Five Winners, Five Losers: Mexico City Grand Prix
- Peter Johnson
- Oct 30
- 8 min read
Written by Peter Johnson, Edited by Meghana Sree
It was a statement weekend from Lando Norris as he seized the lead of the Drivers’ Championship, but who were the other winners or losers in Mexico City?
Winner - Lando Norris
It was the perfect weekend for Lando Norris who returned to the summit of the World Championship standings for the first time since April with his first win in almost three months.
The Briton gave up his seat to Pato O’Ward in FP1 but was straight on the pace, eventually taking pole by almost three-tenths of a second – all the more impressive given that the Autodrómo Hermanos Rodríguez is the third-shortest circuit on the calendar.
Once upon a time, Norris had something of a reputation for losing his lead into Turn 1, and on the track with the longest run down to the first braking zone on the calendar, it would have been very easy to cede first position to one of the Ferraris behind.
Norris, however, avoided the inevitable chaos behind and built such a cushion by his first pit stop that he was never even in sight of the chasing pack.
His eventual winning margin of over 30 seconds was the largest of the season, and in finishing above Oscar Piastri for the fifth race in succession it was enough to take him back to the top of the pile - albeit by a singular point - with just four races remaining.
Winner - Ollie Bearman
Having never previously run in the top six of a race in his career, Oliver Bearman suddenly found himself in the top five and battling side by side with Max Verstappen.
The rookie was not fazed by his sudden moment in the spotlight, though, running in what truth be told was a relatively comfortable fourth place for most of the Grand Prix.
His savvy double overtake on Verstappen and George Russell showed all the hallmarks of a man who just over a year ago was considered one of the hottest young talents in motorsport, and his stout defence against Piastri in the closing stages was equally admirable.
We will never know whether the Australian would have passed him for fourth place on the final tour without the intervention of the Virtual Safety Car (VSC), but Bearman was thoroughly deserving of his final placing.
His third consecutive points finish - collecting 12 of them at that - along with Esteban Ocon’s ninth place also vaulted Haas above Sauber in the Constructors’ Championship and moves the team to within 10 points of sixth-placed Racing Bulls.
Winner - Max Verstappen
He may only have finished third and lost ten points to Norris, but overall it was another positive weekend for the four-time world champion.
First and foremost, he can perhaps consider himself lucky to have escaped the wrath of the stewards, both for his first lap shortcut at Turn 1 and his similarly unconventional line through Turn 2 after his robust attack on Lewis Hamilton on Lap 6.
Overall, however, Verstappen far exceeded his rather negative expectations from Saturday evening, when he suggested he would be relying on cars in front of him to retire if he were to improve on his starting position of fifth.
The Dutchman did most of his damage on his soft tyre stint, fitting the compound on Lap 37 of 71. While many others later boxed for a second time, he maintained a relentless pace to reduce his deficit to second-placed Charles Leclerc.
Like Piastri, he was robbed of a chance to overtake by the late VSC, but in beating the Australian he further closed the gap to the top of the standings to 36 points.
It may now be Norris that Verstappen has to chase down, but he is still well and truly in the hunt.
Winner - Ferrari
While it turned into a wretched Sunday for Hamilton, it was a rather positive weekend overall for Ferrari, who returned to second in the Constructors’ Championship.
Such is McLaren’s dominance this season, Ferrari’s total of 356 points still only equals that of second-placed driver Oscar Piastri - that’s a different discussion, though.
The Scuderia enjoyed their best qualifying of the season, with Leclerc and Hamilton lining up second and third respectively on Sunday.
While dreams of a potential Hamilton podium and even possible victory were dashed early, Leclerc – who, like Verstappen, was perhaps fortunate to escape punishment for Lap 1 – ran a controlled race in second.
The Monégasque also had to contend with lifting and coasting – the now-infamous “Li-Co” – from as early as Lap 12, making his pace all the more impressive.
He may have been the main beneficiary of the late VSC, but was well worthy of his podium – the 50th of his career – as Ferrari showed genuine pace once again.
Their one-point advantage over Mercedes is slim, and probably should have been more, but the Scuderia have shown proper pace for a couple of weekends in a row now and hold all the cards as we head into the final four rounds.
Winner - Gabriel Bortoleto
It was a quietly successful afternoon for Gabriel Bortoleto, who advanced from 16th on the grid to take the final point in Mexico City.
With Bearman’s huge points haul, the Brazilian is now bottom of all of 2025’s full-time drivers, which feels rather unfair given some of the talent he has displayed this season.
He has, however, managed to invigorate a passionate Brazilian fanbase, who will finally have one of their own to cheer for in two weeks’ time in São Paulo.
Loser - Oscar Piastri
Our now former championship leader had another miserable weekend, finishing behind both Norris and Verstappen for a fifth consecutive race.
