MEXICO: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen claimed his 14th victory of the 2022 season at the Mexican GP. The victory moved Max Verstappen clear of Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel’s record of 13 wins in a single Formula 1 season.
In a race that featured interesting strategic choices, Max Verstappen and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez opted for a soft-medium tyre strategy.
The Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell went for a medium-hard tyre strategy, which was questioned by the drivers as to why the team had swapped their starting set of mediums for hards.
Lewis Hamilton finished second, 15 seconds behind Max Verstappen. Home favourite Sergio Perez gave his fans something to cheer about in the Mexican GP, finishing third, a further 3 seconds behind Hamilton.
George Russell, who started second on the grid, finished fourth after losing two positions in the opening lap. George, in particular, was unhappy with the tyre strategy.
He repeatedly asked Mercedes to pit again for softs, which he felt was the better tyre. Mercedes finally pitted him on the penultimate lap, after which he went on to claim the fastest lap of the race.
Ferrari endured an underwhelming race, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.
The Ferrari duo were followed by the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo, who charged his way to seventh and kept his position after he was hit with a 10-second post-race time penalty after colliding with Yuki Tsunoda.
The Alpino of Esteban Ocon came home in eighth. His teammate, Fernando Alonso, suffered an engine failure late in the race and had to retire the car.
Lando Norris in the other McLaren finished ninth, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, who couldn’t perform as well as he had in qualification.
Alpha Tauri driver Pierre Gasly finished eleventh, missing out on a point by an agonising half a second. He picked up a 5-second time penalty early in the race after an aggressive move on Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who finished fifteenth.
Alex Albon drove well to guide his Williams to twelfth, one ahead of Zhou Guanyu in thirteenth. Sebastian Vettel, who sported a special tribute helmet to the late Dietrich Mateschitz, finished fourteenth.
The Haas duo of Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen finished sixteenth and seventeenth, ahead of Nicholas Latifi, who was eighteenth and last among the drivers who finished the race.
The Mexican GP was in its sixty-fifth edition. Local lad Sergio Perez was welcomed by a sell-out crowd at the Autodromo Hermano Rodriquez.
The Mexican GP crowd enthusiastically cheered on every move of home hero Sergio Perez, who treated them to a podium finish in the race.
Also Read: Mexico GP: Max Verstappen Won’t ‘Gift’ Home Race Win to Teammate Sergio Perez
