'
The carnival atmosphere at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez was busy, boisterous and brilliant - and if the Mexican GP couldn't quite deliver to the same level, it was surely still an eventful and dramatic weekend with lots of stand-out individual performances from the drivers to talk about in our post-race analysis and ratings...
Lando Norris (Retired, L48): 7/10
After a string of recent solid successes for McLaren, Mexico was probably their worst race of the season so far. It was particularly unfair on Lando Norris, who despite trailing his team mate on Friday and Saturday had nonetheless improved his position in each successive practice session before managing to join Sainz on the fourth row of the grid for the start of the race. Another fast start saw him use his soft tyres to get the better of the medium-shod Valtteri Bottas, and Max Verstappen's clash with Lewis Hamilton then put Norris up to sixth place by the end of the first lap. It's hard to know how he could have fared for the rest of the afternoon: even before his early pit stop on lap 13 he had started to lose positions, with the MCL34 seemingly struggling for pace in the high altitude. But it was the stop itself that proved the end of the affair when the left-front wheel was improperly attached. Although Norris stopped in time to avoid a penalty and allow the McLaren mechanics to hare down pit lane to retrieve the stricken car and correct the mistake, he was left a lap down and firmly at the back by the time he resumed. He stayed there for the next 35 laps before the team bowed to the inevitable and allowed him to retire.
