Verstappen set a Formula 1 record at the 2023 Mexican Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing on Sunday made another serious attempt to win the Mexican Formula 1 Grand Prix of 2023. This is the 16th victory of the 2023 world champion in the season, and this is a new Formula 1 record. This new record is the second record set by Verstappen this season, he also set a record of consecutive wins, having scored an impressive 10 wins earlier this year. Hermanos Rodriguez was third in the race at the circuit, followed by Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes-Benz AMG and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari.
Sergio Perez of Red Bull crashed on the first lap, and Country Norris of McLaren started from 17th place on the grid, then finished brilliantly in fifth. Another outstanding result was the performance of Daniel Riccardo from Alphatauri, who finished 7th. It was only his second race after a wrist injury caused him to miss a tough race.
Sunday's race started with Leclerc and his teammate Carlos Sainz joining him on pole in front of the starting grid. Verstappen fell behind and skillfully used the sliding flow effect to get ahead of the Ferrari driver and take the lead in the first corner. Perez, who started fifth, also tried to overtake the Ferrari driver and ran the track, colliding with Leclerc in chaos. The damage to his car ended the race for Perez. After that, Verstappen started to close the gap, but on the 19th lap the tires wore out, and he went into the pit, returning to seventh place after George Russell from Mercedes. With fresh tires, Verstappen could easily overtake them in front of him and by the 31st lap was back in the lead after Leclerc's decision to call in a pit stop.
After that, the race looked settled, and a few laps later Kevin Magnussen from Haas had a suspension failure, he turned off the track at turn 8 and hit the barrier hard. The safety car was called, and at that moment Verstappen drove into the box.
Red flags were quickly raised at the race due to debris and damaged barriers on the track. After 20 minutes, Verstappen was quickly suspended, and Leclerc slowed down to protect himself from Hamilton. Leclerc could have lost 40th place to Hamilton on the 2nd lap and could not regain the lost place by the end of the race. At the end of the weekend, Verstappen's unbeaten result in the 2023 Drivers' Championship increased to 491 points. Perez has 240 points in 2nd place, while Hamilton has 220 points in 3rd place. In the constructors' championship, Red Bull, which has already won the title this year, is gaining 731 points. Mercedes has 371 points in 2nd place, while Ferrari has 349 points in 3rd place.
The next race on the calendar is the Brazilian Grand Prix this weekend.
Here are the full results of the 2023 Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix:
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing 2) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-Benz AMG +13.875 seconds 3) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari +23.124 seconds 4) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari +27.154 seconds 5) Country Norris, McLaren +33.266 seconds 6) George Russell, Mercedes-Benz AMG +41.020 seconds 7) Daniel Ricardo, Alfatauri +41.570 seconds 8) Oscar Piastri, McLaren +43.104 seconds 9) Alexander Albon, Williams +48.573 seconds 10) Esteban Ocon, Alpine +62.879 seconds 11) Pierre Guthrie, Alpine +66.208 seconds 12) Yuki Tsunoda +78.982 seconds 13) Nico Hulkenberg, Haas +80.309 seconds 14) Alfa Romeo +81.676 seconds 15) Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo +85.597 seconds 16) Logan Sargent, Williams-DNF 17) Aston Martin DNF spear strike Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin-DNF Kevin Magnussen, Haas-DNF North Carolina) Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing - DNF