An eventful start in Mexico City saw Max Verstappen leapfrog both Mercedes cars to overcome their disappointments in qualifying.
A frustrating qualifying session on Saturday saw Red Bull's Max qualify just 3rd with teammate Checo qualifying 4th after going off track in front of his home fans and halting his teammate in the process. Meanwhile, Mercedes earned themselves a first front row lockout of the season as they qualified 1st (Bottas) and 2nd. However, Max claimed that qualifying wasn't as much of a disappointment as first thought as he expressed how being 3rd on the grid was better than starting 2nd.
And his comments were soon proved accurate as he snatched the racing line from Mercedes and leapfrogged both Mercedes at turn 1 to gain the lead. The misery for Mercedes was then further compiled as Bottas was spun out by Ricciardo, causing a safety car, and dropped right to the bottom of the pile as Tsunoda and Schumacher were forced to retire after a collision with Ocon. It was Mercedes who pulled the trigger first as Hamilton pitted for the undercut and emerged just behind the Ferrari of Leclerc, who luckily for Lewis pitted a lap later so the Mercedes wasn't slowed down to significantly. Verstappen then pitted 4 laps later with a 2.2 second pitstop who entered the track behind his teammate in 2nd. Another quick stop for the Red Bull of Perez saw him emerge just 7 seconds behind Hamilton as he sprung up a battle for 2nd. The Mexican managed to tighten that gap to below the 1 second gap but just missed out on the 2nd place finish and as he completed the race in 3rd and became the first Mexican driver to be on the podium in his home race and also the first Mexican driver to lead a lap in his home race. A consolation for Mercedes as Bottas took the fastest lap point away from Red Bull. Meanwhile, another win for Verstappen meant his gap at the top of the standings extended to 19 points, with just a 1 point gap in favour of Mercedes in the constructors championship.
A solid race from Gasly saw him finish 4th, ahead of Leclerc and Sainz as they helped Ferrari overtake McLaren in the constructors championship, ahead of brilliant races from veterans Vettel, Raikkonen and Alonso, as Lando Norris rounded off the points in 10th.
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