Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admits he was “very surprised” that Ferrari avoided fitting the Medium tyre to Charles Leclerc’s car for the Mexico City Grand Prix restart.

Max Verstappen had immediately got ahead of polesitter Leclerc at the start, stretching out a 4.6s lead by the time he pitted for the Hard compound at the end of Lap 19.

Ferrari, however, extended Leclerc’s first stint until Lap 32, one lap before its attempt to prolong a one-stop strategy was negated by Kevin Magnussen’s high-speed shunt.

Horner has echoed Verstappen’s admission that Red Bull had been angling for a two-stop prior to the race being suspended on Lap 35 to repair the damaged barrier at Turn 9.

Asked if a two-stop strategy had been Red Bull’s pre-race arrangement, Horner said: “Yeah. So we went aggressive today. The compounds had stepped down a compound.

“A one-stop felt, you’re hanging on a bit, so we felt we’d attack the race, and Max was very keen to do an attacking strategy even if he conceded track position to be on the right tire. And that was the plan from Friday.”

Like Red Bull with Verstappen, Ferrari opted to leave Leclerc on the Hard for the restart amid concerns over tyre degradation.

However, the Monegasque driver struggled on the white-walled compound, eventually succumbing to Lewis Hamilton on Mediums on Lap 40 and trailing home a distant third.

After Leclerc had managed to run almost half the race on the Medium, Horner says he was certain Ferrari would revert back to the middle-range tyre to attack Verstappen.

“That red flag was at the worst possible time in the middle of a two-stop. It neutralizes the race, and of course we’ve only got a Hard set of tires,” Horner explains.

“We thought Leclerc after that long first stint, I was convinced they’d take a set of Mediums because it’s worth about five meters off the start line. I was very surprised they went with the Hard tyre. You saw the Medium on Hamilton, and he was OK in the end.”

Although Ferrari reassured Leclerc that Hamilton’s Medium tyre would drop away, the Briton extended the gap in the closing laps and set the fastest lap on his final tour.

Having stormed to pole position on Saturday, Leclerc concedes that Ferrari’s troubles on the harder compound exposed the continued inconsistency of its SF-23 car in race trim.

“I think it still confirms the weaknesses of our car, where it’s a very peaky car,” he addressed. “And whenever we get out of the optimal window of the car, we are losing too much time. And that’s exactly what happened on the Hard.

“At first, I thought I could do quite a good job once we stopped. But then there was a red flag, the tyres cooled down, we went back out and the feeling was just not the same and I couldn’t find the feeling again with the tyres.

“So it’s a bit of a shame because before that it was really good, especially on the Medium. But we’ll look into it, again, on the Hard to try and understand what went wrong there, in order to improve that in the future.

“But I think short term, there’s no big fixes. I think every time we are, as I said, a bit out of the optimal window, we lose too much time.”

George Russell has revealed that overheating brakes were responsible for the tyre woes that saw him struggle during the closing stages of the Mexico Grand Prix.

Russell profited from Sergio Perez’s first-lap retirement to move up from eighth before a red flag stoppage on Lap 33 due to Kevin Magnussen’s crash also advantaged him.

The Briton utilised running Medium tyres at the restart to propel past Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo into fifth and was then heavily pressuring Carlos Sainz ahead.

However, Russell was unable to overtake the Ferrari, prompting him to be required to back off to cool his brakes which inadvertently saw him lose vital tyre temperature.

The Mercedes driver was powerless to defend against the recovering Lando Norris and only narrowly resisted the threat posed by Daniel Ricciardo to retain sixth at the end.

Reflecting on his race, Russell, who eventually classified 27s behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton in second place, said: “It was just a race dictated by tyres once again. The car felt really strong, right behind Carlos, I just couldn’t quite make the overtake.

“We had to back off as my brakes were overheating, as they were for many drivers. As soon as I backed off, I totally lost all the temperature in my tyres, I could never recover it. It was like driving on ice for the last 15 laps. A really miserable feeling and very lucky to finish P6.”

Russell concedes his issue meant he didn’t enjoy his battle with Norris, who perfectly lined up a move into Turn 4 to execute a switchback move on the exit of Turn 5.

