Ferrari had the pace to secure a one-two finish at the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix, but Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc ultimately finished second and fourth as Max Verstappen claimed victory. An opening-lap confrontation between the two Ferrari drivers, a five-second penalty, a costly lock-up and a dramatic red flag transformed what could have been the Scuderia’s strongest Sunday of the season into another missed opportunity.
The Mexican Grand Prix also delivered a historic moment for Formula 1. Andrea Kimi Antonelli became the youngest world champion in the sport’s history and the first Italian to win the title since Alberto Ascari in 1953. Yet the race itself was dominated by extraordinary confusion, strategic twists and incidents that repeatedly changed the running order.
Max Verstappen crossed the finish line first after starting fifth, beating Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari by just 0.799 seconds and Andrea Kimi Antonelli by 4.006 seconds. Beyond its place in Formula 1 history, the race produced a level of unpredictability rarely seen during the second half of the championship.
A red flag interrupted proceedings for 39 minutes and reshuffled the podium positions. There were also two Safety Car periods, a Virtual Safety Car and numerous penalties imposed by an exceptionally strict race direction. Ferrari featured prominently throughout, although not for the reasons the team would have hoped.
Lewis Hamilton started from pole position, while Charles Leclerc lined up third. Both Ferrari drivers had demonstrated the strongest pace of the weekend, yet their efforts produced only second and fourth places.
Charles Leclerc led the opening 27 laps before his race was compromised by a penalty and a subsequent lock-up. Lewis Hamilton at least secured the fastest lap, recording a 1:19.268 on lap 50. Amid the confusion, Max Verstappen emerged as the principal beneficiary. To understand how Ferrari lost this opportunity, we need to examine the events of all 71 laps.
Mexico GP conditions: Bright sunshine and a cooling track
The weather offered no excuses. There was no rain, the air temperature remained around 24°C and the track surface measured 46.8°C at the start before dropping to 34°C by the final lap.
That reduction of almost 13°C significantly influenced the race. The tyre compounds operated within a different temperature window as the cars became lighter with fuel consumption, helping make the closing stages the fastest part of the Grand Prix.
Turns 1 and 4 had been identified as potential hotspots for overtaking, particularly on the opening lap, when positions were expected to change most frequently. That prediction proved accurate.
There were 50 on-track overtakes during the race, including 12 by Isack Hadjar, who recovered through the field after a disastrous opening lap.
Turn 4 and the opening lap that changed Ferrari’s Mexico GP
The opening lap proved to be the decisive turning point, with George Russell becoming one of its first unintended casualties.
Starting second, the Mercedes driver suffered a loss of electrical energy at the beginning of the race. Within seconds, Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Andrea Kimi Antonelli had all passed him.
“Mate, how is this possible?” George Russell asked over the radio. Toto Wolff responded from the Mercedes pit wall: “Sorry, George, for that.”
The energy deployment problem cost George Russell three positions before he had even settled into the race.
At the front, meanwhile, Ferrari’s two drivers were fighting each other. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc approached Turn 4 on the limit. Lewis Hamilton ran wide, while Charles Leclerc also left the circuit but managed to move ahead of his teammate.
Shortly afterwards, Max Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton as well. The seven-time world champion completed the first lap in third position and never returned to the lead.
A few corners later, George Russell and Isack Hadjar collided at Turn 6. The British driver received a ten-second penalty, which he served during his pit stop on lap 33, while the Red Bull driver dropped from seventh to 22nd.
Isack Hadjar eventually recovered to ninth, but the consequences of the opening lap remained substantial. Collectively, Red Bull lost 12 positions, while Cadillac gained ten, with Sergio Pérez moving up six places and Valtteri Bottas gaining four.
Liam Lawson provided another surprise. The Racing Bulls driver started from the pit lane after his team changed the suspension setup under parc fermé conditions. Despite beginning at the back, the New Zealander finished seventh, collecting six points that few would have predicted before the race.
Ferrari’s Turn 4 controversy: How Hamilton and Leclerc lost control
The first-lap incident between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc deserves closer examination because it triggered a chain of events that would shape the entire Mexican Grand Prix.
Both Ferrari drivers approached the braking zone for Turn 4 almost side by side, following an acceleration phase that took them beyond 300 km/h.
