The twentieth race of the 2022 Formula 1 season took place at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez Circuit in Mexico City. Before the Mexican Grand Prix, one of the most popular races of the season with its passionate fans, high altitude, smooth track structure and fun podium, pole position went to Verstappen.
Behind him were George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. Before the race, the Mercedes drivers preferred medium dough. The Ferrari and Red Bull drivers had soft tires.
For Max Verstappen, who started from pole position, perhaps the biggest threat was the start. There is a long distance from pole position to the first corner of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez Circuit and in the past years we have seen that those who started from pole position could not turn the first corner as a leader.
With the 5 red lights off, the 71 round fight began. Verstappen got off to a good start and managed to drive critically in the first corner.
Behind him, side by side, the Mercedes drivers. Hamilton went side by side with his team-mate at Turn 2 and managed to overtake his team-mate by completing the passage at the exit of Turn 3.
Passed by Hamilton, Russell lost momentum at the exit of Turn 3 and was passed to Perez on the same straight. Thus, he regressed to 4th place.
Behind them, the Ferrari drivers flanked. Started from the 7th row, Charles Leclerc overtook Valtteri Bottas and got behind his teammate. Leclerc, who took his 100th F1 start with this race, tried to overtake his team-mate in the 4th and 5th corners after passing Bottas, but Sainz managed to stay in the lead.
Thus, we completed the first lap with Verstappen, Hamilton, Perez, Russell, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris in the top 10.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari F1-75, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75, Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo C42, Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL36, the rest of the group at the start
Photo: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport images
When we left the first 5 laps behind, Verstappen had increased the gap from Hamilton to 1.3 seconds, but the Dutch driver had the advantage of the soft tires.
While the first 10 laps were behind, the differences in the first 4 were the same. Hamilton hadn’t let Verstappen escape and the lead was still around 1.5 seconds.
Sainz in fifth place was 10 seconds ahead of the leader on lap 10. Leclerc was two seconds behind his teammate. So the race pace of the red car in Mexico was also disappointing.
Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly was penalized 5 seconds for pushing the Canadian off the track as he tried to overtake Lance Stroll for 15th place.
By the time we got to lap 20, the Verstappen-Hamilton gap had increased to 2.3 seconds. Perez and Russell followed three seconds behind each.
The Ferrari drivers were losing almost 1 second per lap and were 20 seconds behind on lap 20. Leclerc also said on the radio: “If we have nothing to lose, we can consider plan C”, communicating to his team that they can try to win the ranks with strategy.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75
Photo: Mark Sutton / Motorsport images
On lap 23, Verstappen slowly started complaining about his tires. Verstappen’s teammate Perez pitted on that lap and was the first to make a move forward.
Perez had a slightly slow serve and after a 5 second pit stop he was back on track with medium compound tires.
Verstappen, who was complaining about his left front tire, started to lose time compared to Hamilton, but remained on track on lap 24. At the end of lap 25, the Dutch driver dived into the pits and returned to the track with slurry. average after a quick pit stop.
With the Red Bull drivers in the pits, the Mercedes drivers moved back up to the top two positions. Mercedes wanted to extend its first stint in the middle, so the two drivers stayed on track.
Meanwhile, Perez finished behind Leclerc one lap after his pit stop. Taking 2.8 seconds from Leclerc, the Mexican driver quickly caught up with Leclerc and left the Ferrari driver behind.
When we got to lap 29, Hamilton pitted and switched to hard tires. Therefore, he has become certain that he will make a one-stop strategy. The British driver returned to the track about 6 seconds behind Verstappen.
Russell, who did not stop in the pits, took the lead and told the team that they needed to extend the first stint further. He also said he wanted to stretch the middle stin further and finish the race on soft tires, but the team said he would have to stretch the first stin a lot, a lot for it to work.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13
Photo: Steven Tee / Motorsport images
Thus, Russell, who did not pit on lap 32, was the leader, while Verstappen was second on the center tires. Hamilton is third on his hard tires. Perez, who was in the middle, was in fourth place and was quickly catching up with Hamilton.
At the end of lap 34, Russell also pitted and switched to hard tires. This put Verstappen back in the lead, with Russell returning to the track in fourth place.
Perez, ahead of Russell, was getting closer and closer to Hamilton, dropping to 1.2 seconds in the middle. Verstappen was talking to his team about switching to soft tires at the next pit stop.
By the time we got to lap 45, the Verstappen-Hamilton gap was 10 seconds, but Verstappen still had a stop to make – at least that’s what everyone was thinking at that point – and Hamilton wasn’t going to pit again.
Perez continued the race in 3rd place, 1.5 seconds behind Hamilton; Russell was fourth. The Ferrari drivers, on the other hand, were in 5th and 6th place, about 40 seconds behind.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75
Photo: Steven Tee / Motorsport images
In the 51st round there was a contact between Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo wanted to overtake Tsunoda on his new tires and put his nose in at turn 6. With Tsunoda closing the door a little, the two make contact and Ricciardo’s left front tire hits Tsunoda’s right rear tire.
Tsunoda took off with this contact and had to pit and retire from the race. Ricciardo’s car, on the other hand, was in relatively good condition and the Australian moved up to 11th place. However, Ricciardo received a 10 second penalty for this contact.
When we got to lap 55, Verstappen was not yet in the second pit lane, but from then on he could have finished the race on the same tires. Behind him were Hamilton, Perez, Russell, Sainz, Leclerc, Alonso, Ocon, Bottas, Norris in the standings.
On lap 65, Fernando Alonso had to stop his car at the first corner due to an engine failure. We saw the application of a virtual safety vehicle when Alonso’s vehicle, who has been unlucky many times this season, was left on the road. However, this virtual safety car did not change the course of the race much and on lap 67 the green flags were once again waved, no one made it to the pits under the virtual safety car.
When Verstappen pitted on lap 25 and went halfway through the mix, everyone thought Verstappen would be back in the pits once again. However, the Dutch driver managed to bring the center tires he wore on lap 25 to the end of the race and finished the race 14 seconds ahead of his closest rival, Hamilton.
Verstappen thus won the fourth time in Mexico. It was also Verstappen’s fourteenth win of the season.
The double champion driver is 14 this season. He became the driver to win the most races in a season, breaking the record in this field. Before Verstappen, this record was shared by Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher with 13 wins.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18
Photo: Mark Sutton / Motorsport images
Hamilton started the race from third place and finished second; Sergio Perez once again took the podium in his hometown for third place. Perez was the first to pit in the lead and, despite this, he led his center hitters to the end of the race and found himself on the bottom step of the podium.
George Russell finished fourth in this race, where he hopes to achieve more.
A nightmare race is over for Ferrari. Charles Leclerc said that if they couldn’t solve their qualifying problems, they would “have a nightmare race” and they did.
Carlos Sainz saw the checkered flag 58 seconds behind the leader and finished the race in 5th place. Leclerc took 6th place, 1 minute and 8 seconds behind.
Daniel Ricciardo had perhaps his strongest race of the season and, with his strategy of moving from medium to soft tires, made good transitions at the end of the race and finished in 7th place. Although Ricciardo was penalized 10 seconds for contact with Tsunoda, he maintained his 7th place and scored important points for himself.
Ocon, Norris and Bottas completed the top 10. Pierre Gasly crossed the line 11th in the race, which was tough for him.
Alex Albon took 12th place, followed by Guanyu Zhou, Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll. Haas drivers shared 15th and 16th places, with Nicholas Latifi finishing last.
Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda were the names who could not complete the race.
The 21st race of the season, the Brazilian Grand Prix, will take place from 11 to 13 November.
Race result:
