Mexico GP Race Report

Again, this was a very quiet night between Qualifying and Race.  There were no grid penalties and no surprises.  The biggest news was that this would be Alonso's 400th race start, and he still has two seasons ahead of him (potentially).   I'm sure the celebrations would have been greater were it not for Perez and Mexico's complete admiration for him.  He had done very little to deserve this in Qualifying and his position was coming back into question since he had been awarded a new contract in May.

The tyres were a slight unknown with cooler temperatures on race day than the day before.  Ocon was starting in the pit lane but it was likely that that would make little difference to the race.

Verstappen made an excellent start and overtook Sainz for the lead.  With an incident further back, drivers were caught out as the RB of Tsunoda was spun up the pack, Sainz took a wide cut across the corner and had to give the place back.  Tsunoda also took Albon out, who is having a shocking time in the Americas.  The Safety Car came out to clear the cars and the debris.  Tsunoda should not have been pushing to be four across the track.

Perez made up five places off the start but only because he jumped it, starting way ahead of his grid place and was awarded a five second penalty.  The Red Bull stop watch would be roundly tested in this race.

Verstappen slowed the pack up to an almost standstill before restarting the race.  As soon as DRS was enabled though, Sainz was passed him.  At this point, Norris was also behind and Verstappen had a problem with his ERC and an empty battery.  During his overtake, Norris had to go off track again, as Verstappen forced him off the track.  Then they both went off track and LeClerc went through for second place and Hamilton was hanging about right on the back of this row.  Finally, Verstappen received a ten second penalty for this behaviour.  His engineer reported that there was "a lot of whinging" about his move.

Russell, without any upgrades having trashed them, was able to overtake his team mate, who had the upgrades, pretty easily.  Further up, the Ferrari team mates were starting to battle.

Alonso was retired from this special race.

As if listening to the voice of F1 fans across the globe, but not the Dutch, Verstappen was awarded a further ten second penalty for his altercations with Norris.  Behind him Perez and fellow Red Bull driver Lawson were battling for the final points position with both going off the track.  They, however, did not receive a penalty.

There was plenty of overtaking and interest during the race; later on the Mercedes started to spar for fourth place.  Kimi Antonelli watched on at Toto's side; I remember when Mick Schumacher used to stand by him.  An incident between Lawson and Colapinto, battle of the late-coming rookies, was investigated after the race.

With ten laps to go, LeClerc lost the grip in his rear tyres altogether and was nearly into the wall but managed to get back on track.  This gave Norris a pass through into second place.

Then, with one lap to go, Ferrari pitted LeClerc to try and get the Fastest Lap point from Lawson and then Red Bull pitted Perez for the same reason.  LeClerc won it and Perez finished last.

Everyone praised Sainz for his excellent race and time will tell whether Ferrari made the correct decision with their line-up for next year.  Carlos himself was allowed to speak in Spanish, which was unusual but he chose not to, having just been handed a Spanish flag by his brother.