Lewis Hamilton, positioned on the inside, began braking at 309 km/h, a few metres earlier than his teammate. Charles Leclerc, on the outside, delayed braking slightly longer after reaching 323 km/h.
The FIA stewards concluded that both cars entered the corner too quickly to remain within the track limits. Lewis Hamilton, despite being on the inside, also had to leave the circuit to complete the manoeuvre. Consequently, Charles Leclerc was not entitled to claim the corner. The telemetry supported that assessment. At the apex, both Ferraris slowed to approximately 50 km/h in first gear. However, Lewis Hamilton briefly released the brake before applying it again during the corner, while Charles Leclerc emerged ahead.
What followed was a domino effect. Max Verstappen, who had started fifth, overtook Lewis Hamilton immediately after the corner. The Ferrari driver ended the opening lap in third, 1.6 seconds behind Charles Leclerc.
Of that deficit, 1.3 seconds came in the second sector, which begins with the braking zone for Turn 4. Lewis Hamilton’s frustration was immediately apparent over the team radio. “Got pushed out by my own teammate,” he complained. A few laps later, he accused the stewards of “handing Charles this win”.
The penalty arrived around lap 13. Charles Leclerc received five seconds rather than the standard ten because Lewis Hamilton had also left the track and the incident had occurred during the opening stages of the race.
The FIA’s explanation of Charles Leclerc’s five-second penalty established why the circumstances were considered mitigating factors.
Charles Leclerc served the sanction during his pit stop on lap 27. His total time in the pit lane was 28.7 seconds, compared with the usual 22–24 seconds, despite having led the race until that point.
Before the Grand Prix, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur had confirmed that his drivers would be free to race each other, maintaining the approach he had consistently defended.
After the chequered flag, however, Fred Vasseur was far more critical. He argued that the work of the team had not been respected and that Ferrari had thrown away a double podium finish.
Lewis Hamilton remained visibly frustrated for the rest of the race and subsequently insisted that a discussion with his teammate was necessary. His demand for talks following the Mexico GP controversy illustrated the wider implications of the opening-lap confrontation.
Three different leaders: How the Mexico GP unfolded
Charles Leclerc led for 27 laps, Andrea Kimi Antonelli for 16 and Max Verstappen for 28. Lewis Hamilton, despite starting from pole position, did not complete a single lap in the lead.
The opening phase belonged to Charles Leclerc. Running on Soft tyres, the Monegasque was approximately 0.25 seconds per lap faster than Max Verstappen on the Medium compound. By lap 26, he had established a five-second advantage.
The only interruption came from the Virtual Safety Car on laps 7 and 8, with both Aston Martin drivers already out of the race after five laps.
The second phase, from laps 28 to 43, belonged to Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes driver remained on his starting Soft tyres while his rivals made their pit stops. After rejoining the track, Max Verstappen found himself 16.6 seconds behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli. However, the Red Bull driver began recovering more than eight tenths of a second per lap, reducing the gap to just 4.2 seconds by lap 43.
At that stage, a Mercedes pit stop had become unavoidable. Unfortunately for the team, the stop came just one lap before another neutralisation. Following the restart, the dynamics changed completely. During the final phase, from lap 48 to lap 71, every driver used the Soft compound.
Max Verstappen recorded a median lap time of 1:19.727, compared with 1:19.774 for Lewis Hamilton and 1:19.930 for Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Charles Leclerc, by contrast, managed only 1:20.500, primarily because of the condition of his tyres.
The second Safety Car period, between laps 59 and 62, eliminated the gaps without changing the underlying competitive picture. Lewis Hamilton remained within 1.3 seconds of Max Verstappen all the way to the finish.
Red flag, Safety Cars and penalties: The turning point in Mexico
The incident that fundamentally changed the race involved Valtteri Bottas.
On lap 43, the Cadillac driver suffered a suspension failure and crashed into the barriers at Turn 1. The Safety Car appeared on the following lap, before the red flag was shown on lap 45. Racing was suspended for 39 minutes.
Before the interruption, the podium positions were occupied by Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, with Lewis Hamilton fourth.
At the standing restart, however, the order became Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes driver’s pit stop, completed one lap before the neutralisation, had turned into an extraordinarily unfortunate strategic decision.
Race control also revised the starting order, swapping Lewis Hamilton and Andrea Kimi Antonelli compared with the initial version. When racing resumed, Lewis Hamilton overtook Charles Leclerc. His wheels made contact with those of Max Verstappen at Turn 1, although neither driver suffered any consequences.
