Race winner Max Verstappen's version of the Mexican wave on the podium as Lewis Hamilton drinks and Charles Leclerc looks on. Photo / Don Kennedy
From the moment the Formula One cars came out on to the Autodromo Hermannos Rodriquez circuit for the first practice of the Mexican GP, the chant of “Checo, Checo” began, and wouldn’t let up for three days.
But when the Mexican driver - officially Sergio Perez, who is the Red Bull teammate to world champion Max Verstappen - crashed out at the first corner at the start of the race, the chanting obviously stopped, replaced by cries of anguish.
Starting from fourth on the grid, Perez had tried to go around the outside of pole-sitter Charles Leclerc, who was in the process of being overtaken by Verstappen. Three into one doesn’t go. Perez’s car made contact with Leclerc’s Ferrari, and his car went up into the air, spinning off the track. Perez re-entered and tried to continue but only got as far as the pit lane, forced to retire with considerable damage to the car. He thumped the steering wheel in frustration, while the race continued, with Verstappen pulling away from Leclerc, who was being chased by Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes.
The race then became processional, until Kevin Magnussen had a massive shunt, when something broke on his Haas car, and he thumped into the barrier.
Magnussen was shaken and stirred, but able to get out of the car and catch his breath, while the race was red-flagged as marshals cleared up the track.
On the restart, Verstappen was off out front again, while behind him Hamilton, to the delight of the race-day crowd well in excess of 100,000, got past Leclerc, who they clearly perceived was the villain for taking out the local hero. But Hamilton couldn’t get close to Verstappen. And that is how they finished, with Carlos Sainz fourth in the second Ferrari, and Lando Norris, who had started from 17th on the grid, fifth, earning him the fan vote for driver of the day, just as he was in Austin, Texas.
“A great day for us, probably one of our best Sundays in terms of race pace, overtaking and race management,” Norris said.
The podium is situated in the arena section of the track and, as Leclerc was being interviewed by former world champion Jenson Button, he was loudly booed by the pro-Perez crowd.
“A lot of booing, a lot of booing, guys,” Leclerc pleaded. “I mean, honestly, I had nowhere to go. I was in between the two Red Bulls and unfortunately, I touched Checo, but I had nowhere to go.
“It’s life, it damaged my car and unfortunately it ended the race for Checo like that, but I really didn’t do it on purpose and I had nowhere to go,” he added, sounding a bit like a stuck record.
The race stewards determined it was a racing incident, so there was no penalty for Leclerc, but it is not very often you hear a Ferrari driver booed anywhere in the world.
In his very early post-race interview, Perez accepted he had taken a risk going around the outside and paid a “high price”, also agreeing with the stewards about the accident.
“To be honest, I really feel it was a racing incident. The gap was there and obviously, as a driver you take a risk, going three cars into turn one with these wide cars.”
“I took a risk. I paid a high price for it, but I was also honestly not expecting Charles to brake that late, as he was in the middle so he had a bit less room for manoeuvring. I was ahead of him. I thought he was going to bail out a bit more, but obviously, in those decisions, everything happens really late and, yeah, it just happened everything a little bit too late and unfortunately, I had a lot of damage on my car.”
The cost for Perez is that with three races remaining, Hamilton, after his second-place finish, is now only 20 points behind Perez in the battle for second place in the drivers’ championship.
No such problems for the record-breaking race winner Verstappen, of course. This was win number 16 for the season, breaking his own record set last year for most wins in a season, which was 15. It was also his 51st Grand Prix victory, equaling the total of Alain Prost, who retired from Formula One in 1993 as a four-time world champion. Before turning to address the records he was setting, he spoke about the first corner incident involving his teammate.
“It’s not the first time that I’ve been two-wide, or three-wide into turn one here,” he explained. “But also we all trust each other and, of course, you are all on the limit braking into the corner but it was all fine I think. Then I saw on my outside something happened, but luckily on the inside we could stay out of trouble.”
Verstappen then reflected on yet another relatively easy victory, number 16, with those wins defining his season.
“It’s been another incredible season. The car’s been unbelievable to drive in most places. When you work then, as a team, work really well together you try not to make too many mistakes over the whole season, then you can achieve something like that.”
“Of course I’m very proud of the achievement because I think last year when I won 15 I was like, well if I can ever try to replicate something like that I would be happy. Now here we are with 16, so just very happy with everyone’s performance in the team for the whole year, basically not making a lot of mistakes.”
Given Verstappen is only 26 years old, it is quite remarkable that this was his fifth victory at the Mexican GP. He first won it in 2017, repeated that in 2018, and has now won the last three.
Clearly, it is a track he likes and that suits Red Bull. But then again, just about every circuit seems to suit Verstappen’s car.
The same can’t be said about Perez. Another mistake, and another black mark against his name in the Red Bull book on who stays, and who goes. Eventually, the seeming loyalty shown to him by team boss Christian Horner will wear thin.
Do they really want to have Verstappen’s teammate riding a rollercoaster in terms of performance? This is a team that wants to build on the momentum shift it gained when, fortuitously or not, Verstappen snatched the 2021 driver’s championship from Hamilton, and that has since won 31 of 42 races held since Abu Dhabi 2021.
Horner, though, insists Perez couldn’t be blamed for having a go.
“You can’t blame him for going for it to try and take the lead at his home race, but ultimately three does not go into one and it was a crushing blow to see him out,” Horner said.
Red Bull adviser Helmet Marko won’t want to have to keep on defending Perez from the critics against the winning Red Bull machine in the hands of Verstappen. With Mercedes closing the race performance gap, albeit still a long way behind, and Hamilton beginning to make coming second a regular habit (although he was disqualified in Austin), Red Bull do not want to show any signs of weakness. Currently, Perez is the weak link.
Ferrari are fast over one lap. Leclerc took his 23rd pole position for this race, and Sainz was second-quickest. Maybe the damage from his collision with Perez slowed Leclerc down, but he was unable to hold out Hamilton, yet George Russell couldn’t get close enough to overtake Sainz and eventually Norris got the better of him.
At the other end of the field were Alfa Romeo and Aston Martin. Ironically, Valtteri Bottas got a time penalty for putting Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll out of the race. Fernando Alonso had by that stage already retired the other Aston Martin, apparently due to damage picked up in the first-corner incident that put Perez out. Alonso has had seven podiums this season.
Now he has a car that is at the rear of the field and you can guarantee privately he will be fuming at team management. The car has gone backwards since mid-season. In addition to Norris storming through the field, the other star of the race was Daniel Ricciardo, who qualified the Alpha Tauri in fourth place and raced in that position for much of the race but was undone by the race being red-flagged.
“There’s a lot of emotions and I’m definitely feeling better than good,” Ricciardo said.
“To be fighting with a Mercedes [Russell] at the end is exciting.”
The next stop for Formula One is the Brazilian GP at Interlagos. Despite Verstappen’s imperious form, Hamilton and maybe Norris will fancy their chances of winning, as Russell did for Mercedes last year. But don’t bet against Verstappen wanting to continue on his winning way. It’s almost as though he doesn’t know how to lose.