F1 Mexico GP: Verstappen dominates; Hamilton P2 as Perez suffers lap 1 exit

The victory gives Verstappen a new record for most F1 wins in a single season, this his 16th 2023 triumph after he scored 15 last year.

At the start, Verstappen shot off the line as the two Ferraris ahead rather stuttered away, the Dutchman carving between Leclerc and Sainz to easily claim the inside line for Turn 1.

There, Perez suddenly arrived on the far left of Verstappen and Leclerc, having got an even better getaway than his team-mate and then gained from the slipstream coming off the other RB19 and then Leclerc's Ferrari.

Perez's run was so good his wheels were the furthest ahead when the trio reached the turn-in point for the first corner, but with Verstappen swinging slightly back left just seconds before this, Leclerc got pinched between the two Red Bull cars.

Contact was inevitable and Perez was pitched off and soon into retirement with major sidepod damage, while Leclerc sustained a broken front wing endplate.

He cut the remaining opening corners, but Verstappen was swiftly back ahead and blasting to a lead of 1.5 seconds at the end of lap one of 71. 

Verstappen edged well ahead of Leclerc over the next phase of tyre management driving to reach a three-second lead by the end of lap 11, with Leclerc also pulling clear of Sainz at the same time.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB19, make contact at the start causing the Mexican to crash out (Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images)

Daniel Ricciardo initially held Hamilton at bay, but eventually, the Mercedes driver used DRS and a late switch to the inside run to Turn 1 just as Verstappen had reached that three-second threshold in front of Leclerc.

That continued to climb to 4.6s before Red Bull pitted Verstappen at the end of lap 19, where Leclerc enjoyed a five-second advantage over Sainz, who by this point had Hamilton swarming behind.

Verstappen rejoined back in the back and soon carved his way back to the podium place,  aided by Mercedes attempting to undercut Sainz by stopping Hamilton for hards from behind the Spaniard on lap 24.

As Leclerc continued to pull away from his team-mate even with his damaged car, Ferrari decided its best strategy was to stay out and build a tyre offset against both Red Bull and Mercedes – the leader staying in the high 1m23s compared to 1m24s for Sainz and 1m22s for Verstappen and Hamilton.

Ferrari finally pitted Sainz on lap 30, one tour after Verstappen had easily got back ahead with a DRS run to Turn 1's inside, with Leclerc brought in the next time by after his team-mate, with both taking hards.

That left Verstappen with a massive 16.8s lead, with Hamilton easily undercutting Sainz and now just three seconds back on Leclerc, but on lap 33 the race was majorly disrupted.

Kevin Magnussen crashed at Turn 9 – the Haas driver having lost the rear of his car after a sudden rear suspension failure thought to have been brought on by components overheating – brought out the red flags.

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23 (Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images)

Magnussen was able to walk away from the high-speed shunt, albeit looking sore from the impact, with Verstappen pitting again for more hards shortly before the full neutralisation was activated.

This was required because the barriers well inside Turn 9 needed assessing, which angered Verstappen, who faced a second standing start now providing a tow to Leclerc, Sainz and Hamilton.

When the lights went out again after a 22-minute delay, with the leaders lined up on the hards – other than Hamilton in third on the mediums – again Verstappen aced the start and was able to lead into Turn 1 unopposed.

Behind, Leclerc was able to keep Hamilton from Verstappen's slipstream and after they swung right and left on the long run to Turn 1, the Ferrari took the outside line and swept into the right hander without contact with the Mercedes tight on the inside.

For the leaders, that was the extent of the drama as Verstappen immediately pulled a new 1.3s lead, which he had almost doubled by the time DRS was activated again for the start of lap 39.

The first time through Turns 1 and 4 with Hamilton bearing down with DRS, Leclerc was able to defend, but on lap 40 his late move to the inside on the run to Turn 1 – putting his right-side wheels on the grass in the process – got him up to second.

Hamilton still having DRS on the run to Turn 4 meant Leclerc's fightback went nowhere, Verstappen had a 3.2s lead to his 2021 title rival – but with a more durable tyre fitted and with 30 laps left.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14 (Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images)

Next, Verstappen carried on pulling away by a few tenths each time by as he lapped in the low 1m22s, with Hamilton quickly dropping Leclerc by over five seconds despite Ferrari insisting their pace difference would soon swing around due to the hards lasting longer.