Charles Leclerc, meanwhile, locked his front-left tyre. Andrea Kimi Antonelli overtook him shortly afterwards, leaving the Ferrari driver fourth until the chequered flag. That lock-up had a measurable cost. Localised wear on the front-left tyre brought the damaged area extremely close to the internal structural layers.
During the final stint, Charles Leclerc was approximately 0.7 seconds per lap slower than Lewis Hamilton despite using the same compound. The damaged tyre was the most likely explanation. Charles Leclerc had demonstrated sufficient pace to remain ahead, but a single braking incident destroyed that advantage.
Elsewhere, penalties had a significant impact on the points-paying positions.
Nico Hülkenberg received ten seconds for hitting Oliver Bearman at Turn 4, while Oscar Piastri was given another ten-second penalty for his collision with Arvid Lindblad at Turn 2, an incident that caused the second Safety Car period.
Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly received penalties of ten and thirty seconds respectively for yellow-flag infringements. Sergio Pérez was penalised five seconds for travelling at 80.2 km/h in the pit lane.
Oscar Piastri dropped from seventh to 13th, Franco Colapinto from eighth to 15th and Pierre Gasly from tenth to 17th. The final championship point went to Ryō Hirakawa.
Mexico GP tyre analysis: The forgotten Hard compound and absence of graining
Before the race, a one-stop strategy had been anticipated, with the Hard compound expected to play the role of the long-running tyre and graining identified as a potential concern.
In practice, graining never appeared, and the Hard compound was not used at all, even after the red flag gave every driver the opportunity to make a fresh tyre choice. Soft tyres accounted for 72% of the laps completed, while Medium tyres represented the remaining 28%.
The two compounds exhibited almost identical degradation, approximately 0.04 seconds per lap, with the Medium around one tenth slower than the Soft at the same tyre age. Pirelli also confirmed that, without the neutralisations, a one-stop strategy would have been the most competitive solution for the Mexican Grand Prix.
The clearest demonstration came from Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who completed 43 laps on the same set of Soft tyres, with degradation of just 0.027 seconds per lap.
Ultimately, the pre-race expectations and race data agreed on the optimal number of pit stops. The only meaningful difference concerned which tyre compound would prove most effective.
Ferrari strategy and pit stops: How the red flag changed everything
Before the red flag, most drivers were following a conventional one-stop strategy.
Max Verstappen was the only driver among the top six to start on Medium tyres. He switched to Softs on lap 27, with a total pit-lane time of 22.5 seconds.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton switched to Medium tyres on laps 27 and 28 respectively. George Russell stopped on lap 33, serving his ten-second penalty, while Lando Norris made his stop on lap 39. Under green-flag conditions, a pit stop cost between 22.5 and 24.8 seconds. This explains why the additional stops resulted from neutralisations rather than deliberate decisions to improve race pace.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli represented the most extreme strategic case. His 43-lap run on Soft tyres allowed him to lead for 16 laps, but his pit stop came just one lap before the Safety Car, when Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc had already made their stops 16 laps earlier.
As a consequence, the Mercedes driver fell from first to fourth. Had he stopped one lap later, the time loss would have been substantially smaller. It was the risk inherent in extending a stint, and the subsequent red flag offered no compensation.
The suspension of the race effectively reset the strategic picture, allowing drivers to change tyres without losing track position through a conventional pit stop. Everyone restarted on Soft tyres, while stops completed under Safety Car conditions, including Lewis Hamilton’s on lap 44, became largely irrelevant.
The winner completed just one conventional pit stop, while the runner-up made two. Despite that difference, only 0.799 seconds separated them at the finish.
Ferrari Mexico GP race pace: The fastest car did not win
The most revealing aspect of the Mexican Grand Prix was the underlying performance of Ferrari.
The Scuderia recorded the fastest median race pace of any team at 80.96 seconds. Mercedes was 0.37 seconds slower, Red Bull 0.52 seconds behind and McLaren 0.56 seconds adrift.
Ferrari therefore held an advantage of more than three tenths of a second per lap over its closest rival, a margin that second and fourth places failed to reflect.
The complete performance picture can be explored through the F1 race pace and lap-time comparison, which provides a framework for comparing drivers’ race performance.