“It’s never fun when you’re on the defending driver on the back foot, again, just really struggled throughout that race with the tyres, it was pretty clear, as soon as I backed off, I lost all the grip and I couldn’t recover,” he explained.

“Not too concerned, because I know the reason for it. It’s been two race weekends in a row for two different reasons, last week for fuel and I lost the tyres because I backed off to manage the fuel, this weekend it was the brakes. That’s at least some clarity.”

Russell managed to marginally keep Ricciardo at bay on the final lap, but the ex-Williams racer admits the Australian would have been past him with one more lap.

Asked if he was expecting the AlphaTauri to overtake him, Russell replied: “No, but for sure one more lap he would have done. He’s had a really great weekend, really happy to see him performing well. Deserves it.”

While Hamilton has maximised the improvements provided by Mercedes’ recent floor upgrade in Austin to score successive second places, Russell has lagged considerably behind his team-mate.

Russell is hoping that the next round in Brazil this weekend won’t be overshadowed by the same problems many drivers encountered with the operating range of the Pirelli tyres.

“We were strong here last year, qualified on the front row. Probably should have had two cars on the podium last year,” Russell acknowledged. “So, it’s definitely performing well, but this weekend has been a weekend about tyres as it has been for everyone.

“Yesterday was a total surprise for many teams, for good or bad. I’m hoping Brazil won’t be that sensitive,” last year’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix winner concluded.

Daniel Ricciardo believes he “definitely” could’ve finished higher than seventh in the Mexico Grand Prix without the red flag stoppage.

Having endured a tough return outing in the United States, Ricciardo excelled from the outset at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, winding up fourth in qualifying.

Although Lewis Hamilton soon overtook him on Lap 11, the Australian was comfortably sitting fifth when Kevin Magnussen’s hefty crash prompted a red flag on Lap 33.

Ricciardo, who could only opt for the Hard tyre on the restart, lost out to George Russell on Mediums at the second start before the recovering Lando Norris also passed him.

“I think everything was actually working pretty well,” he reflected. “Honestly the red flag I think hurt us. But I don’t want to say it too selfishly, because there was a big accident, I believe a car failure, so nothing Kevin could do. Yes, as much as that hurt our race, I would like to think because strategy and everything was looking pretty smooth; obviously the main thing is he’s OK.

“It obviously bunched everyone up and allowed some cars to use the Mediums, which we didn’t have. So yeah. I think at that point, it was probably a bit more nervous on [the] pit wall, but to still come out with seventh and six points, and nearly eight points, we got very close to George at the end, I think big picture, we have to be very happy.”

With Russell increasingly struggling in the latter laps, Ricciardo closed up and had a look into Turn 4 on the final tour, but his advances were rebuffed by the Briton.

However, Ricciardo asserts that even battling a Mercedes in his AlphaTauri usurped the frustration of marginally missing out on securing an extra points position.

“I was honestly trying as much as I could,” he said regarding the late tussle. “It was a little weird, at the start of the stint, I didn’t feel as good as towards the end. It felt like it took me a little bit to get a rhythm with the tyre.

“Then the last probably 10 laps, I was able to really start pushing harder, and yeah, I think Lando getting George probably hurt George’s tyres a little bit, so that brought him back to me.

“It was tough. I probably didn’t expect to get that close. When you’re that close, you’re like ah, we could’ve! But he protected well in Turn 4. At one point, I was trying to go on the outside, but I could see we were both going to run off and had to abort mission. He did well, he did well to defend.

“We tried, but yeah. I think ultimately, just to be battling a Mercedes at the end, that makes me more happy than just missing out on sixth.”

While he is unsure whether he could have held Norris at bay, Ricciardo is certain he would have bettered seventh if the race hadn’t been suspended midway through.

“I don’t know if Lando’s pace in that second half of the race was as good as the first half,” he assessed. “Yeah, we were let’s say holding Oscar [Piastri] at bay.

“We had gaps… it felt like at that moment, I was like, this could be a nice, lonely fifth place, and I was OK with that.

“I definitely think we could have been better than seventh, let’s say that, without the red. That’s racing. On one hand, you could say unlucky, but it can always be worse. The restart we could have had a crash or something, so to still come through, I’m happy.”

