Max Verstappen wins his third Grand Prix of the year in Mexico City, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and the new World Drivers’ Champion Kimi Antonelli.
Verstappen won for the sixth time in Mexico City as Ferrari struggled, with another Grand Prix highlighted by a teammate battle.
On the opening lap, Leclerc took the lead from his Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton, who broke his three-year pole-less streak with his first pole for Ferrari on Saturday. Leclerc took the lead on the opening lap by pushing his teammate Hamilton aside. Verstappen followed through for second, and instead of giving back the position and falling to third, Leclerc held the lead and waited for his penalty.
Instead of the ten seconds his competitors expected, it was reduced to a minimum of 5 seconds due to mitigating circumstances.
On lap 44, just after Kimi Antonelli became the last driver to make their first pit stop, Valtteri Bottas experienced a suspension failure at 180+ MPH and slammed into the barrier outside turn one. The damage and cleanup brought out a red flag, leading to a second start.
On the restart, Hamilton took second from Leclerc after spending the red-flag period fuming, where he radioed, “We have big big problems,” about how Ferrari is handling it’s two racing stars and reportedly threw his scooter on the ground.
Verstappen held the lead on the restart and again on a safety car restart caused when Arvid Lindblad and Oscar Piastri collided while battling for seventh, sending Lindblad into the wall.
Lando Norris, the defending champion, battled Leclerc in the final laps to try and become the first driver off the podium as his fellow champions celebrated ahead, but settled for fifth ahead of the new champion’s teammate George Russell and his McLaren teammate Piastri.
Franco Colapinto, Liam Lawson and Pierre Gasly completed the top ten.
Victoria Beaver is a nomadic sports writer who spends her time hopping between race tracks and hippie farms. She’s covered every corner of motorsports that will let her in from 410 Sprints to NASCAR to Supercross. Her daily driver is a 2010 Subaru that she refused to do the smallest amount of preventative maintenance on. Instead, she spends her free time and money building a 42-foot Skoolie to one day travel the country full time.
