Sunday’s (Oct. 30) Mexico City Grand Prix became Max Verstappen‘s second coronation in a month, the 2022 Formula One champion breaking one of the more impressive records in this series.
The Dutchman won his 14th race this year, the most in a season in the history of F1. In fact, only 23 drivers all-time have won more Grand Prix in their careers, let alone in one year. With two races remaining, the drivers’ and constructors’ championships are all locked up, meaning the sky is the limit for Verstappen to go all-out to increase the mark.
The word of the day in Mexico was “estrategia.” The only rivals Red Bull had in the race were both Mercedes, who started on the medium compound tires as opposed to Red Bull’s softs. Both implemented a one-stop strategy, but Mercedes chose to go on the hard tire compound while Red Bull went with the mediums. The Mercedes call did not work although Lewis Hamilton was able to finish second in the race. Teammate George Russell, falling behind him, was only able to manage fourth.
“An incredible result,” Verstappen said in the podium interview with F1 Media. “The pace of the car was really nice. We had to look after our tires, because there was a very long stint on the medium. We made it work.”
Sergio Perez split the silver arrows and took a popular third in his home race, with so many in the crowd chanting his “Checo” nickname throughout the entire weekend. Carlos Sainz took a pedestrian sixth-place result, with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc behind in seventh.
On lap 51, Daniel Riccardo was fighting with Yuki Tsunoda down into turn 6 when the McLaren got sent into the AlphaTauri. Tsunoda had the corner, but Ricciardo saw a gap that Tsunoda quickly closed and knocked the Japanese driver off track. Tsunoda would make it to the pit lane, but had to retire the car due to terminal damage. Ricciardo was given a 10-second penalty by the stewards for causing a collision.
Riccardo then made a rally in the closing laps on his fresh soft tires, driving by the Alpines, his teammate Lando Norris, and Valtteri Bottas to take seventh. Then, he built up a 12-second gap on Esteban Ocon in eighth to negate the 10-second penalty. Norris finished ninth and Bottas ended up 10th.
On lap 65, Fernando Alonso had the lone engine failure of the race, with his Alpine stranded in the turn 2 run-off area. This incident caused the lone virtual safety car in the race, coming so late in the event that it didn’t really…
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