Lewis Hamilton (P2, 18 pts): 8.5/10
Although his disappointing early season was put down to focussing on test and development duties to help bring the W13 up to scratch and overcome its initial porpoising issues, there was also a sense that Lewis Hamilton might still not be fully over the crushing events of Abu Dhabi in 2021 - and may even be considering his future in F1. If that was ever the case, he seems to have put that in the past. Amid talks of a multi-year deal to stay with Mercedes, we're getting to see the Lewis of old shine through again. George Russell might have pipped him to the top spot in FP3 and then to the front row of the grid by just five thousandths of a second in qualifying, but Hamilton might actually have been pleased to note it meant his team mate would have to start on the dirty side of the grid on Sunday. Sure enough, it gave Hamilton just the chance he needed to swoop round Russell at the first corner to install himself into second place behind Max Verstappen. Unfortunately it soon became clear that the Red Bull's imperious form was as formidable here as it had been everywhere else in 2022. Hamilton never had a realistic chance to take the battle to Verstappen, who was on medium tyres for his long second stint. Mercedes had put both Hamilton and Russell on hard tyres to get them to the finish, expecting Verstappen and Sergio Perez to suffer from degradation. They didn't. It was a rare miscue by Mercedes, and both drivers were vocal about the plan's deficiencies long before the end of the race. It might have been a second consecutive P2 for Hamilton, but he'd clearly wanted more.
Max Verstappen (Pole, P1, 25 pts): 9.5/10
Sorry Max fans, we've not given Verstappen a perfect ten out of this week - if nothing else, partly because we don't want him to start taking it for granted! Of course, the two-time world champion more than demonstrated he remains in a league of his own, but this time he didn't really have to work too hard on Sunday to pick up a record-breaking 14th win of the season, in part thanks to Mercedes fumbling their race strategy with their choice of compounds. Arguably Red Bull were taking the bigger risk today starting both Verstappen and his team mate on the softs and hoping that they could then run the mediums for the rest of the race without the tyres falling apart; but it was a risk that paid off handsomely, and all Verstappen had to do was keep it clean, respond to any mild threats posed by Lewis Hamilton, and then bring it safely home. He did all of that and more. But he wasn't exactly pushed in Mexico ,and that meant he couldn't quite show his dazzling best this weekend. Or to put it another way: we're taking half a point off Verstappen because no one else was really good enough to put him to the test. We doubt he'll mind.
