Antonelli secures historic F1 Drivers’ title, Verstappen wins from Hamilton in start-stop Mexico City Grand Prix

Kimi Antonelli became the youngest Drivers’ World Champion at a red-flagged  Mexico City Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen capitalising on in-fighting between Ferrari teammates Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at the start to take victory. 

Race Report

As the formation lap began, the tyre choices for the top five were revealed, with Hamilton starting on softs for his first Ferrari pole, Russell, Leclerc and Verstappen on the same compound and Verstappen on mediums in fifth.

When the lights went out, Hamilton retained the lead into Turn 1 despite an opportunistic Leclerc diving to his inside, who took the lead into Turn 4 but cut across the grass to do so, pushing Hamilton off. “Pushed out by my own teammate”, was Hamilton’s reaction.

Meanwhile, Verstappen capitalised on the teammates’ brawl and passed Hamilton too to take second. Due to the nature of Leclerc’s overtake, the Ferrari driver’s lead was in jeopardy, noted by Race Control.

Behind this pack, Russell had a poor start and lost positions, dropping down to fifth behind his teammate. The Mercedes driver was then noted for causing a collision at Turn 6 at the start, an incident that knocked Isack Hadjar 12 places down to 19th.

On Lap 7, Aston Martin’s miserable weekend ended with a double retirement as both drivers were ordered to immediately stop the car. The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was quickly issued.

As we returned to green flag racing, Leclerc retained the lead on borrowed time with Verstappen two seconds back. Hamilton occupied third followed by Antonelli, Russell, Lando Norris, Arvid Lindblad, Oscar Piastri, Franco Colapinto and Nico Hülkenberg.

Piastri’s recovery drive was full steam ahead, the Australian driver making up another position against Lindblad on Lap 12. 

The following lap, a five-second penalty was confirmed for Leclerc, who was now 3.2 seconds away from Verstappen and 5.1 seconds from Hamilton. Russell’s incident was also resolved with a penalty, the Mercedes driver receiving a 10-second penalty.

Hamilton was understandably frustrated, pointing out that Leclerc was running in clean air to nullify the penalty’s impact, while the rest of them had to manage their tyres under dirty air.

Back in the midfield, moves were being made by Ollie Bearman, his latest conquest being Gabriel Bortoleto for 11th place.

Meanwhile, Hamilton’s disappointment over the radio continued, as he stated: “The stewards have basically handed Charles [Leclerc] this win. We agreed in the drivers’ briefing.”

On Lap 27, Leclerc and Verstappen came into the pits, with Leclerc serving his pitstop. Hamilton pitted from the race lead the following lap, swapping his softs for mediums like his teammate while Verstappen had taken the soft compound. 

The Red Bull driver was told by his race engineer to pump in one of his “magic Mexico stints” to keep the Ferrari pair behind, led by Leclerc.

On Lap 34, Russell came in for his stop, serving his 10-second time penalty and rejoining the track in eighth, as Antonelli continued to lead the race, still in his first stint.

On Lap 39, after holding out hope for a Safety Car for a cheap stop, Norris came in for a stop, a sluggish six seconds for the McLaren car.

By Lap 41 of 71, Antonelli retained the lead without stopping, followed by Verstappen, Leclerc, Hamilton, Norris, Russell, Piastri, Lindblad, Hadjar and Colapinto.

Antonelli’s stop came on Lap 44, with another sticky stop for a frontrunner. The championship leader rejoined the field in fourth behind Verstappen, Leclerc and Hamilton.

Just one lap after Antonelli’s stop, Valtteri Bottas had a huge moment into the barriers at Turn 1 with a suspension failure, bringing out the Safety Car. Hamilton boxed immediately, followed by the likes of Russell and Piastri.

Soon after these stops, the Safety Car was elevated to a red flag on Lap 46, with the Cadillac still stuck in the barriers.

Meanwhile, Hamilton’s tirade on the radio continued, as he furiously stated the team has got “big problems”, no doubt referencing the constant push and pull for dominance between himself and Leclerc at the Scuderia.

During the red flag duration, Race Control announced a revised restart order, negating Hamilton and Piastri’s lost positions—putting Hamilton in third ahead of Antonelli right alongside teammate Leclerc, Piastri back ahead of Lindblad, and Gasly back into 10th.

As we returned to green flag conditions after a lengthy pause to proceedings, the top five for the standing restart was led by Verstappen then Leclerc, Hamilton, Antonelli and Norris. 

As the lights went out once more, the entire field on softs, an aggressive Hamilton immediately pounced on Leclerc for second, as Verstappen clinged to the lead despite the seven-time world champion’s charge for the position he’d lost, the two brushing wheels.

Meanwhile, Leclerc locked up, as Antonelli soon overtook the Monégasque driver for third. Hamilton remained close behind Verstappen, as his teammate was now under pressure from Norris.

Elsewhere, Bearman had retired the car, after an incident at the restart with Hülkenberg, leading the Audi driver to receive a 10-second penalty.

On Lap 50 of 71, Verstappen was noted for being out of position at the restart, but was soon cleared of investigation.

As the laps ticked down, Verstappen managed to eke out more of a gap to Hamilton, extending it to 1.2 seconds and keeping it there, but the Ferrari driver remained close.

Meanwhile, Norris continued to hunt down Leclerc but remained unable to pass the Ferrari driver.

On Lap 60 of 71, Lindblad and Piastri made contact, taking Lindblad out of the race and bringing out the Safety Car once more. The interruption ended on Lap 62, with Verstappen taking us back to racing and going defensive against Hamilton.

With under 10 laps to go, Hamilton remained within a second of Verstappen but was unable to size up a move on the Red Bull driver, lacking closing speeds on the straights.

Another driver hunting for a move was Norris over Leclerc, their battle continuing over the final stages of the race. Norris was ultimately unable to make the move, with Hamilton also lacking the traction to seize the lead.

Up Next

We head to Brazil for the third part of this triple header, from 6th to 8th November, where Antonelli will start his first race as world champion.