Lewis Hamilton blown away by Max Verstappen in action-packed Mexico GP

29 October 2023 , 22:06

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Max Verstappen strolled to victory in an action-packed Mexican Grand Prix (Image: AP)

Max Verstappen won an incident-filled Mexican Grand Prix with Lewis Hamilton unable to compete with the dominant Red Bull at high altitude.

The Dutchman took the lead at the first corner, having started behind Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz on the grid. But it was not all good news for Red Bull as, much to the agony of most of those packed into the grandstands, home hero Sergio Perez crashed out after contact with Leclerc.

Kevin Magnussen was the other man to crash, suffering a suspension failure at high speed which led to the race being stopped for 20 minutes. Hamilton, on the medium tyres, swept past Leclerc shortly after the restart, but Verstappen was pulling away all the time even despite being on the hard compound.

The effectiveness of those Red Bull engines at high altitude was further underlined by the fact Daniel Ricciardo, who had qualified brilliantly the day before, was able to finish seventh in his AlphaTauri. One of the only drivers to overtake the Aussie was Lando Norris, who drove from the back of the grid to cross the line fifth in another eye-catching performance.

That Perez crash at the first corner had left Mexican hopes of a home winner in tatters and Verstappen clear to race exactly how he wanted. That included a much earlier pit stop than had been anticipated, but it soon became clear that Red Bull had got their plan spot on.

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He came out seventh on the hard tyres but made light work of passing the likes of George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Ricciardo. He didn't get the chance to pass Hamilton on track as the Brit pitted for fresh tyres of his own, having given up on trying to overtake Sainz.

The Ferraris responded to all that by... not responding. They chose to extend their medium stints and commit to the one-stop strategy in the hope that fresher tyres at the end of the race would bring them back into it.

As soon as Verstappen overtook Sainz, that was the signal for the Spaniard to pit. And when Leclerc came in that gave the Dutchman the lead once again and he had stretched the gap to 22 seconds – but that was when the red flags flew.

Magnussen suffered a mechanical failure at high-speed which caused his Haas to jerk violently off the track and smash into the barrier. Flames were then spotted on the rear of the car but marshals soon put that out with extinguishers.

Fortunately, the Dane was able to get out of the car under his own power. The race was stopped to allow for extensive repairs to be made to those barriers, before a standing restart with half the race distance still to go.

Verstappen was able to hold onto the lead into the first corner, while Leclerc also held off Hamilton in the first instance. But the Brit had the medium tyres which gave him more grip with which he was able to reel in and move past the Ferrari which was skating around on the hards.

That tyre advantage was enough for Hamilton to get the better of Leclerc, but catching Verstappen is always an entirely different prospect. To underline how difficult the task was going to be, the very next lap the Dutchman set the new fastest lap of the race – on his scrubbed hard tyres.

And he was zooming off into the distance. With Hamilton secure in second and Leclerc cruising eight seconds further back, the real intrigue in the latter stages was whether or not Norris would be able to catch and overtake his compatriot Russell.

McLaren had ordered Piastri to let his team-mate pass to give him the chance to make up more places. He duly obliged, and Norris not only flew past Ricciardo but also got the better of Russell in the end to cap off one of the best drivers of his F1 career to date.