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Red Bull driver Max Verstappen is on a roll in the 2022 F1 season. After stamping his authority at the title by winning the Japanese Grand Prix, the Dutch continued his red-hot form at the United States Grand Prix and then Mexico Grand Prix. Verstappen pipped seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and teammate Sergio Perez to take the P1 finish at the Mexico GP.
With this win in Mexico, Verstappen now boasts the most wins in a single F1 campaign, moving one clear of the 13 achieved by Michael Schumacher (2004) and Sebastian Vettel (2013). The Dutchman, whose team opted for a soft-medium tyre strategy, took the chequered flag some 15 seconds clear of Hamilton, who was left to question why Mercedes swapped their starting set of mediums for hards.
Nevertheless, Hamilton managed a P2 finish which was his third this season. Meanwhile, local boy Sergio Perez did decent enough to finish third having threatened to challenge Hamilton late on. Hamilton’s teammate George Russell finished fourth after losing out on his teammate at the start.
Ferrari had a lacklustre race with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc taking P5 and P6 , respectively, ahead of McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo, who charged his way to seventh with soft tyres late on and kept the position despite a 10-second time penalty for a clash with Yuki Tsunoda. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon took P8 with McLaren’s Lando Norris and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas completing the points.
AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly picked up a five-second penalty for an early, aggressive move on Aston Martin rival Lance Stroll and ultimately missed out on a point by just half a second, with Alex Albon 12th for Williams.
Zhou Guanyu got his Alfa Romeo to the line ahead of Aston Martin pair Vettel – sporting a touching tribute helmet to the late Dietrich Mateschitz – and Stroll, followed by the Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen.
Nicholas Latifi was the final finisher in his Williams, with the aforementioned Alonso grinding to a halt with an engine issue late on, and Tsunoda retiring after briefly going airborne in his collision with Ricciardo.
