage to the car. The Australian Daniel Ricciardo on the Alpha Tauri maintained a great fourth position for him from the start, followed by Hamilton on a Mercedes.
Verstappen drove at the Autodromo of the Rodriguez brothers with a clear lead, after the tenth lap he already had an almost three-second advantage over Leclerc. A lap later, Hamilton moved ahead of Ricciardo to fourth position and gradually caught up with Sainz. On the 20th lap, Verstappen was the first of the favorites to go to the pits to change tires, and he returned to the circuit in seventh place. Leclerc became the leader ahead of Sainz and Hamilton, but the situation on the track gradually changed according to individual drivers’ pit stops.
In the 32nd lap, Leclerc, the leader until then, had already changed his tires and left the first row to Verstappen, who at that time had a comfortable 16-second lead over his pursuers. Immediately, however, Dane Kevin Magnussen had an unpleasant crash, breaking the barriers on his Haas and his single-seater caught fire. Verstappen managed to change his tires for the second time behind the safety car, the organizers stopped the race with red flags a little later and it continued only after a few minutes’ pause.
After a firm restart of the race, Verstappen kept the first place before Leclerc, Hamilton, Sainz in the approach to the 36th lap, and George Russell rose to the fifth place. In the 40th lap, Hamilton with the open DRS system got to the second place ahead of Leclerc, in front the sovereign Verstappen was again building a sufficient lead, and in the 50th lap he already had almost ten seconds to spare. On the contrary, Fernando Alonso was struggling at the tail end and finally decided to retire from the penultimate place.
The position in the elite ten was “detonated” by the Japanese Juki Cunoda on AlphaTauri, who paid for his efforts to get ahead of Oscar Piastri to the seventh place and fell significantly lower after the collision. The order of the first four places did not change at the end, Lando Norris on McLaren reached fifth ahead of Russell and Ricciardo. Hamilton also scored an extra point for the fastest lap.
There are still three events left until the end of the season, the next grand prix will be held on November 5 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Mexico City Grand Prix (71 laps, 305.354 km): 1. Max Verstappen (Hol./Red Bull), 2. Lewis Hamilton (V. Brit./Mercedes) +13.875, 3. Charles Leclerc (Mon./Ferrari) +23.124, 4. Carlos Sainz (Sp./Ferrari) +27.154, 5. Lando Norris (UK/McLaren) +33.266, 6. George Russell (UK/Mercedes) +41.020, 7. Daniel Ricciardo (Aust./Alpha Tauri) +41.570, 8. Oscar Piastri (Austr./McLaren) +43.104, 9. Alexander Albon (Thai./Williams) +48.573, 10. Esteban Ocon (Fr./Alpine) +1:02.879, 11. Pierre Gasly (Fr./Alpine) +1 :06.208, 12. Juki Cunoda (Japan/Alpha Tauri) +1:18.982, 13. Nico Hülkenberg (Germany/Haas) +1:20.309, 14. Valtteri Bottas (Fin./Alfa Romeo) +1:20.597, 15. Chou Kuan-yu (China/Alfa Romeo) +1:21.676
did not finish: Logan Sargeant (USA/Williams), Lance Stroll (Can./Aston Martin), Fernando Alonso (Spain/Aston Martin), Nico Hülkenberg (Germany/Haas), Sergio Perez (Mex./Red Bull)
Standings (after 19 out of 22 races): 1. Verstappen 491 points*, 2. Perez 240, 3. Hamilton 220, 4. Alonso 183, 5. Sainz 183, 6. Norris 169, 7. Leclerc 166, 8. Russell 151, 9. Piastri 87, 10. Gasly 56, 11. Stroll 53, 12. Ocon 45, 13. Albon 27, 14. Bottas 10, 15. Hülkenberg 9, 16. Cunoda 8, 17. Chou 6, 18. Ricciardo 6, 19. Magnussen 3, 20. Lawson (N. Zealand/AlphaTauri) 2, 21. Sargeant 1, 22. De Vries (Netherlands/AlphaTauri) 0
Constructors’ Cup: 1. Red Bull 731 points*, 2. Mercedes 370, 3. Ferrari 349, 4. McLaren 256, 5. Aston Martin 236, 6. Alpine 101, 7. Williams 28, 8. Alfa Romeo 16, 9. AlphaTauri 16, 10. Haas 12
* – a certain winner
Author: © List Source: TASR/ČTK
2023-10-29 22:30:00
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