MEXICO CITY: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed a record 14th victory of the Formula One season by winning the Mexico Grand Prix on Sunday.
World champion Verstappen finished a comfortable 15.186 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes while Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez finished third on home soil.
It was the second win inside a week for Dutchman Verstappen, who also triumphed at the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
Verstappen has now beaten the record previously held by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel for the most wins in a single season.
“It has been an incredible year so far, we are definitely enjoying it and we’ll try to go for more (victories),” said Verstappen.
Hamilton lamented his team’s decision to choose medium and then hard tire compounds while Verstappen went from softs to medium.
“I was close in the first stint, but the Red Bulls were too fast today and they probably had the right tire strategy,” Hamilton said.
Perez was cheered loudly by a sell-out crowd.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t work out today, but it’s great to get third place here and be on the podium,” Perez said.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the Mexico Grand Prix. (REUTERS/Pool)
George Russell finished a frustrated fourth for Mercedes, but clocked the fastest lap ahead of the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, both unable to find the pace to make any impact on the leading quartet.
Daniel Ricciardo was seventh for McLaren, after a mid-race collision for which he was given a 10-second time penalty, ahead of Esteban Ocon of Alpine, Lando Norris in the second McLaren and Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo.
As the lights went out, Verstappen made a near-perfect start from pole position while, behind him, Hamilton fought his way past Russell to take second.
To the delight of his fans, Perez also passed Russell to take third.
After lap one, the Dutchman held a lead of 1.39 seconds which he gently extended to 1.6 by lap 10 and 2.2 by lap 20 as the leaders ran in consistent formation, the race only punctuated by Stroll taking the first pit stop on lap 18.
Verstappen reported his soft tires were deteriorating shortly before Perez came in after 23 laps to switch from soft to medium compounds, but his stop was hampered by a sticky rear wheel change and took five seconds.
He re-joined sixth.
Two laps later, Verstappen came in and out in 2.5 seconds, passing the lead to Hamilton, who was 5.5 seconds clear of Russell as the Dutchman re-joined third behind him.
Hamilton came in on lap 30 to switch to hards and re-joined third, Russell taking over as leader until lap 35, when he also pitted to take hard tires. He came back in fourth and the leading group were back as they had been.
“This tire is not as good as the medium,” Hamilton said on team radio, prompting Mercedes to reply suggesting it would last longer than the medium, as taken by Red Bull.
Hamilton, however, was struggling for grip and impatient as he slipped 9.5 seconds adrift of the champion with Perez, third and pressing, only 1.9 seconds behind.
By lap 40, both Mercedes men were grumbling in unison about the hard tire’s lack of performance.
Verstappen extended his lead to more than 10 seconds by lap 50, but Hamilton clung on.
“Are we on the wrong tire?” Hamilton asked his team. “No, Lewis, we think we’re on the right tire and it’ll get to the end. No sweat,” replied his race engineer, Pete Bonnington.
With six laps to go, Mercedes’ hard tire gamble appeared to have failed when two-time champion Fernando Alonso pulled off at turn one in his Alpine.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton celebrates with the trophy after finishing second in the race. (REUTERS)
It was a brief pause without any pitstops, leaving Russell frustrated in his requests for new rubber.
“Stay out,” said Mercedes, only relenting on lap 70 to give him a chance to go for fastest lap
Red Bull have already claimed the constructors’ championship.
Ferrari blames altitude
Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz blamed Mexico’s high altitude for their lack of speed and competitive performance in Sunday’s Mexico Grand Prix.
Sainz was fifth and Leclerc sixth, their worst two-car finish this year, as they were well-beaten by both Red Bull and Mercedes with world champion Max Verstappen winning ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez.
George Russell was fourth in the second Mercedes ahead of Sainz, who came home 58 seconds adrift of victorious Verstappen.
Ferrari’s Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc (L) and his teammate Spanish driver Carlos Sainz Jr wave to fans during the drivers’ parade, prior to the start of the Formula One Mexico Grand Prix. (AFP)
“Going into the weekend with this car, at this altitude, we knew we were going to lose quite a bit of performance,” Sainz said, acknowledging that the team’s aerodynamic and engine performance had suffered.
Mexico City is more than 2,000 meters above sea level and the rarefied atmosphere has an effect on turbos, cooling systems and brakes as well as delivering less air resistance.
Like many teams, they had to turn down their engines to preserve them and ensure reliability, but they hope to return to full power in Sao Paulo next month.
“Today, I felt like an explanation was that it was a bit of a one-off here in the different conditions and I hope we can come back to our usual performance in Brazil,” Leclerc said.
“I felt like we maximized absolutely everything and even though we did that we are still one minute away from Max, which is a huge difference.
“So we have to look at making our bad days better because when we have a bad day, especially on a Sunday, it is a really bad day.”
After enforced retirements in Japan and the United States, Sainz was at least happy to complete the race.
“We were a minute away, but I haven’t finished a race in a month so it was nice to actually do that,” he said.
