At an altitude of 2,240 meters, the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, in Mexico City, is one of the greatest challenges on the Formula 1 World Championship calendar. The air pressure and the difficulty generated by the layout of the track, along of 72 laps, makes it a stage for several surprises and some curiosities: in the last four grand prix, only in three has the leader managed to maintain the advantage. The pilot’s name? Max Verstappen.
This Sunday from pole position, the Dutchman reacted better when the traffic light went out and broke the statistics again. George Russell, second best in qualifying, did not have the best approach in the sequence of corners after the finish straight and was quickly overtaken by Lewis Hamilton, who started third, and also by Sérgio Pérez, who was fourth.
As Mexico’s best-known cartoon character, Max Verstappen donned the Speedy Gonzáles costume and fled without a trace to use the hat of winner There were still some complaints about the tires at first, but the engineer threw out a “come on!” and the victory came without mishap.
All 20 cars, contrary to popular belief, made it through the main traps without incident to report. The first moment of tension on the track had as its main protagonists, on lap 16, Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll, forcing the Frenchman to leave the Canadian. The penalty came off a few minutes later and the Alpha Tauri driver was handed a five second penalty.
REWIND TO LAP 14 ⏪
Gasly receives a 5 second penalty for pushing Stroll off the track #MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/1ggKHT6m9J
– Formula 1 (@F1) October 30, 2022
At a time when management has become the career buzzword, with strategists in boxes To collect all the data to start the best way to climb the ranks, the noise of air guns called to the scene. From the leading group, the home team, Sergio Pérez, was the first to stop, on lap 22, and put on medium tyres. Four laps later and, with his sights set on his Red Bull teammate, Verstappen ditched the soft compound and opted for the medium as well.
on the side of team chasing Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton (lap 30) and George Russell (lap 36) cast the dice for a different strategy, with both drivers going for harder compound tyres. In the first steps over the finish line, the complaints over the radio were quite audible, with doubts about whether it had been the best strategy.
LAP 51/71
Contact between Ricciardo and Tsunoda
The AlphaTauri car has damage. Tsunoda returns to the pits and is out of the race ❌#MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/Y4x8NxOruP
– Formula 1 (@F1) October 30, 2022
In a weekend with many engine problems due to the altitude, Ferrari, led by Carlos Sainz (fifth) and Charles Leclerc (sixth), managed the positions and risked little. Speaking of second platoon, the threat of car insurance It came when, in a screen-filling battle, Daniel Ricciardo attempted to overtake Yuki Tsunoda, but the Australian driver failed to avoid colliding with the Japanese and put the Alpha Tauri driver into retirement due to damage.
Until the end, the one who held the position of leader of the DRS caravan for several laps, Fernando Alonso, began to fall in the classification until the engine, in a quite visible way, blew up. At the front, Verstappen gained more and more of an advantage and crossed the finish line in first place once again. Lewis Hamilton finished second and Sergio Pérez third in a repeat of the 2021 podium.
Simply unstoppable!@Max33Verstappen makes it FOURTEEN extraordinary wins in 2022, breaking the record for most wins in a season#2ElMax #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/TE7mOJ9o4b
– Formula 1 (@F1) October 30, 2022
With this victory, the fourteenth of the season, the world champion broke the record that, until this Sunday, also belonged to Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. Formula 1 will now take a week off until the Brazilian Grand Prix, the penultimate of the year, between November 11-14, before packing up in South America and ending the season in Abu Dhabi.
Source: TSF
