Max Verstappen Wins Mexican Grand Prix and Record 16th Victory

Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing celebrates on the podium after the F1 Grand Prix of Mexico at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on October 29, 2023 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

MEXICO CITY — With the Friday practices an afterthought and the shock front row lockout from Ferrari with Charles Leclerc on the pole Saturday behind Formula 1’s drivers and teams, all attention turned to Sunday for the Mexican Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen and his Red Bull had been the standard of the field, but the surprising challenge from Ferrari gave a little hope there could be competition for a different Grand Prix winner.

The only change the grid made after qualifying was that Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll would be starting from the pit lane following set-up changes after qualifying. Other than that, Ferrari teammates Leclerc and Carlos Sainz remained up front with the mighty Red Bull of Verstappen ready to pounce.

In the waning minutes before the cars were sent out on their formation lap, the tire blankets were removed to reveal the possible tire strategies. Most of the field had started on the Medium compound tire, while the Williams of Alex Albon and the Alpine of Esteban Ocon chose to go longer with the Hard compound tires. The McLaren of Lando Norris went with Soft compound tires to make up as many spots in the beginning as possible from starting in the rear.

After the formation lap, the cars were ready, the lights went out and the Mexican Grand Prix was underway. Taking advantage of the aero tow from the Ferrari of Leclerc, Verstappen made an impressive move to get between the front row starters and was leading into Turn 1.

Meanwhile, his teammate Sergio Perez was not so lucky. While he had a significant jump at the start and used the tow to get further to the front, he found himself going three-wide into Turn 1 with Leclerc and Verstappen on his inside. Misjudging the space, he found himself soon slightly in the air and out of his home Grand Prix, barely into the first lap.

While Verstappen started to make his signature riding off into the distance, Leclerc’s Ferrari showed a small amount of damage as the end plate of his front wing showed the other side of the contact between himself and Perez. His team kept him on his way until the piece fell off, causing a Virtual Safety Car to be deployed to remove the piece of debris on track.

Not long after, the VSC ended, Verstappen once again continued to work on building his lead. Meanwhile, the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell started working their way up the order.

Hamilton spent some time behind the surprisingly quick AlphaTauri of Daniel Ricciardo before ultimately getting around him and setting his sights on the Ferrari pair with impressive pace.

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19 Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving the (16) Ferrari SF-23 and Sergio Perez of Mexico driving the (11) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19 battle for track position into the first corner at the start of the race during the F1 Grand Prix of Mexico at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on October 29, 2023 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

AlphaTauri made a surprising call on Lap 10 to bring in Yuki Tsunoda to switch to the Hard tires, especially considering he started on the Mediums. Still, it also worked as a test for his teammate to see how those tires would do in those conditions. He lit up the time sheets and got company from Norris in his McLaren, who also switched from Soft tires to Hard tires.

While some teams like Ferrari were thinking of a one-stop strategy, the two-stop strategy window had come into play. Red Bull Racing pitted Verstappen first of the front runners on Lap 19 and switched to the Hard tires. He soon went back on track to the seventh position. Quickly, he started to work up the order, making it past Russell and the McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

After spending time trying to get by the Ferrari of Sainz and falling out of DRS range, Mercedes brought down Lewis Hamilton in an attempt to undercut the Ferrari driver. Their decision to pit Sainz was soon made as Verstappen rocketed past the Ferrari, and Sainz pitted, falling behind Hamilton, but with seven lap fresher tires.

The first pit cycle soon reached the end as Ferrari brought down Leclerc, also in a one-stop strategy, still out in front of Hamilton as Verstappen still worked on increasing his lead as drivers worked on logging laps to get to the next pit stop.

But the peace and serenity soon was broken. The Haas of Kevin Magnussen was first shown going wide out of the final corner, kicking up dust as he drove through a runoff area before, on Lap 33, he was found in the barriers of Turn 8 after something appeared to have broken in his Haas, sending him spinning hard into the barrier. Thankfully, he got out of the mangled mess of his car safely.

The wreck of the Haas unsurprisingly brought out the Safety Car to bunch up the field. However, not before Verstappen went back down pit lane to take advantage of the pit lane delta and grabbed a free pit stop. Due to the damage caused to the barrier and the Haas itself, the field was soon brought down altogether to pit lane for a 20-minute red flag.

With the damage cleared and the barrier fixed, teams now focused on the restart, which would be a standing start. With F1’s rules of teams being able to change tires and make fixes to their cars during the red flag, team strategists now contemplated if a set of Medium tires could last till the end of the Grand Prix, in 36 laps.

