Verstappen finishes sixth after penalties
Carlos Sainz powered to an impressive fourth career win at the Mexico City Grand Prix, beating Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc to the flag as championship leader Max Verstappen finished sixth after being handed two 10-second time penalties in a bruising early phase of the race.
When the lights went out at the start, Verstappen, in P2, reacted best and on the long run to Turn 1 the Dutchman pulled clear of Sainz. Attempting to fight back, Sainz braked late but cut the corner. And when the Ferrari driver quickly gave the place back, the Red Bull driver took the lead ahead of Sainz and Norris.
Further back, though, there was contact. RB’s Yuki Tsunoda attempted to pass Alex Albon on the outside but with the Williams driver being squeezed by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, there was no room to move and Tsunoda clipped Albon’s front left. The Japanese driver was pitched into the wall and slid down into the run-off area. Albon, meanwhile, broke his front-left suspension and was forced to stop at the side of the track.
The race was swiftly neutralised, and during the handful of laps behind the Safety Car, the Stewards handed Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez a time penalty for being too far forward of his grid slot at the start. The home hero had made a good start to climb from P18 to P13, but the penalty, allied to tussles with RB’s Liam Lawson and Lance Stroll, would eventually drop the Mexican to the back of the field.
When the SC left the track at the end of lap six, Verstappen controlled the restart well to deny Sainz a tow along the main straight, but there was no resisting the Ferrari driver on the next lap. With DRS enabled, Sainz closed in and with a late lunge he caught Verstrappen by surprise and muscled his way past to take the lead.
That dropped Verstappen into the clutches of Norris and on the next lap the McLaren driver closed in and attacked. Verstappen drifted wide to defend and Norris was forced to cut the corner. The McLaren moved ahead but then held a wide line into Turn 7. Seeing the opportunity to reclaim P2, Verstappen dived down the inside but this time he went well off track.
The battle allowed the watching Leclerc to pounce and the Ferrari driver slipped through to P2. The tussle between Verstappen and Norris was placed under investigation and the Stewards handed the Red Bull driver a 10-second time penalty for forcing the McLaren off track. Verstappen’s afternoon got worse a few laps later when he was handed a second 10-second penalty for the incident in Turn 7.
At the front, on lap 25, Sainz had stretched to a 4.5s lead over Leclerc, with Verstappen a further five-seconds back in third. The Dutchman was again coming under pressure from Norris, and complaining about fading grip from his tyres, the Red Bull driver pitted on lap 27. After taking his 20-second penalty and switching to Hard tyres, Verstappen rejoined in P15, behind Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.
Trying to recover, Verstappen went on a charge and over the next 10 laps, aided by strong pace and pit stops for rivals, he clawed his way back to sixth place. But with a nine-second gap to the Mercedes cars ahead and having taken a lot of life out of his tyres on his charge through the pack, his progress then stalled.
At the front, and with the pit stops out of the way, Sainz was six seconds ahead of Leclerc with Norris five seconds further back in third. Mercedes’ George Russell and Lewis Hamilton held fourth and fifth respectively, ahead of Verstappen.
Further ahead, Norris began to eat into the gap to second-placed Leclerc and on lap 62 the Ferrari driver suffered a snap in the final corner and slid wildly wide. The McLaren driver pounced and with nine laps left claimed P2.
Sainz was firmly in control, however, and after 71 laps the Spanish driver sealed his fourth career win a little under five seconds clear of Norris with Leclerc in third place. Hamilton got past Russell in the closing stages to take fourth. With Max in sixth Haas’ Kevin Magnussen took P7 ahead of Oscar Piastri who climbed from 17th at the start to take eighth place. The final two top-10 positions went to Gasly and Hülkenberg.
2024 FIA Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix – Race
1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 71 1:40'55.800
2 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 71 1:41'00.505 4.705
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 71 1:41'30.187 34.387
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 71 1:41'40.580 44.780
5 George Russell Mercedes 71 1:41'44.336 48.536
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 71 1:41'55.358 59.558
7 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 71 1:41'59.442 1'03.642
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 71 1:42'00.728 1'04.928
9 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 70 1:40'58.520 1 lap /2.720
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 70 1:41'14.387 1 lap /18.587
11 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 70 1:41'20.872 1 lap /25.072
12 Franco Colapinto Williams/Mercedes 70 1:41'33.297 1 lap /37.497
13 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 70 1:41'35.463 1 lap /39.663
14 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari 70 1:41'38.027 1 lap /42.227
15 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari 70 1:41'57.522 1 lap /1'01.722
16 30 Liam Lawson RB/Honda RBPT 70 1:42'00.266 1 lap /1'04.466
17 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 70 1:42'09.084 1 lap /1'13.284
Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 15 25'26.239 Retirement
Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 0 - Accident
Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 0 - Accident
