Winners and Losers From The Mexico City Grand Prix

The Mexico Grand Prix saw Max Verstappen collect his 16th victory and 18th podium finish of the season. Lewis Hamilton finished second with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third. There were some outstanding performances from Daniel Ricciardo (7th) and Lando Norris (5th). There was frustration for Aston Martin failing to score points with both drivers having to retire.

We look at some of the winners and losers from the Mexico City Grand Prix:

Winners

1 – Max Verstappen. The 2023 world champion made the perfect start at the Grand Prix to jump both Ferraris and lead the race after the first turn. He managed his lead perfectly to finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton and score his fifth Mexico City GP win. Verstappen said after the race: “To win 16 races in a season is something I never thought would be possible, this season has been unbelievable.”

2 – Lewis Hamiton – The seven-time world champion rallied from sixth on the grid to finish second ahead of pole sitter Charles Leclerc. Hamilton scored the 197th podium of his career after precise tyre management combined with two perfectly timed moves on a track notoriously difficult to overtake on. “Yes guys, I am so happy with that!”, an ecstatic Lewis said. “I didn’t think the tyres were going to last, I did some real sweet finesse with them!”

3 – Lando Norris – The McLaren was duly voted driver of the day after making up 12 places to finish in fifth position. The Briton dropped down to 14th after losing places once the race restarted after a red flag on lap 33. He executed a couple of marvelous overtakes on Daniel Ricciardo and George Russell. “It was probably one of my most fun races, in terms of overtakes and things like that,” Lando said. “It was very enjoyable from inside of the car.

Losers

4 – Sergio Perez – The Mexican driver was already under pressure before the lights went out after he qualified fifth, behind Verstappen and AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo. The home crowd let out a massive collective groan seconds into the race after their hero clashed with Leclerc at Turn 1. The impact saw Perez’s Red Bull suffer extensive damage to its sidepod and he was forced to retire. “At your home grand prix, after being on the podium twice you want to give it your all and I went totally for it. I really wanted the win today and I massively tried to get that,” he said.

5 – Aston Martin – The team failed to score points with both drivers for only the second time this season as both drivers retired. Aston Martin has fallen off a cliff since Fernando Alonso’s seven podium finishes this season seems like an eternity ago as the team has struggled with pace, reliability, crashes, and strategy. “We had a slightly better car after making some set-up changes overnight, but we still don’t have the pace that we need to compete at the front of the grid”, Lance Stroll said. The team’s attention is focused on Brazil. Alonso said: “We have three more races left of this season at very different tracks, so we will go again in Brazil.”

Sean Parker

Sean Parker is a motorsport journalist and sports content creator at The South African. He has worked for the country's premier motoring publications, and is a Formula 1 contributor to Bet.co.za, the Bet Central podcast, and Vision View Sports radio.