AFP – Carlos Sainz cruised to an emotional victory for Ferrari ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris in yesterday’s incident-filled Mexico City Grand Prix as Red Bull’s series leader Max Verstappen was handed two 10-second penalties on his way to sixth.
The stewards took a dim view of Verstappen’s aggressive driving, the Red Bull driver twice forcing his title rival Norris off the track. Norris grabbed second from Charles Leclerc in the other Ferrari near the finish as the Briton enjoyed a major boost in his quest to deny Verstappen a fourth consecutive world championship.
The McLaren driver cut 10 points off the gap to Verstappen which now stands at 47 with four race weekends remaining.
Verstappen paid a heavy price for his show of ruthlessness with Norris commenting: “I knew what to expect from Max. I respect him a lot as a driver and I expected it but it was not very clean driving in my opinion.
“It was a very tough race and I spent a lot of it just trying to avoid crashes.”
It was the second week in succession that the two title-chasers had clashed following a penalty for Norris at the United States Grand Prix.
McLaren boss Zak Brown described this latest example of Verstappen’s aggressive streak as “ridiculous”.
“Enough is enough. Let’s just have some good clean racing moving forwards. I think the stewards are on it, I think that’s clear by the penalties that were given. The stewards did a good job this weekend.”
Asked about his drivers’ crown prospects Norris said: “I’m just keeping my head down, we’re doing good job as a team, focus on ourselves, that’s all I can do for now.”
Sainz meanwhile is ensuring he leaves Ferrari with his head held high as he switches next season to Williams to make way for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
“Gracias Mexico!” said a beaming Sainz.
“It is incredible to see this crowd. I have felt their support all week and it gave me a lot of strength – I said I wanted one more win with Ferrari and to do it here with this mega-crowd is incredible.”
It was Ferrari’s first victory in Mexico since Alain Prost triumphed in 1990 – enabling them to move ahead of Red Bull in the constructors’ championship – and Sainz’s second win of the season and fourth of his career.
Hamilton finished fourth ahead of his Mercedes team-mate George Russell.
Kevin Magnussen finished behind Verstappen in seventh to deliver Haas’ best result in Mexico ahead of Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren, who started from the back end of the grid, Nico Hulkenberg in the second Haas and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
