Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix comfortably ahead of Mercedes’ seven-time defending Formula One world champion, Lewis Hamilton, with Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez claiming the third and final podium position.
Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas sat on pole position at the beginning of the race but made a crucial error in the long starting straight by failing to block Verstappen and allowed Verstappen an easy pass into the first corner as Bottas found himself sandwiched between Verstappen and Hamilton, which also prevented Hamilton from any chance of getting in front of Verstappen. Bottas was then clipped from behind by McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and fell back to 18th – where he never recovered, eventually finishing 15th and having to steal the fastest lap point from Verstappen on the final lap.
After Verstappen took the lead on the first lap, it was a snoozefest for the remaining 69 laps of the 71-lap race as Hamilton could never mount a serious charge to Verstappen while Perez could never pass Hamilton on track, ensuring that the trio would finish in those same positions which they held for the final 30 laps of the race.
With the victory, Verstappen pads his driver’s championship lead over Hamilton to 19 points for the 2021 Formula 1 racing season.
2021 Mexican Grand Prix Top 10 Finishers
1] Max Verstappen Red Bull
2] Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
3] Sergio Pérez Red Bull
4] Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri
5] Charles Leclerc Ferrari
6] Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari
7] Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin
8] Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo
9] Fernando Alonso Alpine
10] Lando Norris McLaren
