Experienced champions prevail in Mexico as a new one is crowned, Bottas okay after heavy crash

Max Verstappen took his fifth career win at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and his third of the season as he led Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton home ahead of newly crowned, Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes. A suspension failure for Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas brought out a red flag, and the Finn has since been given the all clear.

Leading into turn one from pole, Hamilton raced down to turn four, going wheel to wheel with teammate Charles Leclerc, with both running off track and Verstappen taking advantage to squeeze ahead of Hamilton while Leclerc unfairly took advantage, gaining a five second penalty for his troubles. Further back, George Russell gained a 10 second penalty after tapping Isack Hadjar into a spin.

Verstappen took control of the race and until Bottas’ car failure was relatively untroubled as his rivals battled amongst each other.

With the red flag thrown, the race soon continued from a standing start with Verstappen and Hamilton having minor contact as Leclerc fell back, soon overtaken by Antonelli.

Action remained few and far between with Piastri and Arvid Lindblad having contact that resulted in Lindblad gaining airtime and crashing out of the race.

Verstappen came under late pressure from Hamilton but as always, held his nerve while Antonelli sat in wait, coming home third and becoming the youngest champion at 20 - 3 years younger than the previous youngest champion.

📸Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, Mercedes AMG F1 Team.