Sergio Perez was definitely the crowd favourite at last weekends Mexico City Grand Prix. While he didn’t win the race, he did become the first Mexican driver to stand on the podium at their home race.
Max Verstappen started in third, but with a great start, and a little bit of a tow, he was able to take the lead going into turn one where he managed to hang on to that lead and secure another race victory. Lewis Hamilton finished second, 16 seconds behind Verstappen. The British man struggled behind his championship rival and ultimately finished in the same place he had started. The championship is going to go down to the wire with Mercedes and Red Bull now separated by only 1 point.
Sergio Perez fought hard this race. When the checkered flag came out, he was only 0.5 seconds away from second, but it was not to be. However, on lap 34 he became the first Mexican driver to lead a lap at their home race. Checo really deserved that podium, and the cheering of the fans was so loud, you could tell he was proud.
On lap one, Daniel Ricciardo locked up going into turn one and hit the back of Valtteri Bottas, brining out the safety car, which pretty much ruined both of their races. Bottas was stuck behind Ricciardo for the rest of the race, which I am sure was extremely frustrating. Ricciardo ended the race in P12 after two pit stops, while Bottas had some even worse luck. He pitted after the crash on lap one and then pitted again to try and take the fastest lap away from Verstappen, and then pitted one more to keep trying for the fastest lap point, and ultimately he would finish the race in P15. Safe to say, it was not a good race for either driver.
Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda were two other drivers who got caught up in the lap one chaos, but they were not so lucky as Bottas and Ricciardo. They both got caught up with Esteban Ocon and were taken out of the race. Their stopped cars on track were what brought out the safety car.
Max Verstappen kept his lead over Hamilton in the championship growing, now standing at 19 points, with another race win. Hamilton came in second with Sergio Perez completing the podium. Pierre Gasly finished fourth followed by Charles Leclerc in fifth, Carlos Sainz in sixth, Sebastian Vettel in seventh, Kimi Raikkonen in eighth, Fernando Alonso in ninth, and Lando Norris rounding out the top ten.
We are now underway in Brazil for another Sprint Qualifying weekend. It should be really exciting and hopefully produce some more amazing racing.
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