F1 Takeaways: Unmatched Max Verstappen continues march on record books

It’s a “sweet 16” for Max Verstappen as the Red Bull driver scored his record 16th victory of the season Sunday at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Verstappen, who has already clinched his third consecutive world championship, surpassed his total from a year ago.

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes crossed the line second followed by pole-sitter Charles Leclerc of Ferrari in third.

Here’s what you need to know from the Mexico City GP.

Unmatched Verstappen continues march on record books

Verstappen is now at the point where he’s breaking his own records. After earning 15 wins last season, Verstappen has done one better, reaching 16 wins in the 2023 campaign — and with three more races remaining.

Despite qualifying third behind the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, Verstappen was able to get out to a better start and easily punch right in between the pair on the front straight to seize the lead.

Only the restart on lap 36 could have provided another opportunity for sparks, but Verstappen proved to be no match as he easily pulled away again en route to finishing with a 13-second advantage over Hamilton.

Verstappen tied Alain Prost for fourth place on the all-time wins list with 51 victories each. The Dutch driver can claim sole possession as soon as next weekend at the Brazil GP, and next in his sights will be Sebastian Vettel with 53 wins.

Meanwhile, Verstappen also passed Prost for fifth place in most laps led all-time (2,709 to 2,683 for those counting). That’s not the last time we’ll mention Prost here in our takeaways.

All risk, no reward for Perez

Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez said he was “massively looking forward” to his home grand prix. Starting fifth on the grid, Perez was in a position to do well in front of his adoring fans. You can probably sense where this is going.

Right on the first corner of the opening lap, Perez made a move on the outside of Leclerc and didn’t give the Ferrari nearly enough space. The two made contact with Perez catching air and flying off the track. You could feel the enthusiasm from the crowd dissipate like air out of a balloon. Perez was able to limp his car back to the pits but the damage was done, and he was forced to retire from the Grand Prix.

It was a greedy, all-too-eager move from Perez and considering the pace we’ve seen from Red Bull, there surely would have been other opportunities for him to get by Leclerc. Perez is probably feeling the heat, though, with no podium finishes in the previous four races and having Hamilton closing in on second place in the championship. Speaking of Hamilton …

Hammer time

It appears this P2 finish will stick for Hamilton after he was disqualified last week at the United States GP. Hamilton also snatched the fastest lap bonus point at the finish line. That nearly cut the deficit in half to Perez with the gap now at 20 points.

Hamilton started sixth on the grid (the “worst” he’s qualified at the Mexico City track) but he turned in another vintage performance, managed his tires well and outperformed the Ferraris.

Norris on fire (figuratively not literally)

McLaren weren’t able to extend their streak of four consecutive podium finishes, but Landon Norris provided an entertaining effort.

It looked like Norris’ Sunday had unravelled on Saturday when he failed to advance out of the first session in qualifying and was forced to start 17th on the grid. Norris had worked his way up into the top 10, although the team had an unfortunate break when they called him into the pits after Kevin Magnussen had crashed. Sure, it was still a “cheap” pitstop, but then out came the red flag and they would have been able to make any changes without losing track position.

Norris then got out to a disastrous restart and fell down into 16th and was nearly back to where he started. That’s when we saw the true power of the McLaren as Norris began picking apart the field, soaring all the way up into fifth place. That’s quite the valiant performance given how much went wrong over the weekend.

Leclerc unable to convert from pole

Pop quiz, when was the last time a Ferrari driver won the Mexican Grand Prix? That would be Prost back in 1990 and a fact that’ll stand for at least another year.

Ferrari locked up the front row of the grid during qualifying but only Leclerc was able to finish on the podium. Really, Leclerc is lucky he was able to finish the race after tangling with Perez. His car only appeared to sustain front wing damage, and the team was finally able to switch for a new one during the red flag.

Despite the fix, Leclerc wasn’t able to fend off Hamilton for second as the Mercedes breezed by on lap 40. With Hamilton on the medium tires and Leclerc on the hard set, whatever tire advantage Ferrari thought they’d have never came to be.

Leclerc, who is winless on the year, has started from pole position four times this season but all four have resulted in Red Bull wins: once from Perez and three from Verstappen.

AlphaTauri’s turnaround

Daniel Ricciardo came home in seventh for AlphaTauri’s best result of the year and their best since last season’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix when Pierre Gasly finished fifth.

The six points Ricciardo scored were massive as AlphaTauri moved out of the basement and into eighth place in the constructors’ championship. Although they’re tied with Alfa Romeo with 16 points apiece, Ricciardo holds the best individual result as the tiebreaker. (Perhaps they should draw to the button to break ties, wait wrong sport.)

Should the standings hold up, Ricciardo may have just helped AlphaTauri earn $20 million extra when the season ends.

It looked like AlphaTauri was well on their way to their first double-points finish in nearly two years with Yuki Tsunoda running eighth until he got a little too aggressive and cut into Oscar Piastri of McLaren. Piastri emerged unscathed, but Tsunoda spun off the track and out of the points. Tsunoda might have been playing with house money after starting 18th (due to the team changing engine parts), but he went all-in on a bet he couldn’t cash out.

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