Written by Nafisa Najmi
Round 20 of the ongoing Formula One 2024 season was held in Mexico City at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, from the 25th-27th of October. The weekend went perfectly for Sainz as he placed on the top 3 for all the 3 free practice’s held on Friday and Saturday. The Spaniard also went ahead to qualify on pole, sixth one off his career. Max Verstappen, the current leader of the world driver’s championship, and his strongest rival for the championship, Lando Norris, qualified 2nd and 3rd, which had a lot of fans nervous, thrilled and excited for the iconic and unique turn one of this circuit.
Well turn one, did end up waking all the fans up, as Max Verstappen ended up leading the race on the first lap, but everyone’s attention was not on the front row but at the collision between Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon. All the drivers regrouped and were led by the safety car until the end of the 6th lap, Max Verstappen on P1, the man who started on pole behind him with Norris maintaining his position, while Alex and Yuki saw a disappointing end to what could have been a fruitful weekend for both cars, as they were both aiming to end their races in the points.
Yet the first few laps were just the start of the impeding chaos waiting for the fans, the safety car ended and the drivers got ready to attack and defend their positions. Carlos Sainz managed to get a brilliant overtake on Verstappen which meant he was back at the lead, with three plausible world championship title contenders, Verstappen, Norris and Charles Leclerc, right on his tail. Nevertheless, the most debated part of this weekend happened right after Norris and Verstappen went wheel to wheel for second place, on turn 4 Verstappen forced Norris off the track, gaining a 10 second penalty, which was just the first one. On turn 8 Verstappen was once again penalized for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
While these two drivers went head to head, Charles Leclerc was able to overtake both of them and take 2nd place, meaning there was a strong chance that, for the second week in a row Ferrari would have both their drivers on the two top steps of the podium. That was the case for most of the race until Norris managed to close the gap between him and Leclerc. With 8 laps to go Leclerc unfortunately lost his grip on turn 17, barely saving himself from smashing into the barrier. That incident made it easier for Norris to over take him. Leclerc ended up finishing 3rd and an extra reward for fastest lap.
The chaos the weekend wasn’t just at the front row, the two Mercedes, George Russel and Lewis Hamilton, had a clean but intense battle for 4th place which Lewis Hamilton managed to secure on lap 51. The two drivers from Haas Formula 1 team also managed to bag a double points finish, as Kevin Magnussen got to 7th and Niko Hulkenberg secured 9th. Oscar Piastri who had an unfortunate qualifying managed to get from P17 to P8, helping add crucial points for McLaren’s fight for the constructors. The Alpine of Pierre Gasly also managed to get to the point after holding up a fight, reaching 10th. Max Verstappen even after a 20 second pitstop and exiting on 15th, managed to get to 6th when the race ended.
In light of the Mexican Grand Prix we do have to discuss home hero, Sergio Perez, who had a home race to forget, fans ready to support the Mexican were disappointed by the unfortunate race he had this week. Starting off by getting a 10 second penalty for a false start, not managing to get into the points, at the end he pitted to be attempt to score the fastest lap point, yet was unsuccessful as Charles Leclerc took the point at the last lap. Another unfortunate end was for Fernando Alonso who was celebrating his 400th race start, but due to a mechanical issue had to retire the car.
What a spectacle the Mexican Grand Prix was, with 3 DNF’s, intense battles and a huge chunk of points for many teams. The constructor’s championship battle got a whole lost juicier now that Ferrari (537 points) overtook Redbull (512 points) to 2nd place, McLaren leads the Constructors with 566 points. The driver’s championship also seems heated with Norris managing to take 10 points off Verstappen. With 4 race weekends to go, 2 of those include sprint race weekend, this Formula One season is a season to tune into, as the teams and drivers all fight for the top step.
Onwards to Brazil!