Max Verstappen breaks F1 record with Mexico GP win

Max Verstappen cruised to an easy win in the Mexico Grand Prix, his 14^th victory this season and one that breaks the sport’s record for most wins in a single season.

It looked like Mercedes may be competitive this week and mount a serious challenge to the Red Bull driver, but it failed to pan out – a rigid tyre strategy eventually led to a race that was largely processional out front. Lewis Hamilton was second, Sergio Perez third, and George Russell fourth, and none of them were either in real danger of losing their position nor challenging for another.

Verstappen was on pole, and the two Mercedes in second and third – they needed to pass him early, to establish a lead and use strategy to keep him at bay. That was the plan, but it didn’t fully materialise. Verstappen started well, as did Hamilton – he passed his teammate to go into second. Perez passed Russell for third, and then it was Hamilton’s job to keep the pressure up. He did so, despite the Mercedes’ medium tyres being less quick than the softs.

It was close to begin with, but that would swiftly no longer be the case. On lap 25, Verstappen pitted for mediums, while Hamilton followed him four stops later for hards. Mercedes’ belief was that Verstappen would not be able to make it to the end without another stop, so it was a matter of keeping up the pressure until a mistake was made. But it didn’t happen – the hards were not good, so Verstappen started pulling away, while Verstappen’s tyres did not degrade enough to cause any real trouble. He drove to the end and secured the win, with no real challenge to face.

Russell was in the lead briefly after the leaders pitted, and he asked Mercedes to leave him out before changing him to the soft tyres for a sprint later in the race. The team opted against it, another questionable strategy call, and his eventual bonus point for fastest lap will do little to quell the doubt that a better position was possible.

The two Ferraris were nowhere in the race, finishing fifth and sixth, while Daniel Ricciardo in seventh put in the drive of the day. He’s had a poor year, so poor that McLaren terminated his contract a year early, but he really showed what he could do in Mexico. He crashed into Yuki Tsunoda and forced him to retire, receiving a ten-second penalty, but his pace was so good on the soft tyres that he surged, finishing 12 seconds ahead of Esteban Ocon and retaining his position, nonetheless. By contrast, Fernando Alonso continued his run of poor luck, with his car suffering engine failure with only a few laps to go – he probably would have been eighth otherwise.

In front of this crowd, I really wanted more today but third place is still a good day

– Sergio Perez

After the race, Verstappen said: “It helped me out a lot for the rest of the race, to stay in the lead on Turn One. Of course, we were also on a different strategy to the cars around us but again an incredible result. The pace of the car was really nice. We had to look after our tyres because it was a very long stint on the medium, but we made it work.

“It’s an incredible atmosphere and we love to come here. It’s been an incredible year so far. We are definitely enjoying it and will try to go for more.”

Hamilton said: “First of all this has been an amazing crowd and definitely a bit awkward this time round, boos all day. None the less I have so much love for Mexico and the people. What a great race and event put on this weekend.

“I was so close in that first stint. The Red Bull’s clearly too fast and also maybe had a better tyre strategy. Yeah, I’m not sure it was right tyre at end. I thought we should’ve started on the softs but we had the opposite tyre. It was ok in the first stint but the hard tyre was the opposite.

“Congratulations to Max. It’s great to be up here and separate the two.”

Perez said: “I gave it my best today at the start. I really pushed hard. Unfortunately, we had a bad stop which prevented us from undercutting Lewis. Overtaking is so difficult; as soon as I got behind him it was so difficult to follow so I had to stay in third.

“I thought we were going to be a bit closer but unfortunately it didn’t work out for us today, but it is still a good podium. In front of this crowd, I really wanted more today but third place is still a good day.”

There are only two races to go now until the season wraps up – in two weeks’ time, we’ll head to Brazil for the penultimate race of the 2022 F1!

Drivers’ Championship

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull, 416)
2. Sergio Perez (Red Bull, 280)
3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari, 275)
4. George Russell (Mercedes, 231)
5. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes, 216)

Constructors’ Championship

1. Red Bull (696)
2. Ferrari (487)
3. Mercedes (447)