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MEXICO CITY GP – Carlos Sainz wins beating Lando Norris by almost five seconds following another fight between title rivals

Testing & Race Reports

Carlos Sainz converted pole into victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix beating Lando Norris by almost four and three quarters of a second. Despite losing the lead to Max Verstappen at the start the Spaniard managed to stay second during the opening stages behind the safety car before launching a controlled but brave move to pass the Dutchman into the first corner with a bold lunge down the inside.

Sainz was then able to control the remainder of the race as Verstappen fought Norris early on before starting to struggle with the car but as they fought early on they both lost positions to Leclerc. The two title contenders continued their fight with hard fight with Verstappen given a ten-second time penalty at his stop for forcing Norris wide as they fought for position early on which dropped him out of the points before the Dutchman recovered to sixth.

Sainz said he wanted to leave Ferrari on high before he makes the switch to Williams next season, and if this is to be his last race win for the Scuderia, it was a certified cracker. But with Interlagos days away it could be yet another drama-filled race.

Sainz’s teammate Charles Leclerc finished third twenty-nine seconds behind Norris and ahead of his incoming teammate for next year Lewis Hamilton by ten seconds. Hamilton spent most of the race locked in a battle with his current teammate George Russell beating hum to fourth following a hard race-long battle by almost four seconds.

Sainz, who wins his second race of the season in the Ferrari, “It’s incredible to see this crowd, I’ve been feeling their support all week and I feel like I’ve got a lot of fan support here in Mexico and they’ve given me a lot of strength. Honestly, I really wanted this one, I needed it for myself, I wanted to get it done, I’ve been saying for a while I wanted one more win before leaving Ferrari and to do it here in front of this mega crowd is incredible.

Norris, who finished second in Mexico: “It was a very tough race. The first few laps a lot of it was just trying to stay in the race and avoid any crashes. Carlos drove a very good race so congratulations to Carlos and Ferrari, they were very quick today. I tried my best and a big thanks to all the fans, the fans make it very enjoyable here so big thank you to everyone.”

Leclerc said, “It was a difficult one, on the first stint it was all about trying to manage your temperatures which was quite difficult. But in the end, we did the best race we could do. The whole weekend I’ve been a little on the back foot so third place was all I could achieve on my side today.”

Verstappen was given two ten-second time penalties before finishing eleven seconds behind Russell, his penalties were for two incidents one forcing Norris wide at Turn Ten before four corners later going wide and gaining an advantage, as they fought position. But its likely to raise questions, after he went unpunished last weekend in Austin for similar moves.

However, the GPDA, the trade union for drivers, and the FIA have agreed to tighten and clarify the guidelines for 2025. These will be presented in Doha in a month’s time to be agreed by all parties, but it may be the agreement that most drivers thought Verstappen’s driving last weekend should not be allowed.

Norris was attacking Verstappen on the outside of Turn Four, three laps after a restart following a safety car caused by a first-lap crash, and Verstappen ran in late on the brakes on the inside and forced Norris off the track on the outside of the corner. Norris took second place from Verstappen by cutting across the grass, missing the right-hander that makes up the second part of the chicane at Turns Four and Five.

But as the Briton apparently went to let Verstappen back past into Turn Eight, seeking to avoid a penalty such as he received in Austin, Verstappen went wide on his inside and both cars went off the track.

The Dutchman told Sky Sports, “At the end of the day it’s not about agreeing or disagreeing about penalties the only thing is 20 seconds is quite a lot but the biggest problem of today and something that I worry about is the race pace which was really not good and something that we need to analyse.”

The championship leader briefly dropped out of the points places and although he quickly recovered to sixth, he made no further progress from there as his Red Bull struggled with tyre wear on another difficult day for the once all-conquering RB20. That means with four Grands Prix and two sprints remaining Verstappen’s lead over Norris is forty-seven points

Ferrari’s on-two moved them into second in the constructors four points ahead of Red Bull, but McLaren continued to lead by twenty-nine points with four Grands Prix and two sprints remaining.

Kevin Magnussen was eighth ahead of Oscar Piastri by just over a second as they were the last cars on the lead lap. it was a strong drive for Piastri who was knocked out in Q1 but came through making up ten places to split the two Haas as he finished ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, who was a lead of the lapped cars.

Hulkenberg pace towards the end of the race dropped off but he did finish comfortably ahead of Pierre Gasly by fifteen seconds. While Lance Stroll missed out on the points by six seconds but his teammate Fernando Alonso failed to finish his four hundredth race start because of debris trapped in the front brake duct before a quarter’s distance.

Franco Colapinto put in another solid result on track he was two and a half seconds behind Stroll but was given a ten-second penalty for a late contact with Liam Lawson. Esteban Ocon was thirteenth ahead of both Sauber’s, with Valtteri Bottas nineteen and a half seconds ahead of his teammate Guanyu Zhou, followed by Lawson.

It was a difficult and frustrating home race from before the start for Sergio Perez as he finished last of the classified finishers. He was given a five-second penalty for being out of position at the start before a battle with Lawson saw him push the sister RB off at Turn Four when attempting an overtake, which the Kiwi responded to with a robust challenge at the next corner and left the Mexican with floor and sidepod damage.

Alonso was joined in retirement by Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda following their collision on the opening lap.

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