Mexico may be home to the Festival of the Dead, though in 2021 it came alive on the back of a Red Bull 1-3 and a first home podium for a Mexican driver. Conversely, there were rumblings of discontent in the Mercedes AMG Petronas garage with the team far from satisfied from the meagre points haul.

After the team lock out of the front row in qualifying, Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team held high hopes for another win to reignite the championship battle in the final sprint to the 2021 decider. Yet it all went horribly wrong well before Bottas collided with Daniel Ricciardo at the first turn…

The decisive moment in the Mexican Grand Prix came a matter of seconds into the race as Bottas and Hamilton ran side by side down the long straight towards Turn 1. Hamilton held the inside line as Bottas moved across towards the middle of the track as the pair kept tabs on the Red Bull Honda behind, but it was Perez and not Verstappen.

Max Verstappen had continued to run down the extreme left of the track on the racing line. Bottas’ move towards the middle provided more than an ample car’s width. Verstappen exploited the tow from #77 and the grippier part of the surface to sweep around the outside and into the lead. Such was that advantage that the Dutch driver was comfortably ahead of Hamilton as he exited the opening corner in the middle of the racetrack .

Hamilton ran 2nd from Bottas who turned towards the apex of the turn unawares of a fast approaching Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian locked up the left front tyre on the dirtier side of the track as he ran a narrow line towards the apex. The inevitable squeeze that followed saw contact between the pair, which effectively ended any real chance of a meaningful result for either driver. Bottas was left facing the on coming traffic which led to further contact for Yuki Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher and race ending damage after the Alpha Tauri and Haas hit either side of Esteban Ocon’s Alpine and became airborne for a second or two before crashing down.

A full Safety car aided Bottas who returned to the pits for a set of hard compound tyres. Ricciardo had fared worse, losing the front wing in the initial incident before suffering further damage on the opening lap after contact from George Russell. A stop for a new nose and fresh hard compound tyres saw the McLaren back on the circuit but hampered by damage to the aero package on his car.

Hamilton had fallen away significantly from Verstappen and stopped first for the had compound tyres on lap 30 of 71. He soon lapped 2 seconds faster than the leader, who remained on track in order to optimise his tyre life during the latter stages of the race. That advantage had dropped significantly by the time Verstappen made his stop, though the strategy was expected to see the Red Bull Honda drive away from his title rival during the closing stages of the race.

Sergio Perez ran far longer during his opening stint maintaining the race lead, much to the delight of the Mexican crowd and his excited family watching in the Red Bull Honda garage. The move ultimately placed Perez in a battle for 2nd with Hamilton.

By lap 41 Verstappen led Hamilton by 9.4 seconds, with Perez a further 9.8 seconds behind. Sainz, Gasly, Leclerc, Norris, Vettel, Raikkonen and Alonso completed the top 10, though some had yet to make their pit stops.

As Verstappen cruised away at the head of the field, Hamilton came under increasing pressure from Perez. The second Red Bull Honda ranged to within a second of the #44 on the penultimate lap but Hamilton managed to withstand the challenge, to the disappointment of most Mexican fans.

Verstappen won by 16 seconds from Hamilton and Perez. Gasly, Leclerc, Sainz, Vettel, Raikkonen, Alonso and Norris rounded out the top 10. Daniel Ricciardo finished 12, while Valtteri Bottas ended in 15th after two further pit stops in an attempt by the team to wrestle the fastest lap and a point from Verstappen. Bottas finally did so on the final lap of the race in what was a small consolation for what might have been for the Finn.

“It was an incredible day for the Team and also for the fans, to have Checo on the podium here in Mexico at his home Grand Prix was great, so it couldn’t have been better,” Max Verstappen said to Red Bull Media. “I knew the start was very important today, we were three wide at one point and I was on the more ideal race line so I could brake later and get into the lead. After that I could do my own thing, the pace was very good today so I could just keep building and creating a gap, the pit stops were seamless and the car was good throughout the race which was crucial today. Checo, for the last few races has really picked it up, he’s been up there and he was really pressuring Lewis today towards the end. I’m still not thinking about that trophy, we’ll try again in Brazil and just keep pushing.”

Daniel Ricciardo was somewhat philosophical at the end of the race. He intended to review the opening lap incident and apologise to Valtteri Bottas in what the Race Stewards called a racing incident.

“The first lap incident was about as painful as they get because your race is pretty much over from the start. I was in a tricky position because I know that if I didn’t go for it, someone else would have, and I’d probably have been swamped by other cars. At the end of the day, I think it’s just a lap one incident,” Daniel Ricciardo said to McLaren Media.

“The start was good and those first few hundred metres were looking positive. I think we were potentially in P4, and in a split-second it changes. That’s the nature of the beast, but these ones are pretty painful because you have to endure the race and hope something happens, but nothing really did. I was able to defend Bottas, normally when you’re doing that it’s for a good position, but we were both obviously at the back. The car was also damaged, and we had a chunk of downforce missing. A bit heart-breaking. For a few seconds it looked awesome and then it looked pretty un-awesome. We’ll try to come back in Brazil.”

Photos: f1.com

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