Max sixth in Mexican GP: 'Biggest problem was the race pace'

Published on 28 October 2024 by Misha van der Kroon

Max Verstappen finished sixth in the Mexican Grand Prix. The reigning World Champion had a great start but struggled a lot during the rest of the race with a total of twenty seconds time penalty and a disappointing race pace. At the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Carlos Sainz was the fastest and won his second race of the season. Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc completed the podium in Mexico.

After the race, Max was asked about the time penalties. He answered: “The problem is that when you are slower, you are put in that kind of difficult situations. I’m not going to give up easily. At the end of the day, it is not about agreeing or disagreeing on the penalty, twenty seconds is quite a lot. But the biggest problem of today is the race pace. We have to analyse it, because even without the penalties, we had no change at all to fight at the front.” Max also briefly looks ahead to the next race in Sao Paulo, Brazil. “This was a bad day for us, but I know we can do much better than this. So, we just keep going at it. Austin was promising, but here it was really off. I just hope that in Brazil, we can be more competitive.”

As soon as the lights go out, Max has a great start from second place. He immediately puts his car next to Carlos Sainz, who shoots straight over the grass. Sainz chooses to give the place back to Verstappen, which allows Max to take the lead. His team mate at Oracle Red Bull Racing, Sergio Perez, also has a good start. He gains five places but is given a five-second penalty. The Mexican was not completely in his starting box at the start. At the back of the field, things go wrong between Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon. They make contact, and see their race come to an end in the first corner. The incident brings out the Safety Car.

On lap seven, the Safety Car comes in and Max leads the restart. He gets away well and stays in first place. However, he is unable to create a significant gap to Sainz. A few laps later, the Spaniard overtakes Max with DRS and takes over the lead. On lap ten, it is Lando Norris who launches an attack on the World Champion. In corners four and eight, the battle gets very heated. In turn four, Max defends against an attack by Norris, where they touch each other, and Norris goes off track. As a result, Charles Leclerc takes P2, but Norris does rejoin the track ahead of Verstappen. In turn eight, Max tries to come back, but this causes both of them to go off track. Max does take over third position but is given a ten-second time penalty twice: one for ‘forcing another driver off the track’ in turn 4, and one for ‘leaving the track and gaining an advantage’ in turn 8. The total penalty of twenty seconds must be served during the next pit stop.

That pit stop is done in lap 27. The stop lasts a total of 24 seconds, and Verstappen falls back to fifteenth place. In the laps that follow, he fights his way through the field. He overtakes Zhou Guanyu, Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas, Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson, and manages to climb back to sixth place on lap forty. After all the pit stops, Sainz is still in the lead ahead of Ferrari teammate Leclerc. Norris is in third place, ahead of the Mercedes cars of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

In the laps that follow, Max informs his team over the radio that he has no grip. This can also be seen in his lap times. He can no longer match the lap times of Russell and Hamilton, so that sixth place seems to be the maximum he can achieve today. The two Mercedes drivers are battling for fourth. Hamilton is within Russell's DRS for laps. After many failed attempts, Hamilton manages to overtake his teammate in turn one, and he takes fourth place. At the front, Norris is catching up on Leclerc, and the battle for second is on. At the start of lap 63, Leclerc goes wide in the last corner. The Monegasque keeps his car out of the wall but loses the second place to Norris. With two laps to go, Ferrari calls Leclerc into the pits to put on a set of softs and go for the fastest race lap. The gap to Hamilton is big enough to make a free pit stop and the choice pays off. Leclerc records a 1:18.3 and takes the bonus point for the fastest lap. Teammate Sainz crosses the line first at the checkered flag and wins the Mexican Grand Prix, ahead of Norris and Leclerc. Hamilton and Russell finish fourth and fifth, with Max in sixth place.

Results Grand Prix Mexico: