Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz scored a decisive victory in Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix.
Despite losing the lead on the initial start from the pole to Formula 1 points leader Max Verstappen, Sainz regained the spot nine laps later.
From there, Sainz cruised to a 4.705 second victory over McLaren’s Lando Norris and teammate Charles Leclerc.
“Gracias Mexico!” Sainz said. “It’s incredible to see this crowd, I’ve been feeling their support all week. I feel like I have a lot of fanbase here in Mexico and they gave me a lot of strength to do the weekend that I’ve done. Honestly, I really wanted this one, I really needed it also for myself – I wanted to get it done.
“I’ve been saying for a while I wanted one more win before leaving Ferrari and to do it here in front of this mega crowd is incredible. Now, four races left, I want to enjoy as much as possible and if another one comes, I will go for it.”
Perhaps the story of the race came after Verstappen lost the lead.
The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver was slapped with two 10-second time penalties due to his fierce battle with Norris, which dropped Verstappen to sixth at race’s end.
“It was a very tough race,” Norris said. “I respect Max as a driver, but I was ready to expect something like this – not very clean driving in my opinion. But I avoided it, and it was a good race.”
During Norris and Verstappen’s skirmish, Leclerc powered through to the runner-up spot until Norris tracked down the Ferrari driver in the latter stages at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
The Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell completed the top five in fourth and fifth, respectively. Haas F-1’s Kevin Magnussen secured a solid points result for the American team in seventh. Magnussen’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg added points to the team’s total after placing ninth.
In between the Haas brigade was McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who battled back from 17th on the grid to a solid eighth. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly completed the top 10 finishers.
In his 400th career F-1 start, Fernando Alonso retired from the race.
This story will be updated