Mexican GP: Max Verstappen extends championship lead after win, Lewis Hamilton comes second

The pole position of Valtteri Bottas was short-lived, as Max Verstappen swept around the outside of the two Mercedes into the first corner on the first lap.

Max Verstappen after winning the Mexican GP on Sunday. (Image: Twitter/Max Verstappen)
By Nilavro Ghosh | Nov 9, 2021 | 2 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won his third career Mexico City Grand Prix, ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, who became the first Mexican driver to finish on the podium at home. The shock pole position of Valtteri Bottas was short-lived, as Verstappen swept around the outside of the two Mercedes into the first corner on the first lap. Bottas was then tipped into a spin into Turn 2 by McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, leaving Verstappen leading Hamilton and Perez behind the Safety Car, which was then called back for a Lap 5 race restart, as Bottas dropped to the back of the field.

Verstappen’s pace on the medium tyres, which everyone except Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon started on, was faster than Hamilton’s in the first stint. With the Briton losing time to the Dutchman and his teammate Perez, he pitted on Lap 30 for hards, and Verstappen followed on Lap 34, emerging second, making Perez the first Mexican to lead his home race.

HISTORY FOR SERGIO PEREZ

Perez would come in for new hard compounds on Lap 41, nine seconds behind Hamilton, and begin to chip away at that gap, eventually closing it to one second on Lap 60 of 71. Huge cheers erupted when the crowds saw how close Perez was to Hamilton, and the Briton’s case was exacerbated when he was told to lift and coast, but Perez couldn’t make the pass and finished third – just 1.1s behind Hamilton – despite having hard tyres 11 laps newer than the Mercedes driver’s.

Bottas was stopped on Lap 66 due to soft tyres, unlapped himself on Lap 68, but was unable to take the fastest lap away from Verstappen. With a lap to go, he pitted again for a fresh set of softs and snatched the fastest lap from the Red Bull championship leader, finishing 15th overall.

IMPRESSIVE RACE FOR GASLY

Pierre Gasly qualified fifth but finished fourth after Bottas’ spin, and Carlos Sainz finished sixth behind Charles Leclerc (P5) in the race, the Spaniard losing out to his Ferrari teammate at the start. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel finished seventh, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen in eighth. Fernando Alonso finished ninth for Alpine after starting 12th but was hampered by a slow pit stop on Lap 40. Lando Norris moved up to 10th from 18th, with the McLaren driver reaching P7 by Lap 45, when he pitted from mediums to hards.

However, Norris’ teammate Ricciardo could only finish 12th after a Lap 1 collision ruined his chances of scoring points from P7 on the grid, promoting Leclerc, Vettel, and Raikkonen a place each.

The excitement for the 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix reached fever pitch well before the race, with grandstands packed to the rafters with thousands of fans ready to watch a front-row of Mercedes – Valtteri Bottas on pole and Lewis Hamilton on P2 – fend off the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez behind.





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