F1 Mexico GP: Verstappen secures record-breaking victory
30th October 2022Red Bull’s Max Verstappen broke the record for most wins in a season with his 14th victory of the year, at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Tyre compounds were mixed throughout the grid, ahead of the Mexico GP, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen opted a soft-tyre start while the two Mercedes started on the medium compounds.
It was expected to be a two-stop strategy by the tyre manufacturer, Pirelli, but the it was suspected the teams would look into a one-stop.
As the lights went out, Verstappen got a better start compared to Mercedes’ George Russell who started in second. As the pack funnelled down the main straight, into turn one, the Dutchman managed to enter the opening corners unchallenged.
However, the two Mercedes battled for track position in the first chicane with Lewis Hamilton winning the fight over Russell. As the #63 ran wide, on the exit of turn three, Hamilton managed to slip by but Russell found himself in a fight against Red Bull’s Mexican driver, Sergio Perez, he soon lost another position to the #11 Red Bull.
After the opening lap, the top three stood as; Verstappen, Hamilton and Perez.
The race remained very well behaved as the top four remained unchanged by lap 10 with Verstappen out in front ahead of; Hamilton, Perez and Russell who was in P2, P3 and P4 respectively. However, the seven-time world champion remained fairly close to the leading Red Bull.
Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly attempted to make a move on Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, into turn four on lap 14, but the Frenchman locked up into the corner and forced himself and Stroll off the track. Despite an excursion off the track, the French Alpha Tauri driver kept the track position ahead of the Aston.
Gasly was soon issued with a five-second time penalty for forcing another driver of the track, on lap 18. At the same time, Stroll became the first driver to pit from the race and swapped his used medium tyres for a set of the soft compounds.
On lap 23, Perez became the first driver out of the top four to pit from the race and swapped his used soft tyres for a fresh set of Mediums. The Mexican driver suffered a poor stop with 5.0 seconds stationary in the pit box, the left-rear tyre struggled to come off. Nevertheless, Perez only lost track position to the two Ferrari’s as he filtered back onto the circuit in P6.
Two laps later, Verstappen peeled into the pit lane for his stop for the same change of tyres as his teammate, before him. Fortunately, the Dutchman had a much better stop as Verstappen was sat in his box for 2.5 seconds. This allowed the two Mercedes to obtain a 1-2 position with Hamilton in front, ahead of Russell.
At the end of lap 29, Mercedes finally called Hamilton in to pit from the race and swapped his worn medium compound tyres for a set of the white-walled hard compound tyres. This allowed Russell and Verstappen to inherit the race lead and P2, respectively, as Hamilton filtered back onto the circuit in P3, ahead of Perez who remained in fourth place.
Both Ferrari’s peeled into the pit lane to complete their mandatory stops, A lap before (for Charles Leclerc) and on the same lap as Hamilton (For Carlos Sainz), with both drivers discarding their soft tyres for the mediums.
Of the top four drivers, Russell finally pitted on lap 35 to swap his worn mediums for the hard tyres as the hard tyre looked to be a good racing tyre for the drivers.
It was reported that Russell was ordered to lift and coast at 150m board for the rest of the race, as the session crossed over its halfway mark.
By lap 50, the top three remained unchanged with Verstappen in the lead of the race with 24 lap-old tyres, ahead of Hamilton (on 20 lap-old hard compounds) and Perez on 26 lap-old Mediums.
However, tensions started to rise on lap 54 as McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo locked his front-left tyre with Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda’s rear-right, in the middle of turn five. The contact launched Tsunoda up into the air and into the run-off area. When the Japanese driver crashed back down, the Alpha Tauri driver was able to continue on but he soon retired in the pit lane.
In the wake of the incident, Ricciardo was given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Tsuonda.
On lap 65, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso became the race’s second retirement as the Spaniard’s power unit let go on him. As a result, the Virtual Safety Car was brought out to allow the track marshals to remove Alonso’s stranded car. The VSC was soon neutralised, and the session went back to green-flag conditions on lap 66.
Podium:
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
- Sergio Perez, Red Bull
That’s it for the article; F1 Mexico GP: Verstappen secures record-breaking victory! With two races left, do you think Verstappen will secure both by the end of the season? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula 1 here:
- F1 Mexican GP: Mercedes top FP3 ahead of qualifying
- F1 Mexican GP: Russell tops FP2 as Leclerc crashes
- F1 Mexico GP: Sainz tops first practice session amongst red flag stops
- FIA punish Red Bull for 2021 Cost Cap
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
