The pinnacle of motor sport was welcomed by Mexico City for round 18. Thin air caused by the high altitude is one of the special features of the Mexico GP, which has been won by Red Bull's Verstappen in two previous years. This year's qualifying, on the other hand, brought both success and drama for the successful Red Bull ace.
The pecking order of the three big teams was mixed in an interesting way. It was no surprise, that all of them opted for the yellow-walled medium compound in Q2. More of a surprise was the fact, that also both McLaren and Toro Rosso opted for the medium rubber. However, the two last-mentioned had to opt for the softs for their second runs. Sebastian topped the time sheets, with Verstappen second, Charles third and Hamilton fourth. The Mercedes aces made a second run on the mediums, Hamilton clocking the fastest lap time and Bottas moving to second. In Q3 though, Verstappen was untouchable already on his first flyer. In spite of Ferrari's mesmerizing straight line speed in the first sector, Verstappen took provisional pole by a tenth to Charles. Sebastian in third was two tenths shy of pace setting Verstappen. All came down to the last flyers. Charles ended up making a mistake, and was therefore unable to improve. Something dramatic happened in the dying moments of the decisive last segment. Bottas was pushing extremely hard to improve, and lost control of his W10 over the kerb in the last corner! The Finn crashed into the barrier, bringing out the double yellows. It was such a shame for Sebastian, who had been setting the screens purple, but now had to slow down due to Bottas' crash. In spite of the double yellows, Verstappen crossed the line setting a new track record, taking his second career pole. Charles qualified second and Sebastian third. Hamilton was left fourth, Albon fifth and Bottas sixth. McLaren locked down the fourth row (Sainz 7th, Norris 8th), and the fifth row belonged to Toro Rosso (Kvyat 9th, Gasly 10th).
However, the qualifying classification saw a sudden and dramatic change late on Saturday evening. Pole-setter Verstappen was given a 3-place grid penalty for failing to slow down under the yellow flags due to Bottas' crash in the final corner! The first flyer would have been fast enough to bring Verstappen on pole, had only his second time lap been deleted. Max could possibly have gone away with impunity, had the young man kept his mouth shut in the post-qualifying press conference! When asked about slowing down under the yellow flags, Max answered arrogantly: "Did it look like I was slowing down? No, I didn't. You can delete my second lap if you want to." Verstappen is an outstanding driver, but sometimes he really should pay closer attention to the frogs he lets out of his mouth!
Due to Verstappen's penalty, Charles was promoted on pole, with teammate Sebastian alongside him. Hamilton was third, and the hot-headed Dutchman had been dropped to P4. Not surprisingly at all, Verstappen was also the drama king at the start. Charles accelerated into the lead, with Sebastian right behind him. Irritated Max made contact with Hamilton already in Turn 1, with both cars taking damage. Virtual safety car was deployed. Behind the red duo, Red Bull's Albon had taken a staggering start, and the Thai driver had jumped 3rd in the race! McLaren's Sainz had done amazing job as well, having made his way up to P4. Hamilton was fifth, Norris sixth, Bottas seventh and Verstappen eighth.
After the virtual safety car had ended, Hamilton attacked Sainz, robbing the Spaniard of the fourth place. Bottas and Verstappen had a wheel-banging battle of their own. Max made an insolent move on the Finn, squeezing him past his rival. But Bottas wasn't to let that happen; with ice cool determination he snatched the seventh place back from Verstappen. During this intense battle, Bottas' front wing had touched Max's rear tyre. Max had a puncture and had to limp into the pits. Already on lap 5 he switched to the white-marked hard compound. Hard reality was, that he was now at the very back of the pack.
Albon pitted on lap 15, and race leader Charles on the following lap. They both re-joined the track on another set of medium Pirellis, which was a clear indication of a two-stop strategy. Hamilton pitted almost ten laps later, opting for a fresh set of medium tyres. The Briton's one-stop strategy seemed a bit questionable; could he drive a 48-lap stint on the hard tyres? After his pit stop Hamilton complained on the team radio, that he had been called in way too early. Sebastian was now leading the race; he stayed out, as did Bottas.
Bottas made his only pit stop not until on lap 36, naturally opting for a fresh set of hard Pirellis. Ferrari reacted right away and called Sebastian in for a similar tyre choice. After Charles' and Albon's second pit stops Hamilton was leading the race, with Sebastian second and Bottas third. The gaps between the top four -Hamilton, Sebastian, Bottas and Charles- were very small towards the end of the race. However, an overtaking move of any kind seemed to be out of the question. Meanwhile, Verstappen had made his way through the field up to P6 already. The Dutchman had pitted already on lap 5, which meant an incredible 66-lap long second stint!
In spite of an all-red front row, the red-suited heroes had to settle for playing the second fiddle to Mercedes. Once again Hamilton crossed the line as the race winner, actually for the 10th time this season already! Sebastian was the impressive runner-up, and Bottas had made stunning job as well, making his way from P6 to P3. Charles was left fourth due to his two-stop strategy, which must have been a huge disappointment for the pole-setter. To the Monegasque's comfort, he scored the extra point for the fastest lap time. This time Albon was the better one of the Red Bull drivers, as the Thai finished the race in P5, ahead of his fiery teammate. Without the first-lap hullabaloo, Max could have had chances to finish even much higher. Home hero Perez took the credit of being "the best of the rest" in P7.
Ferrari's single-lap pace is absolutely amazing, but they still need to work on their race pace. Let's see, what kind of a success story awaits the team in the USA this week! Forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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