The race of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez ended at the first corner. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was left out of the points.
Red Bull Max Verstappen rode with a guaranteed performance to victory in the Mexican GP the night before Monday Finnish time.
Second drove a Mercedes Lewis Hamilton before Ferrari Charles Leclerc. Neither of them had any seams in the winning battle.
From the ninth frame Valtteri Bottas and his stable mate Guanyu Zhou was expected to fight for points, but the speed of Alfa Romeo, which showed a more positive mood during the weekend, was not enough in the race.
Bottas was 13th in the final moments of the race, but he was unable to overtake his rivals. The competition was ruined once and for all when Lance Stroll steered ambitiously to the inside of the corner and hit Bottas.
– He came unexpectedly into turn 13 from relatively far away. There was simply no room for two cars at the next bend. I was on the inside and he still turned the corner inside. There wasn’t much I could do about it, Bottas summarized for Viaplay.
After the hit, Bottas was 14th and Zhou 15th.
Bottas’ race went off the rails right at the start, where he dropped three places. After that, the Finn stayed on the track for a long time and went to the pit only a couple of laps before by Kevin Magnussen drive out.
Suspension of the competition would have practically offered a free tire change for the person from Nasto.
– Such a day today. There was no luck on the way. The first thing was that we stopped a lap before the safety car. It took quite a lot, Bottas regretted.
According to Bottas, the problems in the first start were caused by problems with the gearbox. At the restart, however, Bottas moved up three places, but the straight speed was not enough to overtake the competitors.
– The re-start was quite good, but after that it was a back-and-forth drive. Then I hit it off with Stroll. That was it then.
Perez roared at the start
The most telling situation of the race was already seen in the opening corner, when by Sergio Perez Red Bull flew to the roads. Perez drove into the first alongside Leclerc and Verstappen, and turned towards the Ferrari driver.
The Mexican’s car hit the Monaco’s tire and popped into the air. Thus, the home race of Red Bull’s second driver ended in dramatic fashion.
The Mexican crowd booed loudly when Leclerc arrived for the post-race interview.
– Lots of booing. Guys, I had no room to go anywhere. I was between the Red Bulls and unfortunately I hit “Checo”, Leclerc said and assured that he did not hit the Mexican on purpose.
Verstappen was amazed by the incredible support of the crowd, even though Perez had to stop the race in the opening lap.
– We are living through an incredible time. We started from the third grid, but the pace of the car was really, really good, Verstappen was happy.
Hamilton felt good after the race. He said that there was no need to squeeze everything out of himself in the race.
– This is a great result considering that I started from the sixth frame. I’m really proud of the team, Hamilton was happy and also referred to the difficult previous weekend.