Written by Owen Bradley
Credit: Mark Thompson
Formula One returned to Mexico City, a City which sinks into the ground each year, by 12cm. They have also sunken their money into F1, building a circuit which has played host to some very memorable moments. With Home Hero Sergio Perez looking to save his career, and Daniel Ricciardo looking to re-energise his, they are both currently fighting each other for that Second Red Bull seat.
Qualifying really did set up a race with a lot of exciting potential. the Top 3 separated by less than one tenth of a second, Daniel Ricciardo in P4 with the Alphatauri ahead of rival Sergio Perez.
1st Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
2nd Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
3rd Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
4th Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
5th Lando Norris, McLaren
6th George Russell, Mercedes
7th Daniel Ricciardo, Alphatauri
8th Oscar Piastri, McLaren
9th Alex Albon, Williams
10th Esteban Ocon, Alpine
11th Pierre Gasly, Alpine
12th Nico Hulkenberg, Haas
13th Logan Sargeant, Williams
14th Yuki Tsunoda, Alphatauri
15th Zhou Guanyu, Alfa Romeo
16th Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo
DNF Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
DNF Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
DNF Kevin Magnussen, Haas
DNF Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing
Grand Prix
Credit: Mark Thompson
The race began with an absolutely extraordinary start from both Red Bull drivers, Verstappen managed to get a phenomenal jump off the line, leading as they went in to Turn One. But it was Sergio Perez, from P5, who flew right to the front, but just didn't quite leave enough space between Charles Leclerc, who was pinched between the two Red Bulls and Perez unfortunately ended up having massive damage to the suspension, and to his sidepods as well.
Eventually, with the field being neutralised by strategy and DRS trains, Kevin Magnussen's rear suspension would give up the metaphorical ghost, breaking and sending the Haas into the barriers at Turn 9. This caused heavy damage to the outside barrier, and eventually brought out a Red Flag
RED FLAG
Credit: Jared C. Tilton
The Red Flag neutralised all strategy options and advantages that Ferrari had over Verstappen. Verstappen seemingly was going for the one-stop but more likely, the two-stop strategy, whereas Ferrari had initially been committed to the one-stop.
Unfortunate to see, with Perez retiring from the race, many of the 400,000 Mexican fans began leaving their seats in the grandstands, certainly not what the Mexican crowd wanted.
Re-Start
The restart began completely differently from the actual start of the Grand Prix, this time far more calm at least on the race start.
Verstappen managed to ride off into the distance once again, pulling out a 10-second lead from Lewis Hamilton, who opted to try and go to the end on the Medium Compound tyres, with the Ferrari's around him, on the Hards. Ferrari playing the long game with both Mercedes cars, who were both in fact on those Medium tyres.
Piastri and Tsunoda would eventually make contact at Turn One, sending Tsunoda around and then straight back to the bottom of the field.
McLaren would swap Piastri over with Norris, very likely that Piastri had damage. Norris eventually fought Ricciardo for P6, and was catching up to George Russell as well with just under 10 laps remaining.
Ricciardo would attack Russell on the final lap of the race, not quite being able to carry through to take 6th off Russell in the end.
Credit: Mark Thompson
Verstappen came home though, to take his 16th win of 2023, matching the most wins in a single season, set by Verstappen himself in 2022, with 16 as well. It is his 51st Grand Prix victory, now only two wins off Sebastian Vettel's career total. Verstappen is only 26 years old.
check out Divebomb Motorsport’s Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter and of course, our YouTube Channel too. You can find the links to those social platforms, at the bottom of the screen. Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/projectdivebomb/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@projectdivebomb Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/projectdivebomb/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/projectdivebomb?lang=en YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@projectdivebomb
Commentaires