Max Verstappen won the Mexico City Grand Prix, finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton in second and Kimi Antonelli in third, who secured his first championship title.
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| Photo by Alex de Haan |
The Formula 1 world tour reached another destination, as the Mexican Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos RodrÃguez was on the schedule. It was expected that the 19th stop of the season would be special, as Andrea Kimi Antonelli could take the final step towards becoming a world champion. He only needed to collect two more points.
But before qualifying or the race even started, a drama from the F1 paddock, specifically from Haas, came to light. Esteban Ocon was dropped from the team for the Mexico Grand Prix for unspecified reasons and was replaced by Japanese driver Ryo Hirakawa - a very experienced endurance racing driver who even won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the past. The team has not yet made any statement on whether Esteban Ocon will race next weekend in Brazil. However, information from the paddock suggests that his time with the Haas team has come to an end and that he will not drive for the rest of the season.
After just one practice session, Ryo Hirakawa jumped straight into qualifying, where he set the 18th-fastest time. However, at the front of the field, it was Lewis Hamilton who set the fastest time and grabbed his 105th pole position, his first since Hungary in 2023. The second spot on the front row was taken by George Russell. Behind them, Charles Leclerc was in third position, while Max Verstappen closed the second row in fourth.
However, Verstappen was given a one-place grid penalty due to contact with Liam Lawson during Friday's practice, so he handed over fourth position on the grid to Antonelli.
The start in Mexico is always quite chaotic, as the distance to the first corner is over 800 metres, and starting from pole position here is not the most comfortable situation, as drivers behind can use your slipstream. This happened to Lewis Hamilton. His reaction at the start was perfect; however, Charles Leclerc took advantage of his slipstream and tried to overtake him at the first corner. This move did not go as planned, and Hamilton was still in the lead. Leclerc tried again, this time at Turn 4, but both Hamilton and Leclerc went off the track. Lewis returned to the track as soon as possible, but Leclerc cut the entire corner and gained an advantage over the drivers behind. Verstappen got ahead of Hamilton while Lewis was off the track.
After the first lap, Leclerc was in the lead, with Verstappen right behind him. Hamilton had dropped from pole position to third place. Fourth place was held by Kimi Antonelli, while George Russell was running in fifth.
On lap 7, the Virtual Safety Car had to be deployed, as Lance Stroll stopped on the track due to high pressure in his power unit.
The situation at the front of the field was quite stable, and the first driver from the top five to pit was Charles Leclerc. During his pit stop, he had to serve his five-second time penalty, which he received after cutting Turn 4 during his battle with Hamilton. At the same time, Verstappen also pitted and took advantage of Charles's slow pit stop to take the lead ahead of him. Hamilton pitted on lap 28 and rejoined the track in third position.
Antonelli extended his first stint and pitted on lap 44. Shortly after he rejoined the track, a Safety Car was deployed due to Bottas' crash at Turn 1. The whole accident was quite serious, as his front-left suspension came off and he hit the wall at high speed. Thankfully, he was uninjured.
Valtteri Bottas was alright, but the same could not be said about the barrier. Therefore, the race was stopped with a red flag so that the barrier could be repaired.
The race was restarted in the following order: Verstappen in the lead, Charles Leclerc in second, Hamilton in third, Kimi Antonelli in fourth, with Lando Norris rounding out the top five.
After the restart, Verstappen managed to keep the lead, while Hamilton got ahead of Leclerc, who suffered a massive lock-up.
On lap 48, Antonelli overtook Leclerc and moved into third place. On lap 59, there was a collision between Lindblad and Piastri. The Racing Bulls driver had to retire from the race, and another Safety Car period had to be deployed.
When the Safety Car came in and racing resumed, the order at the front remained unchanged. Hamilton was close to Verstappen over the remaining laps, but not close enough to attack him.
The Dutchman crossed the finish line first in Mexico City to win his third Grand Prix of the season. Hamilton finished behind him in second, although his ambitions for the race had been higher. The final spot on the podium was secured by Kimi Antonelli, who became the youngest Formula 1 world champion ever thanks to this result.
“It’s been an incredible season, and to share this podium with Max and Lewis is truly incredible. And yeah, looking forward to some more battles in the future.
“This weekend I did feel a bit more tense, but I’m just so happy, and happy that we got it done, and now we can enjoy the rest of the season," said Kimi
“It’s starting to get real, and I’m going to enjoy every bit of it. I mean, I’m going to go all out, right? I’m going to go all out with my family, friends, and the team. And we’re just going to enjoy it all the way, because this is a very special moment, one that we’ll remember forever.”
Max Verstappen said to media after the race:
“I think the team really gave me the right strategy to pit together with Charles and then overtake him in the pit stop because of the penalty. Then it was just fighting to the end, because I think Ferrari today were really fast.
“I do think they made it a little bit difficult for themselves, fighting each other, and that’s why I could capitalise on that.
“I mean, I’ll take it, right? I always try to go for every opportunity and today I saw the opportunity.
“It was a cool fight until the end – Lewis was flat-out in my gearbox so I couldn’t afford to make a mistake.”
The next stop on Formula 1's world tour will be São Paulo, Brazil, this weekend.