Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz claimed his fourth Grand Prix career victory on Sunday at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, while a late mistake by team mate Charles Leclerc handed second to McLaren's Lando Norris.
Norris had begun the race locked in a costly battle with Max Verstappen that ended with the Red Bull receiving two ten-second penalties which left the Dutch driver finishing in sixth behind a battling brace of Mercedes cars.
The race started with a first lap accident between Williams' Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda in the RB that triggered an early safety car. There was also a retirement for Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin driver's 400th Grand Prix weekend.
The races are coming thick and fast now: this week's is the second in a triple-header with much riding on it for Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. But they had both been beaten to pole by Carlos Sainz, whose Ferrari team mate Charles Leclerc was the bookend in fourth as they lined up for the start of the 71-lap race.
When the lights went out, it was a drag match to the first corner for Sainz and Verstappen. The Ferrari briefly cut across the grass and had to cede the lead, with Norris holding on to third from Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton stealing fifth from team mate George Russell. The top cars were all on the medium compound, with RB's Liam Lawson in P12 the highest to opt for hard tyres. No one risked the softs.
The race was almost immediately under a safety car after Pierre Gasly squeezed Alex Albon into contact with Yuki Tsunoda. The RB came off the worst of it as it hit the barriers, and Albon'w Williams was also also terminally wounded. Gasly and Lawson escaped the altercation and found themselves in the top ten behind the two Haas cars of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg. Having started from 18th, Sergio Perez had leapt up to 13th but had inadvertently started too far forward in his grid slot resulting in a five second penalty.
When the race resumed on lap 7, Verstappen was confidently in control of proceedings, but Sainz swiftly regrouped. On lap 9 he prosecuted a successful strike on the Red Bull for which Verstappen had no defence as he struggled with battery problems. Norris also tried to take advantage of the Red Bull's issues, but Verstappen threw everything and more into defending his position, forcing his rival off the track at turn 4 and wide again at turn 8.
The fight allowed Leclerc to pass them both and move up to second. Norris fumed over the team radio as Hamilton and Russell watched on. The clash was placed under investigation by race control and Verstappen was eventually handed a matching pair of ten second penalties for gaining an advantage by forcing the McLaren off and by running wide himself.
They weren't the only drivers fighting it out, Russell pressing a successful claim for fourth on Hamilton in lap 14. The following lap saw Fernando Alonso limping his Aston Martin back to pit lane to bring an end to his 400th race appearance. There was also a big spat between Lawson and Perez over tenth place, with contact sending the Red Bull off track and putting him under pressure from Lance Stroll. Perez made his pit stop moments later, his earlier penalty dropping him to the back in 17th.
There had also been a precarious near-miss on lap 21 between Williams' Franco Colapinto and McLaren's Oscar Piastri fighting over 12th. But all was calm at the front, Sainz continuing to build his lead over Leclerc with Verstappen struggling on his tyres but still third, six seconds behind as he continued to thwart Norris until pitting at the end of lap 26. The agonisingly long penalty halt dropped him to 15th by the time he resumed.
Hamilton was next to pit on lap 28, emerging in tenth on the hard compound. Norris and Magnussen were in on lap 31 with Leclerc called in next time, having fallen nine seconds away from Sainz, with Russell following suit. Once Sainz pitted on lap 33 his lead over Leclerc was slightly trimmed but still comfortable, with Norris a further five seconds behind. The top three were over ten seconds clear of Russell.
Lawson and Piastri were running next on track, but were yet to stop having started on the hard compound and holding up Hamilton as a consequence. Colapinto was eighth and also still to stop, making him easy meat for the recovering Verstappen to pick off. Stops for Piastri and Lawson subsequently put the Red Bull back into sixth. Piastri came back out in 12th while Lawson dropped to 16th. Colapinto finally pitted for mediums on lap 47 but lost time with a sticky right rear wheel.
Sainz was in cruise control at the front, but Leclerc was coming under increasing pressure from Norris for second. It forced a big mistake from the Monegasque, who ran wide in the final corner on lap 63. Norris sailed into P2 and proceeded to strain unsuccessfully to catch Sainz, while Leclerc regrouped and made a late extra pit stop for soft tyres to snatch the bonus point for fastest lap from Norris.
Sainz duly won the race by almost five seconds from Norris, with Leclerc third ahead of Hamilton who had got the better of Russell with six laps to go. Verstappen finished in sixth ahead of Magnussen who had managed to stay ahead of Piastri, Hulkenberg and Gasly. Lance Stroll just missed out on points, and there was late contact between Colapinto and Lawson: the Williams held on to 12th from Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, with Lawson and Perez last to the line.
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