A DOUBLE PODIUM IN MEXICO FOR HONDA POWER
Max extended his championship lead with a thrilling and dominant victory in Mexico City, as Sergio secured his first home podium and Pierre made it three Honda-powered cars in the top four.
Max made a sensational start from the second row to take the lead as he went round the outside of both Mercedes drivers at Turn 1, while Sergio emerged in third place behind Lewis Hamilton. Pierre did well to avoid a spin for Valtteri Bottas to take fourth place, but Yuki was unfortunately caught in an incident.
As a number of drivers slowed to try and take evasive action with Bottas sitting in the middle of the track, Yuki was hit by Esteban Ocon and suffered a broken suspension, forcing his retirement at Turn 2.
As it turned out, the positions would remain unchanged from that point on, but the race wasn’t without its excitement. Max controlled the pace at the front and pulled away comfortably, while Sergio put pressure on Hamilton for second place.
Pierre was the first of the three cars to make his pit stop, switching from medium to hard tyres on lap 31 to protect what was a comfortable fourth place at the time. Two laps later, Max made his one and only stop for hards in response to Hamilton, emerging with a clear advantage over the Mercedes, as the strategy saw Sergio take the lead.
In an attempt to try something different in what was a clear one-stop race, Sergio extended his first stint and finally made a pit stop on lap 40 - also taking on hard tyres - with a nine-second deficit to close. A series of impressive laps saw Sergio reel Hamilton in, but once close behind the Mercedes he found it tough to overtake as traffic, plus the loss of grip and increasing temperatures when following a car closely took their toll.
Max crossed the line to win by over 16 seconds, with Sergio having to settle for third by 1.1s but securing a third consecutive podium for the first time in his career. As well as Max opening up a 19-point lead in the drivers’ standings, our 15th victory with Red Bull Racing sees the team close to within a point of the constructors’ championship lead.
After a faultless drive, Pierre finished fourth - over 17 seconds clear of the Ferraris behind him - to pull Scuderia AlphaTauri level with Alpine in the fight for fifth in the constructors’ standings.
For those who love statistics, today was Max’s ninth win of the season, which makes him the Honda driver with the most victories in one year, a record he previously shared on 8 with Ayrton Senna.