Lando Norris convincingly won the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday night and became the leader of the Formula 1 world championship for the first time this season, ahead of his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastre by one point. Norris dominated the race, winning by more than half a minute over Charles LeClair, with Max Verstappen third.
Norris got off to a good start, but behind him was a fierce battle between LeClair and Lewis Hamilton. At this moment, Verstappen, who started from fifth place, also joined, who was the only one of the leaders to choose medium-hard tires. The Dutchman went off the track cutting the corner through the grass, Leclair also cut the corner and gave the position back to Norris.
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In the sixth lap, Verstappen aggressively overtook Hamilton in turn 1, but as a result he drove off the track himself. Hamilton made a mistake and went wide at Turn 4, while Verstappen was overtaken by Haas debutant Oliver Behrmann, who had made an excellent start from ninth. At the same time, Russell lost several places and fell back to seventh behind team-mate Kimi Antonelli, while Piastri briefly lost ground to Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, only to regain it later.
Hamilton shortened the track, resulting in a 10-second penalty for exiting and taking advantage of the situation. The “Ferrari” pilot suffered it on the first visit to the pits around lap 24 and fell to the back of the group. At the front, Norris pulled away convincingly from LeClair, who held on to second until the very end, despite pressure from his followers. Verstappen dropped lower in his alternative strategy after the pit stop, but later recovered.
Behrmann had incredibly finished third, defending against Antonelli, Russell and Piastri. Russell was frustrated at having to spare his tires while driving between his team-mate and the fast-approaching Piastri, but was later allowed to switch places with Antonelli to attack Behrmann. Meanwhile, Piastri opted for a two-tire change strategy and returned to the track with new soft tyres. This tactic was also followed by Berman and the two Mercedes drivers, and Piastri was able to overtake Antonelli with an earlier pit stop and move up to sixth place.
This benefited Verstappen, who stayed on the track longer and was third again after the pit stops of his rivals. Despite being on older soft tyres, the Dutchman maintained a 14-second lead over Behrmann and later set up a chase for LeClair. With two laps to go, Verstappen was almost there for him, but the virtual safety car, which was announced due to the stoppage of Williams driver Carlos Sainz, made it possible to maintain such results until the very end.
Norris finished as a convincing winner – his sixth win of the season – and took the overall lead. LeClair finished second, Verstappen third, and Behrmann achieved a career-best fourth place for Haas. Piastri finished fifth, passing Russell on lap 60 with a beautiful turn 1 maneuver. The Mercedes team then switched positions back, allowing Antonelli to finish sixth.
Three drivers retired from the race – Fernando Alonso continued his unsuccessful season with brake problems, Laam Lawson retired after a collision on the first lap, and Nico Hilkenberg had a technical problem with the power supply.
After this stage, Norris has taken the lead in the overall standings with a one-point advantage over Piastre, but Verstappen is now 36 points behind the leader.
Mexico GP results:
Overall rating:
