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The second of three back-to-back races in F1's autumn triple header is in the books. It's the only one to be a traditional race weekend and not a sprint, so what do the results tell us about the respective forms and drivers as we near the end of the season? It's good news for Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton in the ratings, but fans of Sergio Perez and the Aston Martin team might wish to look away now!
Sergio Perez (Accident, Lap 1): 5/10
When you're under extreme pressure to keep your seat, and doubly in the spotlight in front of your adoring home fans, that's when the cracks really start to show. And that's what we saw at the start of Sunday's Grand Prix when Sergio Perez decided to go all-in on his gamble to going around the outside of Charles Leclerc into the first corner at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. If it had paid off then he would have been the hero of the hour: but he didn't and it backfired badly on him. A DNF is the last thing he needs at the moment as it allows Lewis Hamilton to halve the gap between them in the drivers championship, and he's now under even more pressure to perform if he's to keep the runners-up spot. If he doesn't manage it in a car as mighty as the RB19 then there's a non-zero possibility that he could be heading to the exit lounge sooner rather than later.
Kevin Magnussen (Accident, Lap 32): 4.5/10
It would be in poor taste to say that Kevin Magnussen made little impact this weekend until he hit the barrier midway through the race, but at the same time that's not entirely inaccurate either. He was absent in first practice in favour of Ollie Bearman (who did very well, it has to be said) and was second-from-last in both FP2 and FP3. Missing the cut in Q1 was no surprise to anyone, but by the end of the first lap of Sunday's race he was ahead of both Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso, and ran in 13th until the first round of pit stops. Unfortunately a left-rear suspension failure (perhaps due to overheating) sent the car snapping into the barriers on lap 31, and it was a brutal blow. With the car wrecked and on fire we were just happy to see the Dane scramble clear with only minor injuries.