As had already become apparent, Ferrari was particularly competitive through slow- and medium-speed corners, where its drivers carried more speed into the turns than the other leading teams.
Mercedes gained most of its advantage through the faster sections, with Red Bull close behind.
McLaren, meanwhile, struggled to establish a meaningful advantage in almost any sector compared with its rivals, despite the encouraging impressions created during free practice.
During the race, Lando Norris complained over the radio that dirty air was significantly affecting his performance. However, that disadvantage is not unique to McLaren. Every driver following another car can suffer from disturbed airflow and the consequences of running in traffic.
Charles Leclerc vs Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari’s internal race pace was almost identical
The comparison between the two Ferrari drivers was remarkably close.
Charles Leclerc was faster than Lewis Hamilton in 14 sections of the lap, compared with nine in which the British driver held the advantage. Their median race lap times were separated by just 0.077 seconds: 80.922 seconds for Charles Leclerc and 80.999 seconds for Lewis Hamilton. Charles Leclerc had the slight advantage in underlying pace, but Lewis Hamilton secured the better result because the penalty and tyre lock-up cost his teammate more time than his performance advantage could recover.
The result once again highlighted the difference between outright speed and converting that speed into championship points.
Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull: What the race pace data reveals
Mercedes experienced contrasting fortunes with its two drivers.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli was faster than George Russell in 13 sections of the lap, compared with nine for the British driver. Their overall race pace was almost identical, however, at 81.31 and 81.35 seconds respectively.
George Russell finished sixth, just 0.485 seconds behind Lando Norris, despite having served his ten-second penalty in the pits.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Toto Wolff acknowledged that Mercedes had completely let George Russell down, arguing that the British driver had been in contention for victory before the electrical energy problem. George Russell subsequently missed his post-race media commitments, with Mercedes explaining that he was extremely exhausted. The stewards nevertheless fined the team €5,000.
At McLaren, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were separated by the narrowest of margins, with the former holding an advantage in ten sections of the lap compared with nine for his teammate. Lando Norris finished fifth, 11.8 seconds behind the winner, having completed just one conventional pit stop. Oscar Piastri ended the race 13th following his penalty.
At Red Bull, Isack Hadjar was faster than Max Verstappen in 12 sections of the flying lap, compared with nine for the eventual winner.
Despite that advantage, the French driver was 1.19 seconds slower in median race pace, largely because his Grand Prix became a prolonged recovery drive through traffic following the opening-lap collision.
What Ferrari must learn from its Mexico GP defeat
The first conclusion from the Mexican Grand Prix is that the red flag played a more decisive role than outright race pace.
Max Verstappen secured victory because he was leading when the Safety Car neutralised the race and subsequently benefited from the opportunity to change tyres without the usual pit-stop time loss.
The second conclusion is even more frustrating for Ferrari. The Scuderia had the car and performance to fight for a one-two finish, but that opportunity was compromised during the opening lap by the confrontation between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, and again at the restart when the Monegasque locked his front-left tyre.
The situation also raises important questions about Ferrari’s management of its drivers. The consequences of another Ferrari teammate confrontation extend beyond a single missed victory, particularly when both drivers are capable of competing at the front. For the remainder of the season, attention now turns to the battle for second place in the Drivers’ Championship, with 100 points still available.
In the updated standings, Max Verstappen has moved two points ahead of Lewis Hamilton, with 261 points against 259. Considering Red Bull’s difficult first half of the season, the recovery represents an impressive achievement.
George Russell follows on 250 points, with Charles Leclerc on 245. In the Constructors’ Championship, Mercedes leads with 630 points, followed by Ferrari on 504, Red Bull on 382 and McLaren on 365.
The next round takes Formula 1 to Brazil from 6 to 8 November, completing the final part of this triple-header. The 2026 Brazilian Grand Prix schedule provides the session times and weekend programme.
Beyond the disappointment at Ferrari, Mexico will be remembered above all for Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who has become Formula 1’s newest world champion after an extraordinary season of results.
Following the celebrations and deserved praise for the young Italian champion, attention turns to Brazil and another important test for Ferrari.
The question is whether the Maranello team can resolve its internal difficulties and finally convert its competitive pace into victory, or whether it will once again find itself watching an increasingly formidable Max Verstappen take the chequered flag first.
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