Heading into the final 15 laps, with Verstappen over 10s clear in the lead, Ferrari's prediction had not come true – with Hamilton able to maintain his five-second advantage in front of Leclerc.

With 10 laps left Verstappen's lead had reached 12.7s, with Leclerc, rather than gaining on Hamilton, slipping back to over six seconds down, the final gaps between the top three ending up as 13.8 and 9.2 as the race at the front fully fizzled out to the chequered flag, where Hamilton set the fastest lap right at the end.

Sainz was 4.0s adrift of Leclerc having initially defended hard against the medium-shod Russell after the second start before the second Mercedes fell back – Russell's day transformed by gains against Oscar Piastri and Ricciardo at the restart.

But it was Lando Norris who came home fifth having produced a mighty, battling drive – the McLaren driver initially started on the softs from 17th and then was one of the first drivers to stop after he had made limited early progress.

Stopping under the safety car before the red flag was called hurt Norris's day, as did losing several places with a poor second start, but then the McLaren driver charged through the pack.

He passed Ricciardo with a muscular move at Turn 4 with 11 laps left, then shot up to Russell and soon pressured him into running deep at Turn 4, which allowed Norris to shove his way through at the double-apex Turn 6 a few seconds later.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL60, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60 (Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images)

Although Ricciardo faded from starting fourth, he nevertheless scored AlphaTauri's best result of the season, and had such pace on his hards late on he was able to pressure Russell up ahead.

Piastri ended up eighth having been involved in a late Turn 1 incident with Yuki Tsunoda that dropped the second AlphaTauri driver out of the points.

Alex Albon came home comfortably ahead of Esteban Ocon at the end of the top 10 – this pair and Pierre Gasly in 11th finally overcoming the stout resistance Nico Hulkenberg had displayed for a long time in the remaining Haas.

Aston Martin had a nightmare race, with Fernando Alonso retiring in the pits shortly after the second start and Lance Stroll doing likewise after late contact with Valtteri Bottas. The incident cost Bottas a five-second penalty as well as two penalty points on his licence.

Leclerc also faced a trip to the stewards to explain why he drove on with his early front wing damage, but escaped sanction.

F1 Mexico City GP results:

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

         

Driver Info			Main Information Additional Data
Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Retirement	Chassis	Engine
1	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		71	-			3	25		Red Bull	Red Bull
2	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44		71	+13.875 13.875	13.875		2	19		Mercedes	Mercedes
3	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		71	+23.124 23.124	9.249		2	15		Ferrari	Ferrari
4	C. Sainz Ferrari	55		71	+27.154 27.154	4.030		2	12		Ferrari	Ferrari
5	L. Norris McLaren	4		71	+33.266 33.266	6.112		3	10		McLaren	Mercedes
6	G. Russell Mercedes	63		71	+41.020 41.020	7.754		2	8		Mercedes	Mercedes
7	D. Ricciardo AlphaTauri	3		71	+41.570 41.570	0.550		2	6		AlphaTauri	Red Bull
8	O. Piastri McLaren	81		71	+43.104 43.104	1.534		2	4		McLaren	Mercedes
9	A. Albon Williams	23		71	+48.573 48.573	5.469		2	2		Williams	Mercedes
10	E. Ocon Alpine	31		71	+1'02.879 1'02.879	14.306		1	1		Alpine	Renault
11	P. Gasly Alpine	10		71	+1'06.208 1'06.208	3.329		2			Alpine	Renault
12	Y. Tsunoda AlphaTauri	22		71	+1'18.982 1'18.982	12.774		2			AlphaTauri	Red Bull
13	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27		71	+1'20.309 1'20.309	1.327		2			Haas	Ferrari
14	V. Bottas Alfa Romeo	77		71	+1'20.597 1'20.597	0.288		2			Alfa Romeo	Ferrari
15	Z. Guanyu Alfa Romeo	24		71	+1'21.676 1'21.676	1.079		2			Alfa Romeo	Ferrari
dnf	L. Sargeant Williams	2		70	+1 Lap 1'17.155	1 Lap		3			Williams	Mercedes
dnf	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		66				3		Collision	Aston Martin	Mercedes
dnf	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		47				3		Retirement	Aston Martin	Mercedes
dnf	K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team	20		31				1		Spun off	Haas	Ferrari
dnf	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11		1				1		Collision	Red Bull	Red Bull
View full results

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