SUPER MAX WINNER OF MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen extended his Championship lead over Lewis Hamilton to 19 points with a controlled drive to victory ahead of the Mercedes AMG driver at the Mexico City Grand Prix as Sergio Pérez claimed third place to become the first Mexican driver to stand on the podium at his home race.

The action continues next weekend with the Brazilian Grand Prix.

When the lights went out Verstappen got a good start from third place on the grid and on the long run to Turn 1 he got a powerful tow from Bottas. He drew alongside the Finn and as they went into the first corner he braked later and take outside line of first corner, to take the lead.

Valtteri Bottas braked to early and spun off midway through the corner after the Finnish polesitter was touched by McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo. That allowed Pérez to take third place, through the Mexican had to take evasive action when Bottas spun.

Further back AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Haas’ Mick Schumacher were involved in a collision and with the cars stranded at the side of the track the safety car was deployed.

When racing resumed four laps later, Verstappen comfortably held his advantage as the safety car left the track and he quickly settled into his first stint.

And by lap 19 the Dutch driver had pulled out an almost seven-second gap to Hamilton. Pérez stuck close to the Mercedes driver, maintaining a two-second deficit as the race edged into the pit window for a one-stop race.

At the end of a long first stint, Hamilton was the first to blink and he headed towards the pity lane at the end of lap 29. He took on hard tyres in a 2.4s stop and rejoined in P5 behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

The Monegasque driver made his visit to the pit lane on the next lap and then Gasly pitted from third place. That freed Hamilton and he began setting purple laps. On lap 32 he was 17 seconds behind second-placed Pérez.

Verstappen then made his sole pit stop at the end of 33, taking on hard tyres. That promoted Pérez into the lead of his home grand prix and when Verstappen rejoined in second place he was 7.5s clear of Hamilton in third.

Pérez extended his stint to end of lap 40 and after switching to hard tyres he rejoined in third place, 9.9s behind Hamilton, but with tyres that were 11 laps newer. The Mexican quickly began to reduce the deficit and by lap 50 he was six seconds adrift of the Briton.

At the front, Verstappen was racing comfortably towards the flag and on lap 53 he set the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1:18.999. That opened the gap to Hamilton to 13 seconds and the Dutchman then began to manage his pace as he marched to his 19th career win and his third in Mexico City overall.

Behind him, Pérez was still clawing back the gap to Hamilton and by lap 56 the Mexican was 2.8s behind the Mercedes driver. Over the course of the next 10 laps he gradually reeled in the Mercedes but despite a speculative look to the outside of the Mercedes in Turn 4 on the final lap, he couldn’t find a way past and Hamilton took second place ahead of the Red Bull driver who became the first Mexican to score a podium finish at his home race.

Behind Pérez, fourth place went to AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and the Frenchman’s 12 points put the Italian squad level with Alpine on 106 points in the battle for fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Ferrari took fifth and sixth places with Leclerc ahead of Sainz Jr., while Sebastian Vettel took seventh place fort Aston Martin. Kimi Räikkonen scored four valuable points for Alfa Romeo with eighth place, ninth place went to Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and the final point on offer went to McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Verstappen’s win means he now has a 19-point lead over Hamilton with four races remaining. The double podium finish means Red Bull Racing are now just a single point behind Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship.

MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX 71 laps, 304.356km., Weather: Sunny.
CLASSIFIED:
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME/GAP
1.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1h38:39.086
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	+ 16.555
3.	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	+ 17.752
4.	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	+ 1:03.845
5.	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 1:21.037
6.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	+ 1 lap
7.	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	+ 1 lap
8.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo	+ 1 lap
9.	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	+ 1 lap
10.	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 1 lap
11.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	+ 1 lap
12.	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	+ 1 lap
13.	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 1 lap
14.	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1 lap
15.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	+ 2 laps
16.	George Russell	Williams	+ 2 laps
17.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	+ 2 laps
18.	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	+ 3 laps
FASTEST LAP: VALTTERI BOTTAS - 1:17.774
NOT CLASSIFIED:
19.	Mick Schumacher	Haas	collision
20.	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	collision
HYBRID ERA - HERMANOS RODRIGUES 2015 Nico Rosberg - Mercedes AMG - 1h42:35.038 2016 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h40:31.402 2017 Max Verstappen - Red Bull - 1h36:26.550 2018 Max Verstappen - Red Bull - 1h38:28.851 2019 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h36:48.904 2021 Max Verstappen - Red Bull - 1h38:39.086 @МкФормула1 - Република Македонија @MkFormula1 - Republic of Macedonia

CLASSIFICATION AFTER 18/22 RACES
DRIVERS:
1.	Max Verstappen	312.5
2.	Lewis Hamilton	293.5
3.	Valtteri Bottas	185
4.	Sergio Pérez	165
5.	Lando Norris	150
6.	Charles Leclerc	138
7.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	130.5
8.	Daniel Ricciardo	105
9.	Pierre Gasly	86
10.	Fernando Alonso	60
11.	Esteban Ocon	46
12.	Sebastian Vettel	42
13.	Lance Stroll	26
14.	Yuki Tsunoda	20
15.	George Russell	16
16.	Kimi Räikkönen	10
17.	Nicholas Latifi	7
18.	Antonio Giovinazzi	1
19.	Mick Schumacher	0
20.	Robert Kubica	0
21.	Nikita Mazepin	0
CONSTRUCTORS:
1.	Mercedes AMG	478.5
2.	Red Bull	477.5
3.	Ferrari	268.5
4.	McLaren	255
5.	Alpine	106
6.	AlphaTauri	106
7.	Aston Martin	68
8.	Williams	23
9.	Alfa Romeo	11
10.	Haas	0