Ricciardo’s six-point haul followed up Yuki Tsunoda’s five points from Austin last weekend, elevating AlphaTauri into eighth position in the Constructors’ Championship.

“I think after last week, Yuki got five points and it was huge for the team, everyone was cartwheeling and backflipping,” he remarked. “A week later to do six points, I’m very happy.”

Max Verstappen says it would’ve been “interesting” to see how his two-stop strategy would have unfolded without the mid-race stoppage in the Mexico Grand Prix.

Starting third, Verstappen executed an excellent launch to slice in between the Ferraris, positioning his car to the inside on the approach to Turn 1 to seize the lead.

Verstappen had extended his advantage over Charles Leclerc to 4.6s when Red Bull pitted him to discard his Medium tyres for a set of the Hard compound at the end of Lap 19.

Having saved two brand-new sets of Hards, the Dutchman reveals that securing first place at the start initially aided his prospects as he was always intending to stop twice.

“I think that start definitely made it a bit easier for me in the first stint as well,” he said. “Also, because I was going to do a two-stop, so that, of course, gave me those extra couple seconds that would look great on the plot anyway, if we would have made it happen.

“So, yeah, just the tyres around here, it’s always very hard to manage, but I think we had quite decent pace in them. And then of course, we opted to box a bit earlier. And yeah, I think also on the Hard tyre, we were quite competitive, and I closed a lot of that pit stop back down.”

Emerging in seventh, Verstappen had scythed through the cars ahead yet to pit, resuming in the lead once Leclerc, who had run a longer stint, finally pitted on Lap 32.

One lap later, however, Kevin Magnussen’s high-speed shunt into the barrier at Turn 9 prompted the Safety Car to intervene before being upgraded to a full red flag stoppage.

“I think it would have been quite interesting to the end, you know, to see how much faster I could have gone a new set of Hard tyres,” he added. “Yeah, I think the strategy was looking great.

“But then, of course, we had the red flag. So basically, everything that we did, we could throw in the bin and start over.”

Despite remaining on the Hard tyre he had fitted before the suspension, Verstappen nailed the second start of the race to comfortably retain the lead into Turn 1.

“It was all about having a good start and trying to keep the lead into Turn 1, which we did,” he continued. “And after that it was just pace management to the end to keep the tyres alive, looking after the car, the brakes, you know, everything.”

He added: “Well, for me, it was quite clear that we had to do the last stint on that Hard tyre. Luckily, it had only done one lap. So that helped.

“But of course in the start, normally, the Hard tyres is a bit more difficult to get off the line, but we actually had quite a decent start on that tyre as well.”

Although Lewis Hamilton on the Medium compound overhauled Leclerc, Verstappen progressively increased his superiority to take the chequered flag with a 13.8s margin.

The three-time champion’s fifth victory in Mexico City also marked his 16th win of the 2023 season, surpassing the record number that he managed to achieve last season.

“It’s been another incredible season. I mean, the car has been unbelievable to drive in most places,” he exclaimed. “So, you know, when you then, as a team, work really well together and you try not to make too many mistakes over the whole season, then you can achieve something like this.

“So of course, I’m very proud of the achievement, because I think after last year, when I won 15, I was like, ‘well, if I can ever try and replicate something like that, I will be very happy’ and now we are here with 16.

“So yeah, just very happy with everyone’s performance in the team, you know, for the whole year for basically not making a lot of mistakes.”

Lando Norris has demanded that some Formula 1 drivers show “a bit more self-awareness” after he had to “avoid a very big crash” on the restart in the Mexico Grand Prix.

Norris had progressed from 17th to 10th in the opening half of the 71-lap encounter when the race was suspended on Lap 33 after Kevin Magnussen crashed at Turn 9.

But he lost out four places on the restart, with replays showing the Briton experienced a lethargic getaway before getting out of the throttle ahead of the approach to Turn 1.

Explaining the incident post-race, Norris reveals that he had to evade a potential crash when multiple drivers were jostling for position on the 890m blast to the first corner.

“I enjoyed the whole thing, apart from my restart,” he said.“I don’t know if you saw it but yeah, I probably had to avoid a very big crash, just people coming across not realising that people can be three abreast.