Despite having held the championship lead for over six months and being the most impressive driver on the grid in the first half of the campaign, it has felt rather inevitable for some time that he would eventually be caught.
Piastri set only the eighth fastest time on Saturday, which became a seventh-placed start on Sunday. He spent several laps behind Yuki Tsunoda, soon finding himself a full pit stop window behind race leader Norris.
It was clear from the get-go that it would be an afternoon of damage limitation for Piastri, but following a superb move on Russell and his pursuit of Bearman, it looked for a short while as though he might still leave North America with a slender championship lead.
The VSC said no to that possibility, though, and the Australian now has two weeks to do some serious soul searching before he takes to the track in Brazil next.
Loser - Mercedes
It was a rather chastening afternoon in Mexico City for Formula One’s once-ruthless winning machine.
More concerning than the fact that the team fell one point below Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship is how they ended up there.
Russell was a big loser in the Verstappen-Hamilton shenanigans, losing a place to Bearman and ending up behind teammate Kimi Antonelli.
Itching for a crack at Bearman and a potential podium, for lap after lap Russell requested the team for Antonelli to let him by. On Lap 40, with Piastri closing in, the Briton’s temper boiled over, and Mercedes meekly instructed Antonelli to make way.
His progress thereafter was underwhelming, failing to close on Bearman, while Antonelli lost position to Piastri after a slow second pit stop.
It’s probably a good thing Toto Wolff wasn’t present for the debrief.
Loser - The stewards
F1 is fortunate in that, unlike in football, for example, those responsible for enforcing the sport’s rules are rarely embroiled in controversy.
Of course, a certain title decider a few years ago demonstrated that stewards and race directors can get things wrong from time to time, but this year mistakes and inconsistencies seem to be far more frequent.
There will always be controversial or debatable decisions, such as Piastri’s penalty at Silverstone, which could have gone either way. Rulings that are evidently wrong, though, are creeping in more and more.
Carlos Sainz’s penalty at Zandvoort for a collision with Liam Lawson was a case in point, with the two points added to the Spaniard’s licence revoked after an appeal.
The following week at Monza, Bearman was handed a ten-second penalty for a collision with the Williams driver, which even Williams Team Principal James Vowles admitted was only a “racing incident”.
This time in Mexico City, several drivers, including Hamilton, Russell, and Fernando Alonso, all expressed dissatisfaction at the stewards’ inaction over several drivers leaving the track at Turn 1.
Hamilton was later handed a ten-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage at Turn 4, while Verstappen, who had taken a similarly creative line just two corners previously, escaped scot-free.
Another controversy came on the penultimate lap, when a VSC was thrown as a consequence of Sainz retiring from the race. His Williams, though, was already safely parked behind a wall and comfortably out of harm’s way.
The decision to neutralise the final lap of the race extinguished any possibility of a Bearman vs Piastri or Leclerc vs Verstappen battle, with both moves having potentially decisive implications for both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships.
The stewards’ tendency to be too heavy-handed in certain instances (see the late VSC) and too lenient at others (for example, the start), is becoming too much of a regular occurrence in 2025.
It is difficult to pinpoint why such change has occurred, but it is affecting both the sport’s integrity and its entertainment.
Loser - Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton left Austin with a spring in his step, confident he finally understood his Ferrari machinery after fourth-placed finishes in both the sprint and main race.
He backed this optimism up on Saturday in Mexico City with his best Grand Prix starting position of the season. With three of the last five winners at the Autodrómo Hermanos Rodríguez having started third, hopes were high for Sunday.
The seven-time world champion started well, and will have been aggrieved to see Leclerc maintain second place despite cutting the first chicane.
Following an inevitably fiery battle with Verstappen on Lap 6, Hamilton took evasive action into Turn 4, failing to follow the race directors’ notes regarding rejoining the circuit.
A simple message telling him to back off and allow Bearman, Verstappen and Russell to close up would surely have sufficed, but instead a 10-second penalty came his way.
Ultimately the Briton, with suspected floor damage sustained during his misdemeanour, fell out of podium contention and could only manage eighth place – a gut-punch of a result on a day that promised so much.
Loser - Carlos Sainz
Carrying his five-place grid penalty over from Austin, Sainz lined up in 12th place on Sunday.
He made contact with Turn 1 with Lawson, which caused the Kiwi’s retirement, and then failed to progress, instead losing a position to Bortoleto in the opening stint.
His opening lap collision also damaged the sensors on his front tyres, which rendered the pit lane speed limiter on his car ineffective. The consequence thereafter was two trips through the pit lane and two cases of speeding.
The Spaniard was running down in 15th when he spun in the stadium section on Lap 67, necessitating his retirement and bringing an end to a miserable week.
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