Carlos Sainz wins the Mexican Grand Prix after leading the majority of the grand prix, with Norris second and Verstappen with a disastrous race in sixth.
The start saw Sainz get a decent start, but Verstappen get a better one to pull alongside into turn 1. Sainz was forced wide, and had to cut the chicane to stay safe, though would have to relinquish first so as not to receive a penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Further behind, and Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda would collide with one another into turn 1, which resulted in both retiring from the race and bringing out a lengthy safety car.
During the safety car period, the stewards investigated Sergio Perez, who had dramatically overshot his grid slot at the start of the race, handing him a five second penalty as a result, beginning what would be a horrific day for both him and the team as a whole.
When the safety car came back in, Verstappen got away very well, though Sainz was able to stick by his former Torro Rosso teammate, not allowing him to break out of DRS range. The Ferrari driver would overtake Verstappen for the lead on lap 9, with the reigning world champion having nothing in the way of a response.
Verstappen was looking vulnerable, and just a lap later Norris would attempt to take second place away from him. The McLaren driver was first pushed off the track at turn 4, though stayed ahead. Verstappen would then go on to force both himself and Norris wide again just a couple of laps later to re-overtake Norris, their squabbling allowing Leclerc to squeeze through and take second for himself. Verstappen would receive a 10 second penalty for each of these incidents.
George Russell would overtake Lewis Hamilton on lap 15, starting what would end up becoming a race long battle between the two Mercedes drivers.
Just a lap later, and Fernando Alonso would be made to retire his car on what was his 400th grand prix weekend.
The early portion of the race continued to be explosive, as Perez got his shoulders out during a battle with RB driver Liam Lawson. The Mexican driver would attempt to make a move down the inside of turn 4, and having gone deep into the corner and without anywhere for Lawson to go, the two would make contact. Whilst Lawson came off relatively unscathed, Perez would get some sidepod damage that he would have to deal with for the rest of the race, taking away any hope he had of salvaging a result at his home grand prix.
Whilst Norris had initially began to fall back behind Verstappen, he began catching once more towards the end of their stints, though before the two could battle once again, Verstappen was called into the pits to make his only stop of the race and serve his 20 second penalty on lap 27. He would initially drop down to 15th, though once more drivers pitted he rose back through the ranks rather quickly.
The race began to settle down in the middle portion, as gaps emerged and those further back on alternate strategies had to be navigated by those put onto newer tyres, such as Russell having to make his way past Lawson and Piastri to get up into 4th place.
Verstappen was surging through the field, looking almost as though the 20 second penalty would barely affect him. Although, once he got into 6th, his pace slowed due to how hard his car runs through its tyres. With the two Mercedes cars ahead, he began to slow, and eventually his gap to Hamilton began to grow, and the gap to Magnussen behind stabilised.
Piastri was left out on his medium tyres much longer than anybody else in the field, with McLaren likely wanting him to make use of the clearer air he would have from such an undercut. When he eventually pit on lap 40 alongside Lawson, he would re-emerge in 13th place, with some more work to do to climb into a decent points position.
Liam Lawson would pass Sergio Perez on lap 42 to put the home town driver into last place, trying to make a statement as to why he should be placed alongside Verstappen for next season at Red Bull.
The final third of the race would see the two Mercedes drivers duke it out for fourth place, with Hamilton in the upgraded car following Russell, who had a compromised front wing on an older spec car. Hamilton would consistently stay close to Russell, but failed to have the straight line speed to overtake.
It also saw Lando Norris chip away at the advantage that Leclerc had over him. Norris would consistently take a few tenths out of the Ferrari each lap, with the McLaren having shown for much of the season how good it is on its tyres.
Norris would get within DRS range of Leclerc on lap 62, and it wouldn’t take long for him to pass Leclerc, as the Monegasque had a snap of oversteer at the final corner that very nearly ended his race, though some excellent car control kept him in contention, though now in third place. Whilst Norris would gain on Sainz, the gap was too big to overcome with such a small amount of laps left in the race.
Hamilton would finally get the better of Russell on lap 66, winning out on the teammate battle with just a handful of laps left.
Lawson would be involved in another scrap late on in the race, with he and Colapinto making contact through turn 2. This time, Lawson would come off worse, breaking a part of his front wing and necessitating an unscheduled pit stop.
There was a few drivers hoping to bag the soon to be scrapped bonus point for fastest lap, with Lawson having pit so late, Leclerc having enough of a gap behind and no chance of re-overtaking Norris, and Perez having nothing left to lose. Ultimately it would be Leclerc who would win out in this exchange.
Sainz’s win is the fourth of his career, and alongside Leclerc’s third place finish, it was enough to put Ferrari up to second in the constructor’s championship ahead of Red Bull, now just 29 points behind McLaren with four races to go.
Norris’s second place finish along with Verstappen’s sixth means the gap between them in the driver’s standings is now 47 points, meaning that Norris would need to average a gain of 12 points per race until the end of the season to beat Verstappen.
The next race takes place next week as Interlagos hosts the Sao Paulo Grand Prix for round 21 of the season, with it also being the penultimate sprint weekend of the season.