“So I avoided two extremely big crashes which would have been very nasty so, a bit more self-awareness from some drivers would be great.”

However, Norris has denied that the near miss was responsible for the setback.

He added: “It’s not why I lost out, I lost out because of a bad start but I lost out even more because of these things.”

Norris mounted a charge across the remainder of the race to gain nine places to fifth, prompting McLaren’s Andrea Stella to hail it “one of the best races” he’s seen.

The 23-year-old was equally enthused by McLaren’s pace despite running a compromised setup for overtaking, believing only the top two finishers were quicker.

“The pace was amazing already from Lap 1,” Norris beamed. “There was a lot of management involved and already when I came over the line the first time I got told to cool the engine.

“So we maybe weren’t perfectly set up for these things and I couldn’t push as much as I wanted to at times but at other times I could which was a lot of the second stint.

“The pace was excellent to go from 14th, 15th to 5th, to have better pace than almost everyone bar than [Lewis] Hamilton and Max [Verstappen] was very encouraging for us. So, yeah. As perfect a day as I could have probably asked for.”

Having navigated his way past both Alpine cars, Nico Hulkenberg and Alex Albon, Norris rapidly caught team-mate Oscar Piastri, resulting in McLaren using team orders.

“I didn’t ask to go past or anything,” Norris revealed. “I was happy to race against him. but I think it was clear from [the] pace and points that I eventually went on to get it, that was the correct thing to do from a team perspective. Thanks again to him.”

Norris then proceeded to reel in both Daniel Ricciardo and George Russell, who was struggling increasingly on his Medium tyre.

After dispatching Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri with a bold move around the outside into Turn 4, Norris used the same corner to set up a clever switchback on Russell into Turn 6.

“You know deep down, I know these guys really well, I know Daniel but he’s not going to want to give it up easily at all, right! Two tough ones but enjoyable,” he reflected.

“All the racing got done after the restart. It was fair, tough and hard and that’s when it’s good fun!”

Following his costly Q1 exit in qualifying, McLaren elected to diverge from the rest of the competition by starting Norris on Softs.

Norris believes it “absolutely” worked out for him, crediting his McLaren team for helping him to maximise the best possible result.

“It just helped me in the start, off the line and things like that,” he said. “Turn 1 can go your way, it cannot go your way, but I think we played everything smart. I think played it well.

“Maybe the Safety Car and a couple of things weren’t perfectly timed for us. The VSC and so forth. Otherwise, everything pretty much went our way, and we maximised today, the Softs included.”

Lewis Hamilton admits that he tried to chase down Max Verstappen at one stage during the Mexico City Grand Prix but relented once he realised the Red Bull was “cruising”.

Starting sixth, Hamilton immediately gained a position after Sergio Perez clashed with Charles Leclerc at the first turn before displacing Daniel Ricciardo on Lap 11.

Having latched onto the back of Carlos Sainz, Hamilton successfully undercut the Ferrari prior to the race being stopped on Lap 33 due to Kevin Magnussen’s Turn 9 crash.

The Briton took advantage of running the Medium tyre for the remainder to overhaul Charles Leclerc shortly after the restart to cement his finishing position of second.

Reflecting on his charge to the podium, Hamilton said: “Yeah, great day. I was not expecting to be up here with these guys.

“Difficult weekend, it started out, but yeah, I just kept my nose clean at the beginning of the race and then just really trying to manage the tyres and maximise and progress forwards.

“And when I noticed that I had the pace on Carlos, I knew that with the undercut, it really worked quite well. So, the team did a great job I think with strategy.

“And then of course the red flag probably played into our hands in terms of getting onto the fresher tyre at the end. But I just I didn’t know if whether or not the Medium would make it that long.

“I was trying to see if I could close the gap to Max but he was long gone and I could only just about equal his times. But great result for the team, really proud of everyone.”

Despite running a softer compound of tyre and being situated on the clean side of the grid, Hamilton was unable to get by Leclerc on the run down to Turn 1 on the restart.

After remaining in close proximity to the Ferrari for several laps, Hamilton utilised the slipstream and DRS to slip up the inside of Leclerc into the first corner on Lap 40.

Hamilton asserts that he virtually “pressed every button on the steering wheel” in order to mitigate the substantial time loss Mercedes was spurning on the straights.

“Yeah, honestly, this weekend, we’ve been very, very slow on the straight,” he explained. “In general, we’ve were quite draggy on the straights more often than not but this weekend, you know, like yesterday, we were losing like two-and-a-half tenths just into Turn 1 before we even start braking.

“So, these guys were very slippery on the straights so, trying to follow closely through Turns 16 and 17 was, was really the only way that I could get close enough and have an opportunity to make the DRS impactful.

“And finally, I pressed every button on the steering wheel, maximum power. And I didn’t know how far across he was going to go. But split second decision, I decided to go to the right. There’s just enough space there but Charles was really fair. But yeah, great racing.”

Hamilton revealed that using “sweet finesse” was the key to him preserving his Medium tyres to the end to maintaining the advantage he had built up over Leclerc.

The seven-time World Champion disclosed that he did push on in an attempt to reduce the deficit to Verstappen, but he swiftly figured the Dutchman was coasting.

Asked if his successful attempt at the fastest lap on the final tour suggested he could have extracted more from the last stint, Hamilton said: “Yeah, for sure. I could have pushed a little bit harder but I did at one time try to see, okay, I think I’ve saved enough, let me see if I can try and close this gap to Max.

“I think it was like 10 laps to go, and I did a 22.0 and Max did a 21.9. I was like, ah, I’ll leave it. He was just cruising at 21.9. So yeah, so I thought I’d leave it there.

“And also, I had to be cautious, just careful because obviously my tyres… if I really pushed them for the last 10 laps, they probably would have opened up, and who knows, maybe Charles would have caught me up. So, I just had to be cautious with that.”

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and Max Verstappen have defended Sergio Perez’s attempted move at Turn 1 on the first lap that sent him out of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Starting third and fifth, both Red Bulls got away excellently from the grid enabling Verstappen to slice in between the Ferraris and Perez to utilise the slipstream ahead.

As Verstappen positioned his car to the inside to gain the high ground, Perez swung to the outside of polesitter Charles Leclerc to make it three abreast into the first turn.

But the Ferrari driver was caught in between the two Red Bulls, resulting in contact that sent Perez momentarily into the air and damage that brought his race to an end.

After Perez conceded that his approach was centred on gunning for victory, Horner believes that “you can’t blame” the Mexican for trying to seize the lead at his home event.

“Yeah, absolutely two contrasting emotions,” Horner said. “One absolutely gutted to see Checo go out on the first corner. He had probably his best start of the season, got the draft and the tow from the three cars ahead, and so arrived with massive overspeed.

“And you can’t blame him at his home race, going to try and take the lead of the grand prix. I think you have to call it a racing incident, because three into one doesn’t go. Charles couldn’t get out of it, he braked late.

“So yeah, frustrating for Checo and really disappointing for his fans to lose him at the first corner. And the guys did their best to get him back out. But there was just too much damage to the floor and the underbody of the car. Charles is in a bit of a Red Bull sandwich.”

Horner added: “It’s a tough moment for him. It’s in front of his home crowd, he’s very emotional. And yeah, just said to him, next race next week, you’re going for the lead in your home race, you wouldn’t be a racing driver if you weren’t going for it.”

Although Verstappen insists that Perez potentially could have afforded more room on the outside, the Dutchman has also sympathised with his team-mate’s situation.

“I understand [the move] because it’s his home Grand Prix,” he noted. “You want to be on the podium, I fully understand that he went around the outside and he tried.  

“Looking, of course, at the footage, I think he could have left a little bit more space but on the other hand if it would have worked, you look amazing. I think it’s just more that excitement of wanting to be on the podium and this time it didn’t work out, unfortunately.”

Verstappen admits that it was only until he saw the footage in the cooldown room post-race that he understood the chaos that had materialised to his left at the first turn.

“At the time, I didn’t really see a lot,” he professed. “At one point, I just saw that a car was a bit flying in the air, but then I saw the footage after the race and then you can comment on it.

“But while driving it’s a bit hard because I was mainly focusing on Charles, because I couldn’t see what was happening on the outside.”

