Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz announced his fourth career victory in the Mexican Grand Prix F1 Championship. Carlos Sainz took the pole role for the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix with a sensational lap.
The Spaniard reclaimed his first place after losing it into the open corner and never acknowledged it thereafter.
Sainz formed an unassailable lead that soaked up the energy of any threat from Norris in the closing stages once the McLaren driver cleared Charles Leclerc.
The Spanish Ferrari driver was 0.225s quicker than Max Verstappen after the Red Bull driver’s first lap was erased for track limits. The Dutchman’s title rival Lando Noris was in the third position and the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was in the fourth.
The Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russel finished holding the fifth and sixth positions respectively. Kevin Magnussen finished with the seventh position for Haas and Pierre Gasly held the eighth position.
Alex Albon finished in ninth place and Nico Hulkenberg finished in tenth place.
Sainz continued to hold the lead through the pitstop phases. Despite occasional attempts from Leclerc to lose the ever-growing lead, Sainz returned the favour to continue his break-building efforts out in front.
Sainz had lost the lead to Verstappen off the track because the Red Bull driver arrived at turn 1 first. It forced the Ferrari driver to take to the grass with his preservation of the racing line.
However, following a first-corner clash between Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda, the racing action was soon nullified. Albon was pinched between Pierre Gasly and Tsunoda, and the two former ended up coalescing in the braking zone for Turn 1.
Tsunoda finished by going straight into the wall, while Albon was pulled over to end up with front-left tyre damage.
On the restart, Sainz finished two laps and sat in Verstappen’s wheel track before gathering enough speed to mount an overtake into Turn 1. Then he covered up an effective switchback into the following corners.
Like at Austin, Norris had laid declare to the position. However, then, Verstappen lunged down the inner at Turn 7 and took off each driver as soon as possible.
Both incidents ended in 10-second penalties consequences for Verstappen. It sent him further down the order and he became out of the lead fight.