The start of the Mexico City Grand Prix turned out exactly as expected: 800 metres of straight, a strong slipstream effect and a wide track created a four-way battle between Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. Or rather, the poleman had a rocket start, leaving the others to fight it out among themselves. The Ferrari duo did not have an equally strong launch, finding themselves wheel to wheel while the Red Bull driver was also advancing, with car number 44 on the inside and number 1 on the outside.
Everyone was trying to get ahead, even if it meant a bit of pushing; as a result, both Leclerc and Verstappen ended up on the grass at Turn 1, with the latter clearly cutting the corner. From there came debates and position requests, leading the Sky Sport team to wonder whether things could have been done differently. “You want to set it up, but then the starts move and you have to chase it. I don’t have a yes-or-no answer,” said Matteo Bobbi vaguely, while his colleagues had other opinions.
“For me, it was handled well. At that moment, when you have Verstappen, Russell and Norris shooting forward, you bring it home, it was so close to a mess,” added Vicky Piria. On the other hand, Carlo Vanzini thought there was something that could have been improved: “When Hamilton was behind Charles, he made the wrong choice trying to go inside, but at the same time he risked hitting his teammate. It wasn’t an exceptional start from the British driver, but the two cars ahead of him had fresh tyres. When he moved to the side, that’s where Leclerc should have played as a team and given him the chance to attack Lando. If he had stayed on the left, he wouldn’t have given Max the opportunity to be in that position.”
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