A lights-to-flag win for Lando Norris — he controlled the race from start to finish at the F1 Mexican Grand Prix, showing incredible pace.
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Start
At the start, the two Ferraris battled against each other. At turn one, the cars in second to fourth were side by side, and Verstappen was squeezed to the curb, so he could not brake properly and went straight on. Norris managed to keep his lead. Bearman climbed from 9th to 6th. At the end of lap 1 the top six were: Norris, Leclerc, Hamilton, Verstappen, Russell, Bearman.
Lap 6-8
Verstappen, Hamilton and Russell fought each other. Hamilton locked up his brakes at turn 4, ran straight on and even missed the asphalt rejoin route, risking a possible penalty. Russell also went off track in turn 5. Hamilton came under investigation for failing to follow the instructions of the race director.
Lap 11
Norris’s race engineer reported that everything was going according to plan. Norris was to open up the gap to Leclerc in P2. At this phase of the race, the margin was about 3.5 seconds.
Lap 15-16
Hamilton’s incident was still being investigated. One lap later he received a 10-second penalty for gaining an advantage when rejoining the track. Bearman was in P4; considering Hamilton’s penalty he was effectively in P3.
Lap 23-26
Hamilton served the penalty and switched to medium-compound tires. Bearman and Russell also switched to fresh rubber.
Lap 27-29
Sainz was under investigation for speeding in the pit lane and half a lap later he received a 5-second penalty for that. By the end of lap 29, Norris had increased his lead to over 15 seconds ahead of P2.
Lap 31-39
Leclerc pitted for mediums, and a couple of laps later Norris did the same. He rejoined the track 8 seconds ahead of P2 Verstappen, who was yet to stop. A couple of laps later he also pitted and rejoined in 8th.
Lap 40-43
Russell had a heated conversation with his team about a swap of positions with his team mate, which he achieved at the end.
Norris’s radio indicated that McLaren planned another round of pit stops. The drivers’ preference was for soft tires rather than mediums.
Lap 46-50
Verstappen caught up to Hamilton, and they battled for P7. At the end of the main straight, Verstappen overtook the Briton easily using DRS. Immediately after that Hamilton was instructed to pit. Antonelli and Piastri also pitted for soft tires. The Italian’s pit stop was slow, and he lost a position because of that. At this point, the top six were: Norris, Leclerc, Verstappen, Bearman, Russell, Piastri.
Lap 59-60
There was a 2-second gap between P4 and P6: Bearman, Russell and Piastri were about to fight. At the end of the main straight, Piastri managed to get past Russell and took 5th place.
Lap 63-65
Russell and Antonelli swapped positions back. Verstappen’s race engineer complimented Verstappen on a fabulous stint, and encouraged him to finish it off by overtaking Leclerc. The gap was less than 3 seconds by lap 65.
Lap 69-71
Verstappen was within striking distance of Leclerc on the main straight, but could not overtake. The Virtual Safety Car was deployed! On the last lap the track went green again, but the VSC had effectively saved the day for Leclerc, allowing him to keep P2.
Norris crossed the line comfortably in the lead, securing a commanding victory at the Mexican Grand Prix.
The full results of the race, according to FIA.com:
