Mexico GP opened the very last triple-header of the season. Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is situated 2.3 km above the sea level, which gives this venue its unique feature. After the US GP the cars went through a remarkable makeover, as Mexico demanded a lot more from the cars' cooling system.
After the free practice sessions it seemed, that Red Bull were on a completely different level in terms of performance. Once again four drivers were hit with grid penalties due to engine changes. This time Aston Martin's Stroll, McLaren's Norris, AlphaTauri's Tsunoda and Alpine's Ocon were to start to the race from the back of the grid. Williams' Russell, too was hit with a 5-place grid penalty due to a gear box change. In Q2 all top four teams -Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari, opted for the medium compound. Verstappen set the initial benchmark by 16 thousandths of a second to Hamilton, but the Briton made it on top on his last flyer. However, the most eye-catching driver was AlphaTauri's Tsunoda, who made it surprise third in the standings. The Japanese set his lap time on the soft rubber but nevertheless, it was an outstanding run.
This was the third consecutive qualifying session with both AlphaTauris in the top ten. A Red Bull pole was expected, but Bottas showed otherwise. The Finn took provisional pole by 0.145s to his teammate. Verstappen, who had been flying in the free practices but who was now struggling to make the tyres work, was left third, 0.350 short of the Finn's benchmark. Home hero Perez was fourth, Gasly fifth and Leclerc sixth. Bottas proved unable to improve in the end, and so did Hamilton. Verstappen was driving a competitive lap, but Perez in front of him went wide, which ruined the Dutchman's last attempt. Against all odds it became a front row lockout for the Silver Arrows, and the Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Perez were left to settle for the second row. Gasly qualified 5th for AlphaTauri and Sainz made it 6th for Ferrari. Ricciardo in P7 was followed by Leclerc in the sister Ferrari. Tsunoda and Norris, who qualified 9th and 10th, were dropped to the back of the pack, which promoted Aston Martin's Vettel to P9 and Alfa Romeo's Räikkönen to P10. Having claimed his 19th career pole Bottas now had the most poles of all Finnish F1 drivers.
As the lights went out, pole-setter Bottas was soon in trouble. The Finn took a good start, and both Mercedes drivers played a team effort to prevent the Red Bulls from gaining positions. However, Verstappen, who started to the race from P3, benefitted remarkably from the tow and saw his chance on the outside of Bottas. Verstappen executed a splendid overtaking move and took his favourite position -the lead. McLaren's Ricciardo was locking his front wheels when braking into Turn 1, which led into contact between Ricciardo and Bottas. The Finn span, which cost him dearly. Bottas dropped down to the back of the pack. Meanwhile, also Haas' Schumacher and AlphaTauri's Tsunoda had an incident of their own, which left both cars on track. Safety car was out on lap 1 already. Bottas pitted for a fresh set of hard Pirellis, and Ricciardo came in to get a new front wing in addition to fresh hard tyres.
Safety car came in on lap 4, and Verstappen took a perfect restart, leaving Hamilton zero chance to challenge him. Bottas on the other hand, had a poor restart and lost a place to Ricciardo immediately. The unfortunate Finn got stuck behind the Australian, failing to make his way up. By lap 19 Verstappen had increased his gap to Hamilton into 6.6 seconds. Home hero Perez in P3 was 2.2 seconds down on the Briton.
This time it was Mercedes, who decided to make a move first in terms of the pit stops. Hamilton was called in on lap 30, and the Briton, too opted for a new set of hard tyres. Race leader Verstappen pitted some four laps later, but Hamilton was never a threat for the Dutchman. Perez instead drove an extremely long first stint and came in not until on lap 41. Everything went smoothly, on the contrary to Bottas, who had a disastrous 11-second pit stop, which ruined his race for good.
On lap 58 there was a team order from the Red Team. Charles was told to let teammate Carlos past. Carlos had insisted, that he could take the battle to AlphaTauri's Gasly, who was currently in P4 almost ten seconds ahead. Nevertheless, the Scuderia drivers were to bring valuable points for the team, as Carlos was fifth and Charles sixth, whilst their closest rivals Ricciardo and Norris together were to bring only a single point for McLaren.
The battle for the podium places came truly alive towards the end of the race. With ten laps to go, Perez in P3 had made it within striking distance from Hamilton. The massive home crowd were loudly cheering for their favourite, which must have given the Mexican some extra boost. Verstappen's lead was secured, and the flying Dutchman had his hands on the fastest lap time as well. Although Bottas had no chance to make it in the points, the Finn pitted for soft Pirellis and decided to do the one thing he could -to deprive Verstappen of the fastest lap time.
Although Perez made it extremely close to Hamilton, it just wasn't close enough. Verstappen cruised to the victory after another solid performance, and Hamilton managed to maintain his second place. However, Perez's P3 was wildly celebrated by his family and the team. It was touching to see Perez's son hide behind his dad's back, as Perez was giving an interview for David Coulthard. Gasly finished 4th after another strong race. As Carlos proved unable to challenge the AlphaTauri pilot for P4, the Ferrari drivers switched back places at the end. Sebastian Vettel finished 7th for Aston Martin, with Räikkönen 8th for Alfa Romeo, Alonso 9th for Alpine and Norris scoring the very last point for McLaren. And on the very final lap, Bottas did nail the fastest lap time, robbing it from the race winner! The Finn wasn't awarded for it with the extra point, as he finished 15th, but at least he took it away from Max!
Sunday's result made the championship standings absolutely pulsating. Verstappen's lead in the drivers' standings grew from 12 to 19 points. Red Bull are only a single point off Mercedes in the constructors' standings! Ferrari seem to have an upper hand on McLaren at the moment, as the Scuderia have a 13-point lead over the orange team.
But there are four races to go. Either one of the championship contenders can still be crowned as the desired world champion and same goes to the teams. Ferrari need to maintain the momentum to defend their third position in the teams' standings. Forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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