Carlos Sainz won the Mexican GP. Max Verstappen and Lando Norris clashed. Charles Leclerc gifted second place to Norris with his mistake.
23:45•Updated 23:55
Carlos Sainz won the fifth final race of the F1 season. The Ferrari driver was number one in Mexico before McLaren About Lando Norris and his teammate who finished third Charles Leclerc. The win was Sainz’s second of the season.
Leclerc was stuck in second place for a long time, but he fell to a gross driving error at the end of the race.
Championship fight Max Verstappen’s and Norris got closer in Mexico. World Championship leader Verstappen was only sixth.
The two clashed violently at the start of the race, when Verstappen brazenly drove Norris off the track twice and received a total of 20 seconds penalty for his actions.
Verstappen’s lead is still 47 points with four races left in the season.
Verstappen has now not won a race in the last ten races. Verstappen, who has won the last three championships, has last gone longer without a win in the 2020 season.
So Verstappen has never gone without a win so many times in his championship seasons.
The collapse of Red Bull has opened the door for Ferrari in the Manufacturers’ World Series. The team rose past Red Bull and approached McLaren as well.
Neither of the traditional teams has won the title in days. McLaren has won the manufacturers’ championship for the last time in 1998, the most successful team of all time Ferrari in 2008.
Valtteri Bottas still didn’t reach the points with his Sauber. The Finn was thirteenth.
Aston Martin’s hero Fernando Alonso completed 400 race weekends in the F1 series in Mexico. He was the first driver ever to achieve the milestone. However, the party competition ended with an interruption.
You can find the final results of the Mexican GP as a whole on page 207 of Teletext or following this link.
This is how the Mexican GP progressed
The contribution to the competition loaded by the championship struggle was again clear. Norris would need 12 more points per race than Verstappen at the end of the season, so that the Briton would be able to overtake the Dutchman’s steady pace in the table by the end of the season.
In practice, the Briton should win and Verstappen should stay off the podium.
Norris started the race from grid three, ahead of Verstappen from grid two and pole man Sainz. Leclerc, who won the previous race and started the race from the fourth grid, completed the second row.
The departure was dramatic. Sainz had a weak start and lost his position to Verstappen. Norris started even better than Verstappen, but there was no room for him to overtake in the tight opening corner.
The home crowd’s favorite by Sergio Perez the dead-end season continued. Perez, who started from the rear, had a great start, but after the warm-up lap, he had stopped at the wrong place on his starting grid. He received a five-second penalty and also later wrecked his car.
Sainz was able to get back past Verstappen in the ninth lap. The frustrated Dutchman cursed after the pass and loudly complained about battery problems to his team.
Norris was already waiting for his next turn. The Brit passed Verstappen’s outdoor season, but the hard-headed triple champion bluntly drove Norris off the track twice. Leclerc took advantage of the latter situation and passed both of them to take second place in the race.
Verstappen’s brash antics came at a cost as he was handed a 20-second penalty which he suffered during his pit stop. Before this, Norris couldn’t get past Verstappen and the Ferraris ran away in the lead.
Slowly, however, Norris edged closer to Leclerc. With eleven laps left in the race, McLaren’s star had caught up with the Monaco.
Leclerc was to lose the game seven laps before the finish. Ferrari’s No. 1 driver had to derail into the wall in the last corner just before the main straight. Norris got by without any problems.
At the same time, Ferrari’s hope for a second consecutive double victory was dashed. On the other hand, Norris, who remained without a win, still caught Verstappen by only ten points in the World Series.
Drivers’ World Championship points
There are four races left in the season.
Manufacturers’ MM points
Red Bull has won the team championship twice in a row. McLaren has been the manufacturers’ champion for the last time Mika Häkkinen in the first championship season in 1998. Ferrari’s previous championship is from 2008.