Sainz converted from pole position to win the Mexican Grand Prix

Ferrari was close to a second double in a row, but Lando Norris decided to break up the Scuderia duo.

On Sunday, October 27, the Mexican Grand Prix took place at the Rodriguez Brothers Circuit, which ended in victory for Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz.

Lando Norris (McLaren) finished second at the finish line, and the winner’s teammate Charles Leclerc from Ferrari had to settle for third place.


A week before, Charles Leclerc spoke about the mindset to win in the USA, and he won there.

This time, Carlos Sainz admitted that he wants to win at least once with Ferrari before the end of his career with the Scuderia. And he won.

Although the Spaniard didn’t have the best start. Max Verstappen accelerated further and the Red Bull driver entered the first turn as the leader. Sainz decided not to play with fate and cut the turn, then willingly surrendered the position to Max.

Sergio Perez had an absolutely disastrous weekend. In front of the home stand, he managed to take the wrong position at the start, for which he received a penalty of +5 seconds.

There was also an accident at the beginning. Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda couldn’t fit in the tight space. As a result, the Williams racer knocked out the RB racer, destroying his rear tire and sending him into the wall. At the same time, Albon also retired from the race due to a broken front suspension.

The accident brought out the safety car – the second in the last two races (Bernd Maylander was gradually earning his salary). Verstappen didn’t let anything happen on the restart to Sainz, who was followed by Norris, Leclerc and Hamilton.

But on the 9th lap, Carlos decided to beat Max in his own way: Sainz overtook his opponent during the last braking in the first turn, regaining the lead.

Perhaps this had some effect on Verstappen, because it is difficult to explain what happened next.

On the next lap, Verstappen is attacked by Norris (USA flashbacks). It’s down to contact and another road trip. And several times.

Leclerc took advantage of this: while the two championships were out of the way, the Monegasque calmly passed them – Ferrari’s second double in a row facing the front.

Its hero has already won the “reward”. Twice. The judges decided to consider both episodes of Verstappen-Norris separately, as a result of which the Dutchman received two 10-second penalties.

Let’s go back to the middle of the peloton for a moment and report that Fernando Alonso was forced to stop in the pits, where he did not return due to car problems. This is how the two-time world champion celebrated his 400th career stage.

An interesting struggle took place among the pilots of three teams, but, so to speak, two teams. And if Russell and Hamilton were pretty nice to each other, Lawson didn’t let Perez down.

Their fight turned out to be quite difficult, which probably led to damage to the Mexican’s car. The judges did not punish anyone.

The wave of pit stops among the leaders was started by Verstappen, who had to wait 20 seconds. After that, he had no chance not only to win, but even to be on the podium.

Based on Hamilton’s speed on hard, it became clear that hard tires were the best option at that time. And that’s why others install hard too.

After that, there was a traditional lull, which lasted up to 51 laps – the next round of the struggle between Russell and Hamilton for fourth place began.

Meanwhile, Norris was getting closer and closer to Leclerc, who eventually couldn’t stand it: on the 63rd lap, when exiting the last turn, Charles’ car veered to the side, so he had to do everything to avoid hitting the wall .

Lando, of course, moved into second place, ruining Ferrari’s plans for another double.

Six laps to go, the battle between the two “silver arrows” finally ended. Hamilton overtook his teammate and finished just behind the top three.

In the final laps, three drivers went to the pits at the same time to set the fastest lap. Interestingly, the coalition of Lawson and Perez was unable to stop Leclerc, who took the extra point.

Ferrari beat Red Bull in this round. Moreover, at the end of the stage the Italians took second place in the Constructors’ Championship and are now aiming for victory – just 29 points ahead of McLaren.

Sainz, who won his fourth career victory, took home the driver of the day title.

The situation in the individual competition has also changed slightly. Leclerc is unlikely to be in any real title contention, while Norris has reduced his gap to Verstappen to 47 points. At the same time, Leclerc still claims to have overtaken Norris himself.

Among the other results, it is worth highlighting the performance of Haas, who finished in the TOP 10 with both cars. The American team is trying to guarantee itself sixth place in the CC.


Final classification

In one week, the Brazilian Grand Prix will take place, closing the series with three consecutive stages.

Source: korrespondent

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