The Mexican Grand Prix is rarely a thriller, and even 2021 could not change that. Max Verstappen extended his lead over Lewis Hamilton in the standings after a dominant display at Mexico City saw him cross the finish line 16.555s ahead of Hamilton.
The Dutchman managed to force his way past both Mercedes cars into the opening corner, being the bravest on the brakes on the outside and sweeping his way past. After that, he was not seen again. Verstappen would have been delighted to be allowed to venture onto the normal racing line at the start, which angered Toto Wolff, and ran away into the distance in somewhat similar fashion to his Mexican victories in 2017 and 2018. Adding 2021 onto that list lets him celebrate his ninth victory of the season, and 19th of his career. A superb and controlled drive from start to finish. One downer for him however – his fastest lap point was taken off of him right at the death.
Hamilton was left shrugging his shoulders after being forced to accept the fact that Verstappen was just too quick for anyone. His day was made slightly more complicated after Valtteri Bottas was forced round and to the back at turn one by Daniel Ricciardo, leaving the man controlling car 44 to fend for himself against both Red Bull’s. Whilst his main rival was continuing to extend the gap ahead, Hamilton found himself ahead of Sergio Perez, and had a gap of near ten seconds at the mid way point due to a difference of strategy. Being under pressure from the home Mexican driver in the final few laps – with Perez on over ten laps fresher tyres – Hamilton was able to hold the second position over the line, but falls to 19 points behind Verstappen in the standings.
Perez was able to carry his new found form into his home race, but fell just short at the final hurdle to secure, what would have been, a popular Red Bull 1-2. Annoyingly for him, ‘Checo’ was left staring at the back of Hamilton’s Mercedes throughout the race, eventually finishing just 1.2s behind after fighting to get within touching distance and into the DRS range.
With Red Bull now having both cars at the front end, they find themselves just a single point adrift of Mercedes in the constructors.
Bottas’ day lasted really around 15 seconds. Covering Hamilton instead of Verstappen on the run to turn one, Bottas was tagged round by the McLaren of Ricciardo, dropping him to the back of the field and leaving the McLaren driver without a front wing. Thankfully for him, the early safety car meant he could catch up with the field. But then sadly for him, he found himself stuck behind Ricciardo for the majority of the race and was unable to work his way back into the points. In the dying laps, Mercedes attempted two attempts to pit their driver onto softs and take the fastest lap point away from Verstappen – something he would achieve on the second attempt and final lap of the race. Ultimately, he would end up in 15th.
The Bottas/Ricciardo clash actually was not the cause for the opening lap safety car. The race would have two retirements – Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda. Both would fall victim after sandwiching Esteban Ocon at turn two on the opening lap, suffering rear suspension damage. Whilst Ocon would escape free of harm, but go on to finish down in 13th.
Proof of Verstappen’s dominance is the fact that the last driver to avoid being lapped was the one who finished in fourth – being Pierre Gasly. The star for many in qualifying proved to also be one of the stars of the race. Starting fifth, Gasly took to the grass at turn one to avoid all the inside mayhem, and would maintain his distant fourth place finish, being over a minute away from the winner, but comfortably ahead of the Ferrari’s behind. Another immense drive from someone who is not doing his name any harm.
The race would have been dull for many, none more so then Gasly, but the Ferrari drivers almost tripped over themselves before coming home in fifth and sixth, albeit one lap down. With Carlos Sainz choosing to go over ten laps longer then Charles Leclerc, the Spaniard wanted to get past his teammate, with a team order being hinted. After a few laps of silence, Leclerc eventually moved over in the hope of a return if Sainz fails to catch Gasly. Well, that happened and Leclerc was swiftly promoted back to fifth with a few laps remaining. A solid yet dull race for Ferrari, and one that see’s them overtake McLaren for third in the constructor standings.
Sebastian Vettel had one of his best races during his Aston Martin, securing seventh place. The second half of the race saw Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris eye each other up lap after lap, but ultimately be unable to make any moves – such is the conditions and dirty air of Mexico.
Despite retiring at the end of the season, Raikkonen showed no signs of slowing down on Sunday after bringing home some rare points with the Alfa Romeo with a very tidy eighth place finish, fending off Alonso at the end.
The Alpine man had some work to make up after his Q1 elimination on Saturday. Starting 12th after penalties were applied, Alonso got the majority of the jobs done early on into the race, after avoiding Bottas’ Mercedes facing him, to bring home ninth. However, a slow pit stop put a halt to his progress.
Taking the final point was one Lando Norris, who had to make do with an 18th place grid slot after taking a new power unit. Norris would become the final driver in the field to make his pit stop after going over 40 laps on the medium tyres. With ease, the McLaren man was able to rescue the final points paying position – taking the team’s only points from the weekend after Ricciardo’s adventures and 12th place finish.
On paper, Antonio Giovinazzi’s 11th place finish does not seem to bad. But, considering his teammate Raikkonen managed to bring home points and finish over 30 seconds ahead on the same strategy, it ended up being a quiet and frustrating day for the Italian.
Lance Stroll could only progress to 14th after starting dead last on the grid, and was another driver to endure a dull race. Stroll was noticed to make his way past Nicholas Latifi at turn one after his pit stop – being basically the only time he was captured on camera. His chance of being involved in an actual race was scuppered after a pit stop of over ten seconds.
Williams have slipped back to their previous selves in recent rounds, and another 16th and 17th placed finish will not help things. With Latifi in 17th, the hopes were on George Russell who found himself battling inside the points in the early laps after the safety car period. Unfortunately for the Brit however, he seemed to lose a position every time the camera was pointed towards him, dropping to 16th. An earlier then expected pit stop did not seem to help the cause. He did however prove pivotal for Mercedes after giving Bottas the DRS in his successful fastest lap attempt.
Nikita Mazepin looked on course for his best race in Formula 1 after the opening lap chaos, running as high as 11th after the restart. As expected however, the sole running Haas would proceed to maintain status quo – finishing three laps down on the leader in 18th.
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