Mexico City
An intense weekend of Formula 1 action in Mexico City saw Lando Norris get his season firmly back on track and regain the lead of the World Championship after mixed fortunes for his two rivals.
With just four races to go Norris now heads his McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri by a single point on 357 to 356, while despite some struggles Max Verstappen closed the overall gap to the front and is now 36 points off the lead on 321.
Mexico saw a remarkable contrast in fortunes for the two McLaren drivers. Norris had the upper hand from the start, securing pole in brilliant style. Piastri in contrast simply couldn’t find the speed, something his boss Andrea Stella ascribed to his team mate being more attuned to the low-grip conditions of the circuit. The Australian managed only P8 in qualifying, and was fortunate to gain a spot from someone else’s penalty.
Pole isn’t always the best place to be in Mexico as those behind can use a big slipstream to drag past. However, Norris successfully maintained the lead amid chaos behind. Thereafter he took advantage of clean air to drive a perfect race and open up a huge gap on those behind. He won by over 30 seconds – the biggest advantage anyone has had all year. This performance was a huge boost for Norris, who has had some difficult weekends of late, and put in possibly the best drive of his career while under serious pressure.
From seventh at the start Piastri move up a couple of spots, and in the circumstances fifth was decent damage limitation.However he has to regain the sort of pace-setting form he was showing just a few months ago if his title hopes are to stay alive.
For Verstappen it was also a case of bagging as many points as he could on a weekend when Red Bull lost the winning momentum of recent weeks. He struggled to find grip all weekend, and had to settle for fifth in qualifying – and he wasn’t optimistic about the race.
He survived a trip across the grass at Turn 1 and then pulled off a great strategy, running a long second stint on the softer tyre and taking advantage of cars ahead making second stops. In the closing laps he was running third and chasing down second placed Charles Leclerc when a virtual safety car neutralised the track for the last two laps, and any chance to pass was lost. Nevertheless third and 15 precious points was a good reward, and his title campaign is still on track.
It was a good weekend for Ferrari. Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton qualified second and third, with the latter feeling ascomfortable as he has all year. Leclerc slotted into second early on and managed to hang on until the flag, surviving strong pressure from Verstappen.
Hamilton in contrast went off the road during an early battle with the Dutchman and received a 10-second penalty for gaining an advantage. That dropped him down the order and took the wind out of his sails, and he finished a subdued eighth.
The surprise of the weekend was a great performance by Haas. Helped by late season upgrades introduced in the USA, Oliver Bearman qualified ninth and then made a great start and took advantage of the messy first couple of laps to move up into fourth.
At one stage third appeared to be on the cards, but a second stop dropped him back to P4, and he successfully kept Piastri behind him. It was still a superb result, and he was backed up by team mate Esteban Ocon in ninth. The points moved the US-owned team from ninth to eighth in the World Championship, ahead of Sauber.
It was a weekend of frustration for Mercedes. George Russell started a decent fourth but lost out in the melee in the early laps. He found himself behind Kimi Antonelli, which led to a heated radio exchange about team orders as he wanted to fight the cars ahead. He was let past, but when he didn’t gain any places later the positions were reversed, as the silver cars finished in P6 and P7. Russell remained furious that aside from Hamilton drivers who had cut corners in the early battling went unpunished.
The only other team to make the points was Sauber, with track rookie Gabriel Bortoleto doing a good job to secure 10th after a good start gave him an early boost up the order. His team mate Nico Hulkenberg retired early with a power unit issue.
It was a difficult weekend for Williams, Racing Bulls and Aston Martin, none of whom scored.
A major talking point after the race was a close call for Liam Lawson, who pitted with wing damage after the first lap and then arrived at the first corner to find two marshals running across the circuit, apparently the result of a miscommunication. The FIA has promised an investigation.
Off-track the results of the FIA’s 2024 cost cap findings, which have yet to be released, was a subject of speculation. Aston Martin confirmed that it committed a minor technical breach – in essence documents were signed off late by a third-party auditor.
However paddock gossip indicated that one of the major teams has potentially committed a more major breach that if confirmed could be subject to a serious penalty.
