Sainz wins against Norris; Verstappen sixth after penalties

Carlos Sainz took his second win of 2024 at the Mexican Grand Prix with a confident drive, while Lando Norris finished second and Max Verstappen sixth after a 20-second penalty.

The Spaniard regained first place after losing it in the first corner and didn't concede a single goal after that; He built an unassailable lead that sapped the potential of a threat from Norris in the closing stages after the McLaren driver overtook Charles Leclerc.

Sainz maintained the lead during the pit stop phases and despite occasional attempts by Leclerc to increase his lead, the Williams driver took revenge and continued his attempts to build a breakaway group at the front.

Sainz had lost the lead to Verstappen when the Red Bull driver arrived first into Turn 1, forcing the Ferrari driver to go onto the grass by maintaining the racing line.

But the race was soon derailed after a first-corner collision between Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda brought out the safety car; Albon was sandwiched between Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly and the former two ended up together in the Turn 1 braking zone.

Tsunoda ended up driving straight into the wall, while Albon also stopped and had to retire with damage to his left front tire.

Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, crash

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

On the restart, Sainz spent two laps in Verstappen's wheel tracks before using DRS to gather enough speed for an overtaking maneuver in Turn 1 and then fending off a possible switchback in the following corners.

This put Verstappen in the clutches of Norris, and the McLaren driver's attempt to pass on the outside of Turn 4 was again met with Verstappen pushing him off the road.

As in Austin, Norris had laid claim to the position, but then Verstappen plunged to the inside in Turn 7, took away both drivers again – and overtook Norris off the road. Both incidents resulted in 10-second penalties for Verstappen, which dropped him further down the rankings and took him out of the top contention. Leclerc took advantage of the battle between the two championship leaders and moved into second place.

However, the Monegasque driver was unable to challenge his teammate and after the pit stop phase, Sainz's lead had increased to over eight seconds. Leclerc tried to contain this, although both Ferraris used lift-and-coast tactics to gain the necessary cooling.

Sainz stabilized at more than five seconds, but then Leclerc's tires began to fail and he began to drift into Norris' orbit – as the Brit entered DRS range at the end of lap 62, Leclerc subsequently drifted well out of the Peraltada and almost hit the wall.

Leclerc parried the oversteer but couldn't stop Norris from getting past. Norris then began to catch up with Sainz, but only came within 4.7 seconds of the checkered flag.

With a free pit stop thanks to a 30-second lead over the Mercedes duo behind him, Leclerc ultimately pitted on soft tires and took the point for the fastest lap, which he duly collected with a time of 1:18.336 minutes to support Ferrari's World Constructors' Championship.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth after a long battle with George Russell, in which Hamilton's countless overtaking attempts were rebuffed by his Mercedes teammate.

On lap 66, the seven-time champion finally came through Turn 1 with DRS and highlighted his faster pace by building a 3.7 second lead over Russell.

Verstappen retired in sixth place, albeit 11 seconds behind Russell, having struggled for pace on the hard tyres; The Dutchman was slowly overtaken by an impressive Kevin Magnussen, who secured seventh place ahead of a recovering Oscar Piastri.

The Australian tried to salvage points after being eliminated in Q1 on Saturday but failed to get past eighth as he struggled to make progress in the opening stages of the Grand Prix.

Nico Hülkenberg's pace dropped at the end of the race, but he still managed to hold on to ninth place while Pierre Gasly took the final point for Alpine.

Sergio Perez finished last in his home Grand Prix; His miserable afternoon began when he left his grid on the grid and picked up a five-second penalty.

The Red Bull driver then performed worse in a bad-tempered duel with Liam Lawson; Perez appeared to push the RB driver away in Turn 4 during an overtaking attempt, to which the New Zealander responded with a fierce challenge in the next corner, causing floor and sidepod damage to the Mexican.

Mexico City Grand Prix 2024