Carlos Sainz achieved his second victory of the season with a dominant drive at the Mexico City Grand Prix for Scuderia Ferrari. Lando Norris took second position after surviving a tense battle with Max Verstappen – with the championship leader receiving two penalties. Last weekend’s race winner Charles Leclerc finished in third.
The Ferrari driver reclaimed the lead after he had lost it heading into the opening corner and never conceded it thereafter; Carlos built an unassailable lead which soaked up the potential of any threat from Norris in the closing stages once the McLaren driver cleared Charles Leclerc.
Sainz kept the lead through the pitstop phases and, despite occasional attempts from Leclerc to eat into an ever-growing lead, the Williams-bound driver returned the favour to continue his break-building efforts out in front.
Sainz had lost the lead to Verstappen off the line as the Red Bull driver arrived at Turn 1 first, and forced the Ferrari driver to take to the grass with his preservation of the racing line.
But the racing action was halted after a first-corner clash between Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda bringing out the safety car; Albon was squeezed between Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly, and the former two ended up in the braking zone for Turn 1.
Tsunoda ended up going straight into the wall, while Albon also pulled over to retire with front-left tyre damage.
On the restart, Sainz spent two laps sat in Verstappen’s wheel-tracks before gathering enough pace to mount an overtake into Turn 1 with DRS and then covered off a potential switchback into the following corners.
This put Max in Lando’s clutches, and the McLaren’s bid to pass around the outside into Turn 4 was once again met with Verstappen taking him off the track.
Like Austin, Norris had laid claim to the position, but Verstappen then lunged down the inside at Turn 7 and took both drivers off once more – and got ahead of Norris off the circuit. Both incidents resulted in 10-second penalties for Verstappen, which sent him further down the order and took him out of the lead fight. Leclerc capitalised on the skirmish between the two championship leaders, bursting into second place.
This moment between the two title contenders was certainly outrageous and over the top in terms of racing. Max was very aggressive in defending and preventing Lando from getting by. This penalty is justified for his driving behaviour.
Leclerc couldn’t challenge his teammate, however, and after the pit phase Sainz’s lead had grown to over eight seconds. Charles attempted to cut this down, although both Ferraris were employing lift and coast tactics in an aid to cool down the car.
Sainz stabilised at over five seconds, but Leclerc’s tyres then started to run out of life and he started to fall into Lando’s range – when the McLaren driver closed into DRS range at the end of lap 62, Leclerc subsequently drifted wide out of the Peraltada and almost hit the wall.
Leclerc saved the snap of oversteer, but couldn’t stop Norris from breaking past. Norris subsequently started to catch Sainz, but could only get to within 4.7 seconds at the flag.
So a fantastic victory for Carlos Sainz. His fourth win for Ferrari before leaving to join Williams next year so this result is a feel good story for Carlos.
Next week is the Brazilian Grand Prix and yet another sprint race. The championship battle between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen is getting very tense so will be fascinating how the racing will play out after two successive race events with hard wheel to wheel battle.
Mexico City Grand Prix, race results:
1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:40:55.800
2 Lando Norris McLaren +4.705s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +34.387s
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +44.780s
5 George Russell Mercedes +48.536s
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull +59.558s
7 Kevin Magnussen Haas +63.642s
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren +64.928s
9 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1 lap
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1 lap
11 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1 lap
12 Franco Colapinto Williams +1 lap
13 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1 lap
14 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
15 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +1 lap
16 Liam Lawson RB +1 lap
17 Sergio Perez Red Bull +1 lap
Fernando Alonso Aston Martin DNF
Alexander Albon Williams DNF
Yuki Tsunoda RB DNF