Mexico City, November 7
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen celebrated a dominant win in the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday to surge 19 points clear of Lewis Hamilton in the Formula One championship with four races remaining.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton was second for Mercedes, holding off Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who became the first Mexican to stand on his home podium at a jubilant Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Red Bull closed the gap to champions Mercedes in the constructors’ standings to one point. “It’s still a long way to go but it’s of course looking good, but also it can turn around very quickly,” said Verstappen, 24, of his big step forward in the championship battle.
Verstappen took the chequered flag 16.555 seconds clear of Hamilton to seal his ninth victory of the season, third in Mexico and 19th of his career.
The Dutchman seized the lead into the first corner from third on the grid, going three abreast with the two Mercedes and timing his braking to perfection, in what turned out to be the decisive moment of the race.
“I kept it on the track, came from third to first and that was basically what made my race because I could just focus on myself, and we had incredible pace in the car,” he said.
Verstappen then gave Hamilton no chance to hit back once the safety car, deployed after collisions further back, was out of the way.
Hamilton, the most successful driver of all time with 100 career wins, said he gave it everything after being chased closely by Perez over the last 10 laps.
“I feel like I maximised it with what I have,” said the Briton. “We’ve got four races to go and we just have to keep pushing.” —Reuters
Result
1 Max Verstappen
Red Bull 1:38:39.086
2 Lewis Hamilton
Mecedes +16.555s
3 Sergio Perez
Red Bull +17.752s
Driver standings
Driver Points
1 Max Verstappen 312.5
2 Lewis Hamilton 293.5
3 Valtteri Bottas 185
Constructor standings
Constructor points
1 Mercedes 478.5
2 Red Bull 477.5
3 Ferrari 268.5
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