Charles Leclerc was looking to buck the trend of their challenging first couple of days around the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and make sure his milestone race (100th Grand Prix) would be one to remember for the right reasons, although Scuderia Ferrari was aware it maybe not have the pace to move forward in today’s Mexican Grand Prix.
If there wasn’t enough intrigue already, had different tyre choices from the two teams at the front: pole-sitter Max Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez, who starts fourth, both being on softs, while George Russell and Lewis Hamilton are on mediums. Further back, both Ferrari F1-75 cars also started the race on the red soft Pirelli tyres. It was therefore almost time for the action to begin: the formation lap was under way.
Max Verstappen got the best start and held off the Mercedes into the first corner, as the W13 cars just couldn’t get the tow off the Red Bull – who was lightning down the straight. Just the start the Dutchman needed. Carlos Sainz kept his fifth place behind the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, while Charles Leclerc gained a position and was right behind his Maranello teammate, after overtaking the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas. The Finnish driver also lost a place to Fernando Alonso, so was down to eighth.
In the early stages, the gaps between the top three were holding pretty steady. Hamilton remained around 1.5s back from Verstappen, with Sergio Perez a similar margin back in third. This was positive for Hamilton, whose medium tyres lasted longer than the softs on the Red Bulls. As expected, things didn’t look great for Scuderia Ferrari, as Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were not able to keep up with the W13 car of George Russell, despite the fact that the F1-75 cars were running on soft tyres.
Valtteri Bottas was doing his best to get back one of the places he lost at the start, but the Alfa Romeo just slipped out of DRS range behind Fernando Alonso, who was seventh. There was a fair amount of tyre and engine management going on at this stage, which left us waiting until the first round of pit stops for some drama…
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Max Verstappen answered the call from the pit wall by extending his advantage over Lewis Hamilton to two seconds. However, the good news for Hamilton was that he was pulling away from Sergio Perez: the Mexican was more than three seconds behind the Mercedes The other Mercedes driver, George Russell, gradually began to close on Perez and was within a couple of seconds, while Carlos Sainz fell 8 seconds behind the W13 car.
Ferrari unfortunately were in the position Mercedes so often found themselves earlier in the 2022 Formula 1 season – unable to keep up with the top four but clear of the midfield: Carlos Sainz fell 10 seconds back from George Russell in fifth, while Charles Leclerc is a further four seconds back in sixth. Fernando Alonso was eighth seconds behind the Monegasque driver in seventh, so it appeared the Italian side’s only battle today was within the team. Most likely Ferrari turned their engine down over fears of reliability issues.
Sergio Perez was the first of the top six to make a pit stop, but it was a painfully slow stop for the Mexican, as he remained stationary for five seconds: he came out in sixth, behind the Ferrari cars.
Ferrari called Charles Leclerc in for his first pit stop on lap 29, changing his soft tyres with a fresh set of mediums. With Red Bull showing strong pace on the mediums, Mercedes brought Lewis Hamilton in. He wa stationary for a slightly slow 3.3s, and put on a set of hard tyres, which meant he was trying to pull off a one-stopper. The following lap, Carlos Sainz also pitted and returned just in front of his Maranello teammate. Charles Leclerc, who crashed out of Practice Two on Friday, had a very nervy moment on his out-lap as he suffered a major wobble, before just about managing to keep his car on track.
George Russell’s very long first stint wass over, and the plan to put softs on aborted by Mercedes. Both Mercedes drivers were now looking to get to the end on their hard tyres, with Hamilton about eight seconds up the road from George Russell and Sergio Perez between them. Max Verstappen regained the lead, and was 7.3s clear of the British driver.
Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda had a coming together in the battle for 11th: the Australian tried to go up the inside at Turn 5, and major contact between the cars saw Tsunoda go up into the air momentarily. The McLaren driver appeared to have come away unscathed, while Tsunoda was on his way back to the pits with damage. And the damage was terminal on the AlphaTauri: Yuki Tsunoda made it back to the pits but didn’t come back out, and we have our first retirement of the day. Daniel Ricciardo later got a 10-second penalty, but the Australian was able to build that gap ahead of Esteban Ocon to keep his P7.
With just a few laps to go, Fernando Alonso was out of the race with an engine failure! The Spaniard pulled into the escape road at Turn 1, triggering a Virtual Safety Car.
Nothing much for Carlos and Charles to do in the final stages of the Mexican Grand Prix: the medium tyres mounted at the first pit stop lasted until the end, but the huge pace deficit to Mercedes meant the F1-75 cars finished more than 30 seconds behind George Russell (who thanks to the big gap had a free pit stop in the end to go for the fastest lap) in no man’s land.
Max Verstappen eased to victory in the Mexican Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, becoming the first Formula 1 driver to win 14 races in a season. Lewis Hamilton comes home in second, with Sergio Perez completing the podium at his home race.
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