Verstappen eventually survived a mid-race red flag restart to notch a record-breaking 16th win of 2023 by a comfortable 13.8s margin over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

Horner is convinced that Perez would have accompanied his team-mate on the podium without the extensive damage that prevented Red Bull from returning him to the track.

“I think he would have been on the podium for sure today,” Horner relayed. “That was never in doubt. It’s a big loss for him today here with obviously a car that was capable of being on the podium.”

Charles Leclerc insists he “had nowhere to go” in the opening corner clash that sent Sergio Perez out of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Starting from pole position, Leclerc endured a sluggish getaway from the line and was immediately swarmed by Max Verstappen, who cut in between the two Ferrari drivers.

Behind them, Perez had also made a good launch and utilised the slipstream to position his car to the left of Leclerc into Turn 1 in an attempt to sweep right around the outside.

However, Leclerc ended up getting pinched between the two Red Bulls, resulting in the Ferrari driver making contact with Perez’s RB19 and sending it momentarily into the air.

Although Perez was able to nurse his car back to the pits, Red Bull elected to retire the Mexican after inspecting the damage, bringing a premature end to his race.

Leclerc would eventually battle through to claim third but was booed heavily post-race by the hoards of Mexican fans present at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

The Monegasque driver defended his involvement in the incident to the local fans, citing that he was unable to do anything to prevent the touch that sent Perez out.

“A lot of booing…guys,” he said. “I mean, honestly, I had nowhere to go. I was a bit in between the two Red Bulls and, unfortunately, I touched Checo, but I had nowhere to go. So, it’s life.

“It damaged my car. And unfortunately, it ended the race of Checo, but on our end, we maximised our race.

“Of course, I’m disappointed to end the race of Checo like that, but I really didn’t do it on purpose. I had nowhere to go.”

Despite having picked up minor wing damage, Leclerc had extended his opening stint to be running a comfortable second until the race was stopped on Lap 33.

Kevin Magnussen suffered a rear suspension failure that pitched his Haas car into a high-speed impact with the barrier at Turn 9, prompting the red flag to be displayed.

Leclerc, running the Hard tyre, was able to resist Lewis Hamilton on the restart but was powerless to defend from the Mercedes on Mediums, succumbing on Lap 40.

“We struggled a little bit with the Hard after the restart,” Leclerc conceded. “Lewis was really quick on the Medium and then they managed to have a really good degradation, so they were just better today and it’s life.”

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has hailed Lando Norris’ 12-place climb to fifth in the Mexico City Grand Prix as “one of the best races for a driver that I’ve been part of.”

Having lined up 17th after being caught out in qualifying, Norris had progressed up to 10th when a red flag period was enforced on Lap 33 by Kevin Magnussen’s hefty crash.

However, the Briton encountered a sizeable setback in his recovery bid when he made a sluggish getaway at the standing restart and dropped down four places back to 14th.

But Norris charged through the pack to overtake several cars, culminating with a brilliant switchback manoeuvre on George Russell to seize fifth by the chequered flag.

Asked if it represented Norris’ best-ever drive in the top flight, Stella said: “Well in fairness we were having exactly this conversation on the pit wall as his race engineer Will Joseph turned to me and said to me that’s one of the best of Lando. I said, ‘Will, that’s one of the best at all’.”

Stella believes Norris’ ascent up the order was even more impressive considering the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is regarded as one of the hardest venues to overtake.

“Overtaking, so many overtakings, in Mexico, where yesterday if you read the quotes everyone is saying it’s so difficult to overtake, while managing PU temperatures, having to do lift and coast. I’m just impressed. One of the best races for a driver that I’ve been part of, let’s say.”

The ex-Ferrari race engineer admits that Norris’ drive reminded him of Fernando Alonso’s race-winning exploits from down the order at the 2012 European Grand Prix.

“Yeah, this race made me think of Valencia 2012, where at the time we started 12th, we won the race,” Stella asserted.

But Stella concedes that the result provided a bittersweet one for McLaren, having failed to utilise its competitiveness in race trim following Norris’ compromised qualifying.

“But this one… you know, on one side we are excited, having seen this kind of masterpiece, on the other side like Lando said on the in-lap, like, guys let’s do a good job on Saturday and we can fight for podiums, so you know the pace was there to fight for podiums.”

