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Verstappen dominates Mexican GP and opens significant Championship lead
Max Verstappen has won the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix and gives himself a significant 19 point lead over Lewis Hamilton in the World Championship going into the final four rounds of the season. Starting from third, Verstappen managed to get ahead of both Mercedes drivers at turn one to ensure their shock only lasted one day in Mexico. A quality drive from the home favourite gave Red Bull driver a chance for P2 but Hamilton was able to hold on to stop the damage growing.
For the duration of the turbo-hybrid era, Formula 1 fans have witnessed Hamilton winning the first corner battle and driving off into the sunset to take the chequered flag in pole position. But in Mexico 2021, his rival for the title Verstappen took over that character role in the story and opened a significant Championship advantage with just four races remaining in the season.
On paper and historically, the circuit has favoured Red Bull Racing due to the high altitude and track layout. Mercedes created a shockwave on Saturday with a front-row lockout, but it's Verstappen who takes home the bulk of the points. In a season that is sure to feature as a stand-alone chapter in Formula 1's history book, Verstappen is moving towards the title at a rate of knots with that dominant performance.
Just four races remain in 2021. Two tracks are brand new to the schedule, whilst the final race in Abu Dhabi features some layout changes. The Brazilian track should favour the Red Bull cars whilst the last three circuits lean slightly towards the Mercedes car. However, the season has demonstrated the RB16B can adapt to many different circuit types. Momentum is firmly in the hands of Christian Horner's team and another strong performance in next weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix could leave Hamilton needing a snooker in Qatar and Saudi Arabia to even get a shot at the title in Abu Dhabi.
Mercedes failed to draw up a successful plan at the first corner and Verstappen took the lead from third-place on the grid. With Bottas out of the equation following a first corner spin, Red Bull Racing were able to play strategic games with two cars going against one. The home favourite played a lead role in the event and almost managed to hunt down the seven-time World Champion with lunge in the final lap.
In the battle for third place in the constructors, McLaren lost major ground to Ferrari. Despite a little argument over the radio and a position swap, the Italian team stayed in P5 and P6 whilst only Lando Norris managed to pick up a single point. Pierre Gasly bounced back with a strong race and finished fourth. World Champions Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso also finished inside the top 10.
RACE CLASSIFICATION
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 7, 2021
It's another solid performance for Verstappen #MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/hHdXt9pILm
How it happened
The entire top 16 started on medium tyres. Only Yuki Tsunoda (17th) and Esteban Ocon (19th) used the soft tyre off the line. All eyes were on the front four cars at the start. Bottas led a Mercedes front-row lockout, with the two Red Bull cars behind. Verstappen used the slipstream and then went around the outside to overtake the two Mercedes drivers. Bottas got touched by Daniel Ricciardo and spun around meaning Hamilton was left to fight Red Bull alone. Tsunoda had some more contact and had to retire along with Mick Schumacher. Mercedes put the hard tyre on Bottas and hoped to run to the end.
The safety car ended on lap four. Verstappen weaved down the straight to break Hamilton's tow and the order at the front remained unchanged. By lap ten, Verstappen recorded consecutive purple lap times and opened up a 3.3-second gap to Hamilton who demonstrated amazement at the pace of his rival on the team radio.
With tyre talk dominating radio chat, Hamilton started to drop off Verstappen as third-placed Perez started to gain. By lap 25, Verstappen's lead grew to 8.5 seconds and it already seemed like Hamilton was racing against the home favourite.
In the pits
When the gap opened up to ten seconds, Hamilton came in for a set of hard tyres. The Mercedes crew had a quick stop, but the Brit got stuck behind Charles Leclerc. The man from Monaco pitted on the subsequent lap but much of the damage was done. On the next lap, Hamilton went purple and became the first driver into the 1:19's.
On lap 33, it was Verstappen's turn to make the pit stop. A sweet stop from the Red Bull crew meant that Hamilton kept his eight-second deficit. Meanwhile, Perez completed a lap in the lead of his home Grand Prix. Bottas finally made it past Ricciardo on lap 40 after McLaren opted to pit their driver. Whilst Bottas thought his woes were over, Mercedes had a poor pitstop with their Finnish driver and he dropped back further. Race leader Perez pitted on lap 41 for hard tyres. He dropped to third and the order at the front stayed the same thereafter.
In clear air, Perez started to close the gap significantly on Hamilton in P2, but he couldn't make the overtake.