Sainz victorious in Mexico as double penalty costs Verstappen · RaceFans

Carlos Sainz Jnr took a controlled victory in the Mexican Grand Prix, beating Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc to take his second win of the year.

Sainz passed early leader Max Verstappen soon after a Safety Car restart and never looked back, winning by five seconds from Norris.

Verstappen finished down in sixth place after the stewards handed him a combined 20 seconds of penalties after a pair of incidents involving Norris in the early phase of the race.

At the start, Verstappen appeared to get a better launch off the line than pole winner Sainz and nosed in front of the Ferrari on the long run to the first corner. The two ran side-by-side into the first corner, with Sainz taking to the grass and missing the chicane before relinquishing the position.

The Safety Car was deployed before the end of the first lap due to a clash into the first corner between Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon which sent Tsunoda spinning out of the race and also damaging Albon’s Williams.

The race restarted at the start of lap seven, with Verstappen leading from Sainz, Norris and Leclerc. Sainz stuck with the leader after the restart and passed him into turn one at the start of lap nine to take the lead.

Verstappen then came under intense pressure from Norris, who tried to pass him around the outside of turn four only to be forced wide. Norris took to the grass and moved ahead of his rival, only for Verstappen to lunge to the inside at turn seven, both drivers leaving the circuit. Norris accused Verstappen of “dangerous” driving and the stewards handed Verstappen two separate 10-second time penalties for forcing Norris off the circuit.

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Through the drama, Leclerc managed to sweep by the two fighting rivals into second place, making it a Ferrari one-two. Verstappen was the first of the front running cars to pit onto the hard tyres, dropping down to 15th place after his 20 seconds of penalties. After all the leading drivers had made their stops, Sainz continued to lap in the lead several seconds ahead of his team mate, with Norris picking up third after Verstappen’s penalty.

Over the second stint, Norris slowly caught up to the back of Leclerc until he was just over a second adrift with 12 laps remaining. Eventually, Leclerc made an error exiting the last corner and ran off track, handing the position to the McLaren driver.

Sainz kept out of reach of Norris behind and completed the final laps to secure his…