Nevertheless, the Italian is determined to look at the positives regarding McLaren’s encouraging pace, while insisting the team must execute cleaner weekends.

He added: “That’s what I’m trying to say, there’s a little element of frustration, but at the same time if you asked me yesterday I would not have thought we could overtake so many cars.

“So I’d rather take the positives out of this race and I hope that the entire team at the factory and the fans receive the same sort of message: we are there, we don’t give up, we are competitive, but we need to do a better job overall the whole race weekend.”

Max Verstappen claimed a record-breaking 16th Formula 1 victory of 2023 as he won the Mexico City Grand Prix from third on the grid.

The reigning World Champion snatched the lead at the start and survived a mid-race red flag restart to beat Lewis Hamilton and polesitter Charles Leclerc to top spot.

With the hottest temperatures of the weekend present at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, every driver inside the top 10 opted for the Medium tyre.

Further down, Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon elected for Hards, while Lando Norris, aiming to climb from a lowly 17th on the grid, was the sole runner on the Soft compound.

The daunting 890m blast to Turn 1 in Mexico always provides drama from the outset and this time around Verstappen got the dream launch to slice his way between the Ferraris.

With Verstappen positioning his car to the inside to maintain the high ground, Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez had utilised the slipstream ahead to draw to the outside.

However, the Mexican cut across Leclerc, who was pinched between the two Red Bulls, resulting in both drivers inheriting damage.

Perez trailed back to the pits at the back of the pack, but Red Bull was forced to retire his car, bringing an abrupt end to his home grand prix. Meanwhile, Leclerc was out running in second ahead of team-mate Sainz; Ferrari instructed him to remain on track as his endplate made its way loose.

Behind the chaos, Daniel Ricciardo retained four ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg, celebrating his 200thgrand prix start, elevated his way up into eighth.

Alfa Romeo had targeted a double points haul after getting both cars through into Q3, but the Italian marque’s hopes were dashed when Valtteri Bottas dropped to 12th.

Hamilton was bidding to recover from a troublesome Saturday but the Briton’s attempts to overtake Ricciardo into Turn 1 on Lap 8 were rebuffed by the Australian.

Three laps later Hamilton made his way through at the same spot, while the other Mercedes of George Russell began to apply pressure onto McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Having executed the perfect start to seize the lead, Verstappen was progressively opening up his advantage over Leclerc to the 3s mark, with Sainz a further 2.5s adrift.

AlphaTauri had committed Tsunoda to an early stop, prompting McLaren to respond by bringing Norris in to discard his starting set of Soft tyres for the Hard compound.

Alonso’s dismal weekend continued as he was instructed to allow team-mate Lance Stroll, who had set off from the pitlane to change car specification – for 15th place.

Zhou Guanyu was beginning to struggle and Albon, running the more durable Hard tyre, slipped up the inside of the Alfa Romeo racer into Turn 4 to move into the top 10.

Despite upholding a comfortable 4.6s lead out front, Verstappen conceded his tyres were marginal and Red Bull pitted him for a new set of Hards at the end of Lap 19.

Leclerc, now the centre of a post-race investigation by the stewards, had pulled 5s clear of Sainz, who was coming under increasing pressure from Hamilton.

Verstappen had emerged down in seventh but made lightwork of displacing Russell’s Mercedes for sixth before also sweeping past the McLaren of Piastri aside on Lap 23.

Next up on the three-time champion’s radar was ex-Red Bull team-mate Ricciardo, who became Verstappen’s next on-track victim two laps later with another Turn 1 move.

He was granted another position when Mercedes pitted Hamilton to try and gain the undercut on Sainz, having failed to get close enough for an overtaking opportunity.

Piastri was the next to change tyres, exiting the pitlane in 10th place, behind the squabbling duo of Bottas and Albon. McLaren team-mate Norris was one place behind after successfully completing a pass on Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll into Turn 1.

Mercedes serviced Russell with a swift 2.6s pitstop but it wasn’t enough to get the one-time race winner ahead of Piastri. Despite being puzzled by the call to drop him back into traffic, both Piastri and Russell easily passed Albon and Bottas, with Norris following them through a few laps later.

