Max Verstappen confidently won the Mexican Grand Prix, taking his 14th race win this year – setting a new G1 record, with no one else winning more victories in a season. Lewis Hamilton finished second, while Sergio Perez finished third in front of his fans.
World champion Max Verstappen may wait for the start of the 20th race of the 2022 season, the Mexican Grand Prix, from the most preferred position, after winning confidently in yesterday’s exciting qualifying session.
George Russell started alongside him, and from the second row Lewis Hamilton and the local crowd champion, Sergio Perez, who once again led to his first success in Mexico.
Carlos Sainz started from fifth, and time trial champion Valtteri Bottas, from sixth, who, after several poor weekends, managed to push Charles Leclerc behind him yesterday with Alfa Romeo. Leclerc, second in the points race, started the race from seventh place.
The start, especially compared to the beginnings of previous years in Mexico, was quite quiet from the side of the court: Verstappen managed to maintain his lead (usually a huge challenge for those starting from the front due to the longest running calendar), and Hamilton climbed to second place. And he pushed his colleague behind him.
The biggest loser at the start was Russell, who lost second, and in the second straight break Perez also pushed him behind, dropping to fourth. Bottas also lost two places, which was surpassed by Leclerc and Fernando Alonso.
At the top, after starting and pinning, a sequence of Red Bull, Mercedes, Red Bull and Mercedes was formed, which promised to be tactically exciting, as the bulls started on soft and the stars started in the medium mixes.
In addition, the differences remained “negligible”: in the tenth lap of the race, Verstappen was two and a half seconds ahead of Hamilton, Perez by three and Russell by five and a half.
The situation did not change significantly in the next 10 laps either, although Verstappen, even if only minimally, was able to increase his advantage over Hamilton (on lap 20 it was two and a half seconds), who was thus far from the competition. “DRS distance”, thus intelligently protecting the first place.
While the top four contenders were within close range, the Ferrari duo were far from their hopes on the podium: the deficit between Sainz and Leclerc increased to more than ten seconds compared to Russell’s.
Pérez opened a series of stops from the front, the left rear of which was replaced much slower than usual, and this gave Russell ample opportunity to overtake. Soon, his teammate stopped too (the change was fine with him), so Hamilton and Russell were in front, and the Mercedes drivers were able to extend the first stage longer than average.
Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez (Photo: XPB)Hamilton started four laps after Verstappen, and during his changeover he took some tough hits (Verstappen and Pérez switched to intermediaries). Teammate Russell extended his first stage by another four laps, and his car was also fitted with white side tyres. Although Perez’s stop was slower, his British rival was unable to overtake it after changing it. So even after the stops it stayed at Verstappen, Hamilton, Pérez and Russell.
However, the differences had increased by this time (in the middle of the race): Verstappen was seven seconds ahead of Hamilton, just like Perez ahead of Russell. Just a second and a half was between Hamilton and Perez.
So Red Bull imposed a much better cadence after stopping on medium tires than Mercedes on hard tires, but from a strategic point of view the game was still interesting, as the soft tires wore out faster – and Mercedes also trusted this when inventing it. Tactics!
However, despite the windings (at least from Mercedes’ point of view), the differences remained unchanged. As for the chasers, the top four are still followed by the duo of Sainz and Leclerc, from a certain distance, followed by Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Bottas and Lando Norris in the top ten.
Photo: XPBDaniel Ricciardo, who extended his first lap longer than all his rivals and then switched to light play, also tried to get into the points zone, but on the 52nd lap he hit Juki Konuda while trying to overtake, and he took a second 10 penalty – so the effort was nullified Then, the Australian was far from scoring.
However, his pace was so convincing that after Konuda, he chased after Norris, Bottas, then Alonso (the Spaniard slowed spectacularly and then stalled due to an engine failure) and Akon, thus climbing to seventh. However, due to his penalty, he had to fall behind in the last laps if he wanted to stay in the top ten.
In the end, the Australian also solved this task, so he managed to hold the seventh place! In the meantime, there was no change in the lead, the standings at the finish line were Verstappen, Hamilton, Pérez and Russell, and with his new victory, the Dutchman once again set a record: no one can celebrate more than his victories in another year!
Sainz and Leclerc finished fifth and sixth respectively, while Ocon, Norris and Bottas also scored points, ending their poor streak since the weekend in Canada and finishing in the top 10 for the first time in several months.
Final result of the Mexican Grand Prix:
