Qualifying…
Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll headed into the session with perhaps slightly different tactics, knowing they would be starting from the back with new power unit elements. George Russell as well as Stroll also had new gearbox elements fitted (after issues for the Brit in Free Practice), and their order at the back of the grid would be determined by qualifying positions.
Q1:
With a brilliant atmosphere and the crowd likely rooting for Sergio Perez and Red Bull, the first session of qualifying commenced. At the high altitude track labelled as a circuit leaning towards Red Bull’s favour, the team and their fans could certainly be optimistic.
Whilst softs are the safe option for Q1, to ensure any surprise eliminations are avoided and give the back teams the best shot, Nicholas Latifi booted the medium tyre onto his Williams as he was the first car to arrive on track. Initially a surprising choice, but with the high track temperatures it was an experimental and perhaps smarter choice, as degradation could be more minimal over one lap with the mediums instead of the softs. Behind, Raikkonen and the two Haas cars emerged on the soft tyre, and soon Latifi pitted to exchange his mediums without setting a lap time- so not much to come from the yellow-walled tyre. Russell too would opt for the mediums, but everyone else went straight to the softs.
Just as the Mercedes and Red Bulls began to set their times, a yellow flag was waved in Sector 1 and Sector 3, disrupting home hero Perez on his flying lap. After a few seconds, this became a red flag as cameras showed Stroll’s Aston Martin missing a front wing and with a crunched red wing. Replays showed that out of the final corner he went a tad too wide, resulting in a loss of grip, before sliding into the barriers and ending up by the start/finish straight. Fortunately, despite it being one of the more dramatic incidents out of that final corner, Stroll was able to exit his car himself and was transported away for some medical checkups.
The incident wasn’t just a blow for Aston Martin, but also cast a shadow over Raikkonen and Alfa Romeo. An investigation commenced to see whether the Finn had slowed sufficiently under red flags, and then to see whether he would be penalised for reportedly crossing the pit entry.
The session restarted at 14:33 local time, but it wasn’t plain sailing for everybody right away. Ferrari, looking to have a brilliant weekend at a track suited more to them than McLaren, had a moment of concern when Carlos Sainz reported over the radio that he’d lost power. For a portion of the lap the Spaniard rolled along in neutral as his engineer reassured the driver they could fix it, and luckily his session didn’t end there.
With the red flag disrupting many of the teams’ game plans, Lewis Hamilton only just began his first run. However, it was far from Lewis’ cleanest lap, locking up twice. Although the lap scraped together placed him at the top of the timesheets, his teammate Bottas was quicker and cleaner, displacing him for a Mercedes 1-2. This was not long lived as Verstappen was setting purple sectors behind teammate Perez, who caused an eruption of cheering as he claimed P1. Verstappen quickly demoted the three cars as he went top. The order changed swiftly, and Bottas with an improved time would split the Red Bulls with a time for P2, and Hamilton would hop Perez for third.
A frosty exchange on the radio came from Mazepin and the Haas pit wall, as the Russian complained about traffic and track position in comparison to his teammate Schumacher. With little fight to take to the rest of the grid, the Haas cars could only battle each other.
The chequered flag was waved and as usual, improvements came flying in. Sainz, at risk with one minute to go, improved safely to P5, but for the two Williams it wasn’t a similar story, with Latifi only able to improve to P16 and Russell P12. The awkward story came from the Alpine team- Ocon, with a penalty sending him to the back of the grid, in P15, eliminated his teammate Alonso and prevented him from Q2 and possibly Q3. It would be a sticky situation for them to ponder.
Eliminated with the Spaniard were Latifi, Schumacher, Mazepin and Stroll.
Q2:
Raikkonen wasn’t the only car to come under investigation when it was revealed the Williams pair were being investigated for exiting the pit lane incorrectly whilst dealing with traffic in Q1. The conclusion resulted in no penalty for either car.
On this occasion the medium tyre made more apparent sense, and it was only Ocon and Tsunoda to venture out on the softs, though both cars had a different strategy to the rest of the grid with their penalties.
We returned to the battle of the Red Bulls and the Mercedes, commencing with Sergio Perez topping the timesheets to the delight of the crowd who released a big cheer. Verstappen quickly took P1 away from the Mexican with a time of 1:16.483, and Perez slid down the order to wind up behind the Mercedes- Hamilton in P2, 0.016 seconds behind his title rival. Was this much of a surprise? Yes, especially as Mercedes had sounded relatively pessimistic and almost defeated after Free practice.
Red Bull experienced a small issue when Max radioed to instruct his team to check the left barge board. Damage to the cars is perhaps not surprising at a track like Mexico, with several tight, twisting corners where drivers choose to take the curb.
Returning to Tsunoda and Ocon, Ocon’s attempt only landed him P12 so that was his session over. Tsunoda meanwhile slipped into P3, splitting the Mercedes cars, with only two tenths separating him and Max Verstappen. With the Alpha Tauri and teammate Gasly looking strong, the team’s strategy may have been to ensure Gasly had a reliable tow for Q3.
As the session came to its end it was Lando Norris who was at risk, perhaps also being used as the ideal tow for Ricciardo later on. Vettel behind could only manage P11, and Russell only P13.
The session did end with some drama as yellow flags flew in Sector 3 for Giovinazzi. The Italian’s rears locked up under braking, and all he could do was slide into the nearest wall. That meant he was eliminated, and his session was over.
This meant P11 to P15 would consist of Vettel, Raikkonen, Russell, Giovinazzi and Ocon (not after his penalty was applied).
Q3:
Predictably the two drivers with penalties, Norris and Tsunoda, would be lined up to tow their teammates in this final session. Ricciardo would need advantage over the Ferraris in order to set them up as well as possible for a battle on track on Sunday, and in the constructors championship. Alpha Tauri meanwhile were chasing down Alpine.
McLaren were the first team out, and all teams came out in pairs to provide slipstreams.
Verstappen and Red Bull appeared to be struggling more than everybody first thought. The Dutchman on his flying lap slid out of a couple of corners, reporting the movement especially on the rears. Bottas would go quicker than him, taking provisional pole by 0.350 seconds, with a buffer of 0.145 seconds to Hamilton behind him.
The pressure was on for the Red Bulls to come out on top of their title rivals, but they didn’t get off to a great start in Sector 1, slower than Bottas, whilst Bottas started a new lap improving on his fastest sector. Far in front of the Finn however, was more drama! Tsunoda, perhaps with not enough pre-warning, was told the Red Bulls were behind, and moved out of the way with a panic. Kicking up some dust, Perez was distracted and took the same route, bailing out of his lap. Verstappen also blamed the incident on his lack of improvement, and the championship leader could only end in P3.
Neither Mercedes improved, but it set the team up for their first front row lockout in Mexico since 2016. Bottas would lead the grid away after lights out on Sunday, and although not beside each other on the same row, Hamilton and Verstappen may tussle into Turn 1.
The Race…
Hola desde Mexico, we are back for round 17, the championship battle still very much undecided, Max now out in the lead by 20 points after the weekend, and Red Bull 1 point behind Mercedes in the team war.
From the get go this weekend, it was known some drivers would face engine penalties, with Yuki, Lance, Lando and Esteban the ones starting out of position at the rear of the grid. Mercedes seemingly sandbagged until this point in the weekend, with a front row lockout flanked by Max and Checo. Tsunoda and Ocon would be the only soft tyre runners at the start, everyone else with the yellow striped mediums on board.
71 laps of the Mexico city GP, for the first time since 2019.
Bottas and Hamilton launched with fairly equal starts but there was chaos into the first section with the Dutch Lion storming into the lead, his championship rival close behind. An incident between Bottas and Daniel saw the former spinning, tumbling down the order to 18th and the latter losing his front wing. A full safety car after Lap 1! Yuki Tsunoda also got tangled in the carnage, being sent straight over the bollard at Turn 2, causing the first DNF of the race, followed by the Haas of Mick Shumacher. Bottas was first to pit, followed by Daniel after the incidents, both switching to the hard tyres, looking to go long.
Antonio stayed out of trouble, elevating him up to 6th. With the Safety car in on Lap 4, the race restarted, Max catching Lewis napping a little bit, away cleanly whilst George Russell climbed to 9th.
Lap 7 saw the gap between Max and Lewis stretch to around 2.2 seconds, the stewards having decided to label Lap 1 as a racing incident with no further action taken. With Lap 11, came Max lapping around 1/2 second quicker than his title rival and some good battles between George, Kimi and Fernando.
Mazepin was also having some nice clean battles, defending from Ocon and Norris, from his highest running position of 11th.
Lance Stroll was the first official (planned) boxing car with a slow stop, bringing him out in front of Latifi in P17. Mazepin was the next to pit, with Lewis beginning to complain of tyre wear. With him steadily moving through the field, Lando was the next driver to see a chance at development, attempting an overtake on his fellow Brit George down in 11th and 12th. Esteban Ocon was the next to pit, Lando eventually moving past George. During the first stint, Perez had been closing down the gap to Lewis from third, seemingly smelling the second step on the podium, reporting his tyres are “just getting better and better”. George was the next to be called in by the team, a decent stop in hands with Antonio Giovinazzi coming in behind. It's worth mentioning the amazing strategy from Aston Martin this weekend in garage 5, Vettel running up in 7th.
Max was now beginning to lap the backmarkers with a 8.6 second lead, the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas still stuck behind Daniel, desperate to make a move. We haven't talked at all about him yet in this rundown, but the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly was having one of his usual, quiet but successful races, up in 4th comfortably ahead of both Ferraris.
Attempting to force Red Bull to alter their strategy, Mercedes pit Lewis from 2nd, however it's not quite the stop they would have hoped for, coming out behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, down to 5th, who then pitted, allowing Lewis to cruise into 4th.
Gasly was the next driver to make the call, pitting for the white striped hards, Max following from the lead boxing with a perfect stop from the Red Bull crew! This brought him out ahead of 3rd place by about 8 seconds. Daniel then made his second stop of the race, strapping a fresh set of mediums relieving Bottas' hunt to overtake.
One of the last few left on their original wheels, Alonso boxed, followed by Perez with another on form stop from his crew. Carlos and Lando were now the only cars left not to stop in the top 10. Bottas was then the next victim of his continuing bad luck, his brakes literally on fire. Last man standing, Lando took the final pit stop of all 20 guys, a 2.8 second stop.
At the start of Lap 55, Ferrari were playing team orders, wanting to swap car 16 with his teammate, number 55, Carlos apparently having more pace to close in.
Much like with the rest of the race, the gap between Perez and Hamilton was fluctuating around 3.2 seconds, that down to 1.3s by Lap 59, Lewis struggling with being held up by Lando, and no blue flags due to the 3s gap appendix and issues with his Mercedes overheating in the thin, altitude air.
The last fews laps, the race closed down with Checo in DRS range of 2nd on and off for the last few rounds. A tense atmosphere coating the circuit. 3 laps to go. Max leading by a whopping 16.1 seconds. Checo chasing down Lewis with a gap of 1.1 seconds. Checo back in DRS range.
And the chequered flag fell on the 2021 Mexican GP. 1st place went to roaring Max Verstappen, his 9th win of the season, 2nd going to Lewis, Checo in 3rd unfortunately unable to get past, but still the first Mexican on the Mexican Grand Prix poduim. We should also add an honourable mention to the absolute main character and legend- Antonio Perez, who went wild with that flag. Pierre took best of the rest in the end, solidifying his hard work from the race, and good points for Alpha Tauri in their battle with Alpine. The Frenchman even showcased his maths skills, knowing his points would draw them level with Alpine.
The Ferrari duo of Leclerc and Sainz followed behind with P5 and P6, Vettel in 7th, Kimi 8th, Alonso 10th and Lando rounding out the top 10 with a points tally.
11th went to Giovinazzi, 12th Ricciardo, 13th Ocon, 14th Stroll, 15th Bottas, Russell 16th, Latifi in 17th, the last of the finishers being Mazepin in 18th place.
Verstappen extended his championship lead, much to Mercedes’ dismay, to 19 points, whilst Red Bull would approach Mercedes in the team standings with only a one point gap. They would have been level, if it wasn’t for Bottas snatching the point for fastest lap away from Red Bull. Ferrari would also leapfrog McLaren in their battle for third, whilst Alpha Tauri’s efforts drew them level with Alpine.
What a season to be watching!
Comments