Sergio Perez, first to claim podium in home race

By Malhaar Khaladkar

Max Verstappen took a dominant win for the third time at the Mexico City Grand Prix as he extended his championship lead over rival Lewis Hamilton to 19 points. Hamilton finished second on the road as he held off home hero Sergio Perez who achieved a podium for the first time at his home race.

London, 8 November 2021: The race got off to an explosive start as Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were side by side, three-wide going into turn 1. Bottas backed off but was tagged by Daniel Ricciardo in the McLaren, the Finn spinning and falling to the back of the grid. In the process Ricciardo lost his front wing. Verstappen now lead the grand prix with Hamilton in P2 and Perez P3- a dream start for Red Bull. Behind an incident between Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher meant that both the AlphaTauri and Haas car had to retire bringing out the safety car.

Racing resumed on lap 5 as Verstappen pulled off quickly, building a 1s lead over Hamilton. Behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz overtook the Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi for P6- the Italian gaining five positions at the start of the race. Meanwhile, Bottas and Ricciardo were stuck behind back markers at the far end of the grid.

Verstappen gradually increased his lead over Hamilton as the Red Bull’s superior race pace was showcased, the Mercedes was unable to keep up. By lap 21 Verstappen was more than 7s ahead of Hamilton with Perez hanging onto Hamilton and staying around 2s behind the Briton. Behind the leaders, Pierre Gasly was running a superb P4 for AlphaTauri ahead of Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Sainz.

Mercedes decided to bite the bullet and boxed Hamilton for a set of hard tyres on lap 29 to avoid getting undercut by Perez and lose P2. Verstappen continued for four more laps before doing the same, emerging comfortably ahead of Hamilton. Perez continued as he became the first Mexican driver in history to lead their home grand prix.

Leclerc pitted on lap 30 and Gasly followed suit one lap later to cover him as both ran in net P4 and P5 position with Sainz continuing for longer on the medium tyres. Sainz eventually pitted on lap 42 for hard tyres gaining quickly on Leclerc as the team swapped the cars on track, so that Sainz with fresher tyres could attack Gasly up in P4.

Perez pitted on lap 40 and emerged about 9s behind Hamilton but with 11 laps younger tyres. The chase was on! Mercedes did not have the race pace to challenge Verstappen as he was in the lead by over 10s and Perez was closing in on Hamilton rapidly, especially through the middle sector of the lap where the W12 struggled.

By lap 60 Perez was just 1s behind Hamilton, as he looked for ways to get past Hamilton. The saving grace for Hamilton was that Mercedes had greater straight line speed compared to their rivals, which helped the 7-time world champion stay ahead of the Red Bull driver in the DRS zones.

Ultimately Verstappen won in a dominant fashion by over 16s increasing his lead in the championship to 19 points as Hamilton held off Perez for P2 in what was a damage limitation race for him. Perez gave his all to get past Hamilton but in the end had to settle for P3, albeit first ever podium for him at his home race. Gasly delivered another consistent race to finish in P4 ahead of the Ferrari pairing of Leclerc and Sainz in P5 and P6 respectively.

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel finished a brilliant P7, making use of the first lap and a good strategy to get a decent haul of points. Alfa Romeo too had a good strategy to help Kimi Raikkonen finish P8, though the same cannot be said for teammate Giovinazzi as his strategy was compromised and meant he finished P11, just outside the points. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso finished in P9 ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris in P10 who had started at the back of the grid after taking a power unit penalty.

Ricciardo could not make it back to the top 10 after lap 1 incident as he finished P12 ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in P13 and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in P14- who received power unit penalties as well. Williams pairing of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi finished in P16 and P17 ahead oh Haas’ Nikita Mazepin in P18 with Tsunoda and Schumacher the only retirees from the grand prix.

Red Bull had superior pace compared to Mercedes as Verstappen on average was 0.3-0.5s/lap faster than Hamilton in the race. They underperformed in qualifying as Mercedes locked out the front row but delivered on Sunday. The higher downforce nature of their car working better at the high altitude of Mexico City as air is thinner. Mercedes locking out the front row was a surprise for everyone but ultimately did not have the pace to challenge for the win on Sunday. Compounded with the fact that Bottas fell to the back of the grid they were handicapped in terms of race strategy at the front. With Red Bull in the ascendency, it looks like a tall order for Mercedes if they want to win the championships.

AlphaTauri had an incident free weekend with Pierre Gasly as he qualified P5 and finished P4 in the race, ahead of both Ferrari and McLaren cars. With that result they are level on points with Alpine in the constructor’s championship. Ferrari achieved another double points finish and leaped ahead of McLaren in the constructor’s championship. They certainly have a superior car compared to the McLaren and it remains to be seen if the Woking squad can fight back. McLaren had a dismal weekend by their standards, Ricciardo finishing outside the points and Norris adding a single point to their tally after taking an engine penalty.

Alpine and Aston Martin had positive race weekends as good strategy calls enabled them for points finish on Sunday with Vettel and Alonso respectively. Alfa Romeo may not have had the pace on paper for appoints finish but with a brilliant strategy and driving by Kimi Raikkonen helped them get P8. They were unable to maximise their race as they could have achieved points with Giovinazzi had he not pitted early went on for long. Williams lacked the pace in qualifying and the race to challenge for the top 10 positions and Haas finished bottom of the pace charts.

Saturday Qualifying results were:

Note – Russell drops 5 grid places for taking on a new gearbox after exceeding his allocation. Ocon, Stroll, Tsunoda and Norris start from the back of the grid after taking on new PU components.