Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the 2023 Mexican Grand Prix while seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton finished second for Mercedes and significantly closed the gap to second place in the driver’s standings. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished in the third and final podium position.
Leclerc sat on pole for the race start but Verstappen, startting in third behind Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate, Carlos Sainz, Jr., split the two Ferraris to take the lead while Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, starting fifth, attempted to also pass Leclerc on the first corner but collided with Leclerc instead and took himself out of the race.
After a brief virtual safety car to clean up debris from the crash, Perez’s ill-fated decision allowed Hamilton, who started sixth, to move up a spot where he then passed Alpha Tauri’s Daniel Ricciardo, who had started fourth, on Lap 11.
After the pit crossovers between Laps 21 and 32, Hamilton eventually moved past Sainz, Jr. into third position and shortly afterward, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen crashed after a suspension failure sent him into the barriers. The extensive damage to the barriers brought out a red flag on Lap 35 to replace the barriers.
On the Lap 36 standing restart, Hamilton elected to change his tires from hard to medium and that made the difference in both passing Leclerc on Lap 40 and keeping him at distance for the remainder of the race as the podium positions did not change for the remaining 31 laps of the race.
With the victory, Verstappen adds to his Formula 1 driver’s standings total with 491 points but Hamilton grabbed the fastest lap point on the final lap of the race and took full advantage of Perez’s miscue by adding 19 points to his total with Perez remaining on 240 points and Hamilton moving up to 220 points with three races – Brazilian Grand Prix, Las Vegas Grand Prix and the infamous Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – left in the season.
2023 Mexican Grand Prix – Top 10 Finishers
1] Max Verstappen – Red Bull
2] Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes
3] Charles Leclerc – Ferrari
4] Carlos Sainz, Jr. – Ferrari
5] Lando Norris – McLaren
6] George Russell – Mercedes
7] Daniel Ricciardo – Alpha Tauri
8] Oscar Piastri – McLaren
9] Alexander Albon – Williams
10] Esteban Ocon – Alpine