Sainz had been informed that he would be going long, but the undercut had proved powerful enough that Verstappen breezed past the Ferrari on ageing rubber on Lap 29.

Ferrari eventually pitted the Spaniard at the end of Lap 31, expectedly dropping behind Hamilton. Leclerc pitted the next lap around and he remained ahead of the Mercedes, albeit with a substantially reduced gap.

Leclerc was now 16.3s behind Verstappen but that was wiped out when Kevin Magnussen crashed out at Turn 9 on Lap 33, prompting the Safety Car’s introduction.

It was suspected that a rear suspension failure on Magnussen’s VF-23 was responsible for his hefty impact with the barrier rather than any sort of driver error.

While Verstappen and Norris took advantage to pit for a second time without losing track position, a red flag was called two laps later to check the barrier, neutralising the race.

The top half of the order at the stoppage stood as follows: Verstappen leading from Leclerc, Hamilton, Sainz, Ricciardo, Piastri, Tsunoda, Hulkenberg and Norris.

Additionally, the red flag period provided Ferrari with the opportunity to replace Leclerc’s damaged front wing, restoring his car to full working order ahead of the restart.

Mercedes decided to plump for the Medium tyre with both cars, as well as Piastri, Norris and Albon. Verstappen, Leclerc and Sainz remained on the Hard compound.

The race would get going again with a standing restart on Lap 36 that Verstappen nailed once more to lead Leclerc and Hamilton in formation order down to Turn 1.

As the leading quartet remained unchanged, Russell made use of the grippier Medium rubber to beat Ricciardo to fifth. Norris, however, endured a nightmare getaway to drop four places down to 14th place.

Hamilton had stalked Leclerc since the race resumed and used the aid of DRS to power past the Ferrari into Turn 1 on Lap 40.

Norris’ comeback through the field witnessed him swiftly overtake both Alpine drivers with relative ease before also taking Hulkenberg’s Haas to move back into 10th.

McLaren team-mate Piastri duelled with Tsunoda through the opening sequence of the corners and remained ahead despite the pair touching tyre face to sidepod.

However, contact into Turn 1 ensued on the very next lap when the AlphaTauri driver attempted to swing around the outside, sending him spiralling out of the points.

Piastri retained seventh, now one position ahead of Norris, who had overtaken Albon to progress into eighth. The Briton began to rapidly close on the sister McLaren car.

Whilst all that was unfolding, Alonso’s miserable weekend outing was brought to an end when he retired his Aston Martin.

Out front, meanwhile, Verstappen was cruising along 11s ahead of Hamilton, who was attempting to nurse his Medium tyres to protect second from Leclerc 5s further back.

McLaren told Piastri that he would have to increase his pace to remain ahead of Norris, but the switch was made only one lap later to allow the latter to pursue Ricciardo.

Norris quickly sized up the AlphaTauri and completed an opportunistic move around the outside of his ex-team-mate into Turn 4 on Lap 60 before also catching Russell.

Although his countryman covered off the move into Turn 4, Norris executed a sweet switchback manoeuvre to gain the inside line into the tight right-hander of Turn 6.

Ocon had warned Haas over team radio that he was coming for the final points position and he eventually navigated his way past Hulkenberg along with team-mate Gasly.

Aston Martin’s weekend ended with a double DNF as Lance Stroll was pitched into a spin in the stadium section by Bottas to become the fourth and final retirement of the race.

He may have been pipped to pole, but Verstappen was exemplary on race day to triumph in Mexico for the fifth time in F1.

Hamilton avenged his lost podium from last weekend to follow the Red Bull ace home a considerable 13.8s back, ahead of Leclerc, who took his fourth podium of the year.

Sainz completed a lonely afternoon to come home fourth, while Norris mounted an impressive comeback drive to salvage fifth.

Russell narrowly held off Ricciardo, who secured his first points since returning to the sport earlier this year with seventh place to beat Piastri. More pertinently, his eight-point haul elevated AlphaTauri above both Haas and Alfa Romeo into eighth place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Albon collected his second consecutive points score, as Ocon beat Gasly home in the first of the Alpines to round out the top 10.