RACE REPORT | F1 Mexico 2024

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz dominated the Mexico City Grand Prix, converting his pole position into a race victory, followed by Lando Norris and teammate Charles Leclerc.

Starting grid

No changes to the starting grid since yesterday, except for Esteban Ocon, who replaced the control electronics and energy store on his car—his third of each this season, exceeding the allowed limit of two.

As a result, he drops from 19th on the grid and will start from the pit lane, allowing Zhou Guanyu to move up from 20th to 19th.

Carlos Sainz started from pole position after delivering an impressive lap in yesterday’s quali.

He was joined on the front row by Max Verstappen, whose first lap in Q3 was deleted due to track limits.

Verstappen's performance was still better than that of Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull, who faced a disappointing Q1 exit and started from 18th.

Lando Norris began the race from third place, while his teammate Oscar Piastri, who was a hot candidate for pole position suffered a Q1 exit as well, forcing him to start from P17.

Charles Leclerc started from fourth place, while Mercedes drivers reserved the third row for themselves with George Russell starting one place higher than Lewis Hamilton.

Race

Max Verstappen had a good start and swept around Carlos Sainz into the lead of the race right after the start.

Further down the starting grid, Pierre Gasly and his former teammate Yuki Tsunoda gave a little sandwich to Alex Albon, leading to a major hit for Tsunoda. While he was unharmed, both he and Albon were unable to continue the race.

As expected, a safety car was deployed to recover both cars, while the incident was classified as a racing incident.

Sergio Perez made significant progress after the start, moving up five places. However, footage from the beginning of the race revealed that he missed his starting position, with his front tires completely outside the grid box, resulting in a five-second penalty.

The safety car returned to the pits after lap 6, followed by an impressive restart from Verstappen, who maintained his lead over Carlos Sainz and quickly pulled the Spaniard out of DRS range. 

However, motivated Sainz got his redemption on lap 9 by overtaking the Dutchman into the first corner. He then bounced over the curbs at turns 2 and 3 but successfully held onto the lead.

Lap 10 brought significant drama between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, reminiscent of last week's incident in Austin when Norris received a five-second penalty for overtaking the Dutchman off the track.

This time, however, the tables turned, leading to a total penalty of 20 seconds for Verstappen. As Norris was clearly forced off at Turns 4 and 8, leading to two separate ten-second penalties for Verstappen.

On top, while the two championship contenders were busy fighting each other, Charles Leclerc seized the opportunity and slipped past both of them.

However, race leader Carlos Sainz wasn’t really happy to have Leclerc behind reporting "Charles is taking the ****, honestly," over the radio. But, as a response, he only got that they are free to race.

Meanwhile, on lap 19, two Red Bull seat contenders, Liam Lawson and Sergio Perez, engaged in an exciting side-by-side battle on the track, which ended in contact that damaged the Mexican’s sidepod. 

Soon after, Perez was involved in another incident with Lance Stroll, pushing him off the track just as he had done to Lawson, yet he did not receive a penalty for this action.

On lap 27, Verstappen decided to come into the pits and serve his, as called by F1 graphics “outstanding”, penalty and rejoined in P16.

Charles Leclerc made his pit stop on lap 32, while Verstappen was already in ninth place and Franco Colapinto reported problems with steering.

By lap 43, several drivers expressed concerns about the increasing darkness at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez, with George Russell even mentioning that he noticed a few raindrops, although no rain ultimately fell.

As the race was coming to an end, Norris slowly closed the gap to Charles Leclerc, waiting for his chance to overtake.

That opportunity came on lap 63 when Leclerc had a big snap of oversteer at the final corner, almost hitting the wall. Leclerc reacted quickly, but Norris seized the moment and raced past him into second place.

On lap 66, the Mercedes drivers were engaged in a close battle, narrowly avoiding a collision as Hamilton slipped past Russell.

With just four laps remaining, Lawson had to pit for a new front wing after making contact with Colapinto. RB also put Lawson on a fresh set of soft tyres, enabling him to snatch the fastest lap from Norris to assist Verstappen.

However, Leclerc wanted that one extra point and pitted one lap before the end of the race to secure it for himself.

Carlos Sainz celebrated a comfortable victory in Mexico, marking the fourth win of his F1 career and his second of the season. 

McLaren's Lando Norris took advantage of an error by Leclerc on lap 63 of 71, securing second place ahead of the Monegasque driver.

Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished in fourth and fifth, respectively, while championship leader Max Verstappen had to settle for sixth.

Kevin Magnussen secured an amazing seventh place for Haas, followed by Oscar Piastri, who climbed from seventeenth place at the start to eighth after the chequered flag.

Nico Hulkenberg finished ninth, delivering more valuable points for Haas, while Pierre Gasly completed the top ten, claiming one point for Alpine.

Race results: