MEXICO | Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won the Mexican GP on Sunday, 18e round out of 22 this season in F1, and increased its lead in the championship from 12 to 19 points over the Briton Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 2nd.
• Read also: Mexico City Grand Prix: Max Verstappen to seize his chance
Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), 3e, became the first Mexican to stand on the podium in front of his audience. The French Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) and the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) complete the Top 5.
For Verstappen, third on the grid behind leader Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) and Hamilton, everything was decided at the start.
Taking advantage of the aspiration offered by his predecessors to reach their level at the end of the first straight line, the Dutchman delayed his braking as much as possible and took control from the first corner.
In the process, Bottas, less well off, was hit at the rear by the Australian Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren). After spinning, the Finn found himself at the end of the pack, far from the Top 3 made up of Verstappen, Hamilton and Pérez.
With Red Bulls being much faster, the leader was able to quietly widen the gap.
It was more complicated for Hamilton: with eleven laps to go, Pérez got back on his feet, hoping to take second place and valuable points in the championship. But the Mexican did not succeed.
Another consolation for the Briton, his teammate Bottas, 15e, deprived Verstappen of the best lap point in the race.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari) finished 6th, ahead of German Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), Finnish Kimi Räikkönen (Alfa Romeo), Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Briton Lando Norris (McLaren) ) which completes the Top 10.
German Mick Schumacher (Haas) and Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) were forced to retire in the first lap after clashing with Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine).
F1 travels to Brazil, to Interlagos, from next week, on again favorable ground, a priori, to Verstappen and Red Bull.
Weekend to forget for Stroll
Lance Stroll can quickly forget the weekend Formula 1 spent in Mexico in 2021, he who finished the race in 14e position.
Starting from the back of the grid, due to a penalty awarded to him after making numerous changes to his propellant unit, the Quebec driver was unable to move up the peloton to enter the points.
Stroll also came into contact with the wall at the exit of the last turn of the track during qualifying on Saturday to add to his difficult weekend.
His teammate, Sebastian Vettel, completed the event in seventh place.
To return to the representative of the maple leaf, he even yielded two laps to the winner of the event, the Dutchman Max Verstappen, who completed the 71 laps of the Hermanos Rodriguez autodrome in his Red Bull car with a lead of 16.555 seconds. on his main rival, Lewis Hamilton, at Mercedes.
Crowd favorite Mexican Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s teammate with Red Bull, finished third, just over a second behind Hamilton. Perez tried one last push at the end of the course, to overtake the Mercedes driver and complete the Red Bull double, but without success.
Latifi far behind
The other Canadian driver, Nicholas Latifi, like Stroll, yielded two laps to Verstappen. He finished in 17e square.
Among the riders who finished the event, Latifi was only ahead of Russian Nikita Mazepin.
The F1 circus will now move to Brazil, for the 19th of 22 races scheduled on the calendar, from November 12 to 14.
More details to come …