And while a handful stuck with their Hard tires, the rest made the gamble to switch to the Medium tires. The teams to look out for now with the tire swap then became Mercedes and McLaren, as both teams swapped over to the Medium tires for both drivers, hoping to make up spaces and have their tires last till the end.

Verstappen led the grid back around the circuit and into grid spots for the restart. When the lights went out, the race was back on. Verstappen got off the line quite well and could easily hold onto his lead over Leclerc and Hamilton, who had gotten to right on the heels of the Ferrari.

Hamilton now worked on trying to get past Leclerc and use up as much of an advantage of the tire difference as possible. While there was a stiff defense from the Ferrari, on lap 40, Hamilton made a move stick into Turn 1 and soon set his sights on Verstappen while lamenting it was a long way to go for the Medium tires. At the same time, the Ferrari pit wall told Leclerc that the tires should equalize out and return to the Hard tire preference within five laps.

Meanwhile, further down the grid. Norris, who was hoping to take advantage of his pace and the Medium tires, had fallen back from his 10th-place restart position. He had gotten off the line slowly and fell back to 14th. However, he did not want to quit. He started to make quick work back into the points and soon was right at the door of the Top 10 right behind the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg.

The other McLaren of Piastri was in a close wheel-to-wheel battle with the AlphaTauri of Tsunoda, which saw a close call going into Turn 3. Then it came to a more heartbreaking end a lap later into Turn 1 as Tsunoda misjudged his positioning and was sent spinning out, losing valuable track position.

Norris was soon to the rear of his teammate’s car and, with the help of some team orders, was let through and set off to get past his former teammate, Ricciardo. He closed the gap quickly into Turn 1 and, with some wheel-to-wheel action, made the impressive move in Turn 4 to get past Ricciardo, and Norris set off to get past the Mercedes of Russell.

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Mexico at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on October 29, 2023 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Behind them, at the edge of the points, a small DRS train was forming as Hulkenberg was trying to keep his Haas in the points in his 200th Grand Prix to prove the dividends of the new concept of the Haas design while the Alpine teammates of Ocon and Pierre Gasly were sticking close behind. Hulkenberg’s valiant defense wasn’t enough, as the Alpine pair soon passed.

While Verstappen continued to grow his lead over Hamilton, who had also started to extend his lead on Leclerc and showing no signs of the Medium tires beginning to fall off, Norris was getting closer to Russell. A radio warning from the McLaren pit wall to remind Norris to be patient around the Mercedes was heeded, and Norris soon made his way into the Top 5—an impressive recovery from starting in 17th at the start of the day.

Some track-side yellow flags were soon waved in the Stadium Section of the track after Stroll attempted to get past the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas near the end of the race for position. With the lunge in a weird position, Stroll was sent spinning, and the Aston Martin team called him in to retire the car, joining his teammate Fernando Alonso, who was also called in to retire his car not long before for a different reason.

Back out in front, Max Verstappen brought his Red Bull around the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez for the final time to win the Mexican Grand Prix, a record-setting 16th Grand Prix win in a single season, breaking his record from the year before. Lewis Hamilton brought his Mercedes home in second, having his Medium tires last to the end, and stole the Fastest Lap point on the lap, with Charles Leclerc settling for third place.

Carlos Sainz finished fourth after a quiet day, with Lando Norris’ stellar drive from the back of the grid to fifth did not go unnoticed, earning him Driver of the Day. George Russell held off a hard-charging Daniel Ricciardo for sixth. At the same time, the AlphaTauri driver completed a very competitive weekend to prove he can be worthy of the works Red Bull team’s second seat. Oscar Piastri brought home his McLaren eighth in a quiet day, while Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon rounded out the Top 10.

Pierre Gasly finished just outside the Top 10 in 11th, ahead of the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda, who could only recover to 12th. Nico Hulkenberg fell back to 13th, while the Alfa Romeos of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu couldn’t turn around a quick start of the weekend in the Grand Prix to round out the runners at the finish.

Williams retired Logan Sargeant, fresh off of his first ever F1 points a week prior in Austin, on the last lap due to an apparent fuel pump issue, joining Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, Kevin Magnussen, and Sergio Perez, who didn’t finish the Grand Prix.

Formula 1 now turns to Brazil for another Sprint Weekend at Autódromo José Carlos Pace for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Red Bull looks to continue their dominance as the battle for second place in the driver’s championship continues to heat up between Perez and Hamilton as the field hopes to close in on Verstappen and Red Bull going into 2024.