Max Verstappen has won the Mexican Grand Prix after a dominant performance for Oracle Red Bull Racing on Sunday afternoon. The victory sees the Dutchman break a long-standing record of the most victories in a single season, which had been tied between Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher at thirteen. After becoming level with the record last week at Circuit of the Americas, USA, Verstappen now finds himself with fourteen victories – and potentially two more to come – as the season approaches its final two races.

After taking pole position on Saturday afternoon, a good start and a controlling pace saw the double champion comfortably lead the pack on his used Soft tyres. The number one driver pitted on lap twenty-six of the race for a set of new Medium tyres, leaving many unsure if they would make it to the end of the seventy-one lap race. Team-mate, Sergio Pérez, made the same strategy call and both were comfortably setting fastest laps and sectors in the dying stages of the race, as Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team failed to make an impression.

Verstappen cruised to victory, while Pérez was able to cross the line in third place, a great result at his home event.

A step forward for Mercedes…

The end of the 2022 Mexican Grand Prix sees the gap between Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes close down to just forty points – meaning the fight for second place in the Constructors’ Standings will likely go down to the last race. At a track with such long straights, Mercedes surprised many when they showed up to the track with a lot of pace on Friday. After an impressive two-three finish in Qualifying and some side-by-side racing on the first lap, Lewis Hamilton took second place from his team-mate and was able to keep up with Verstappen during the first stint.

George Russell conceded a place to Pérez on lap one, and remained in fourth for the majority of the race, pitting to take the fastest lap on the final lap. Both Mercedes drivers started on new Medium tyres, and switched to the Hard tyre in their one-stop strategy. Had the strategy team decided to make a two-stop instead, there was a chance for the Silver Arrows to take their debut victory in 2022; however, the Hard tyres just couldn’t compete with Red Bull’s Medium tyres, which they didn’t expect to make the end of the race.

Hamilton crossed the line to take a back-to-back second-place finish, while Russell took fourth place.

…And a step back for Ferrari

For Ferrari, the Mexican Grand Prix was nothing short of a disappointment. The team was unable to keep up with Red Bull and Mercedes for the entire race, with both cars finishing around a minute behind the race winner. Carlos Sainz was able to come out on top in a battle against Charles Leclerc on the first lap; and after dropping behind the leaders and making pit stops, the Scuderia pair had to fight through traffic and settle for fifth and sixth places respectively.

Sainz has now been overtaken for fifth place in the Drivers’ Standings by Hamilton, while Leclerc has dropped from second to third after Pérez’s podium finish. The difference between the Monégasque and the Mexican sits at five points, which can turn either way in the final two races.

What happened behind?

Daniel Ricciardo had a thrilling race, where he was able to take the best of the rest position – despite receiving a ten-second time penalty. After failing to make it through to Qualifying Three on Saturday afternoon, it was a slow start for the Australian. On lap fifty-one, clumsy contact between himself and Yuki Tsunoda at Turn Six resulted in a ten-second penalty for the McLaren F1 Team driver.

As damage limitation for the penalty, Lando Norris (on a different strategy) moved aside for his team-mate, who was on a late-race charge with Soft tyres fitted to his car. The number three driver overtook Bottas and Ocon, and proceeded to build a ten second gap in order to preserve his position. Ricciardo would cross the line in seventh place, in what was a very impressive performance. Meanwhile, Norris was able to secure a double points finish with his ninth place result.

Another disappointing day for BWT Alpine F1 Team saw Esteban Ocon score four points with his eighth place finish, but an engine issue for Fernando Alonso put him out of the race from a good position, after he reported an issue several laps earlier. Alpine remain fourth in the Constructors’ Standings, but find the gap to McLaren has reduced to just seven points.

Valtteri Bottas put in a good performance to take tenth place and a single point for Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN – his first points in eleven races. The Finn was squabbling with the McLaren and Alpine cars for the majority of the race, in what was a decent weekend for Alfa Romeo. Guanyu Zhou was not quite able to match the pace of his teammate, crossing the line in thirteenth.

After a rough handful of races, Pierre Gasly narrowly missed out on a points finish for Scuderia AlphaTauri when he took the chequered flag in eleventh place. The Frenchman was also penalised for running Lance Stroll off the track, resulting in five seconds being added to his race time. Tsunoda, meanwhile, had to retire from the race due to severe damage to his sidepod after his incident with Ricciardo.

Alex Albon says he is happy with his finish, despite not scoring points for Williams F1 Team on Sunday afternoon. The Thai/British driver fought his way to twelfth place (having started seventeenth), in what was an impressive performance. Nicholas Latifi did not have a good outing in Mexico, being lapped twice by the leader after completing a two-stop strategy and crossing the line in eighteenth.

Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team were unable to replicate the pace they showed in Texas last week, only finishing fourteenth and fifteenth at the end of the seventy-one lap race. Stroll would start the race from the back as a result of his three-place grid drop obtained from his incident with Alonso last time out. However, The Canadian still did a good job to recover to fifteenth, just behind team-mate, Sebastian Vettel.

Haas F1 Team also had a tricky weekend, with Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen not having the pace to challenge the midfield runners. Haas remain in eighth place in the Constructors’ Championship, but are only one point ahead of AlphaTauri with just two rounds remaining.

You can find the full race results below, data courtesy of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship:

POS	NO.	DRIVER	TEAM	NAT	TIME/GAP
1	1	Max Verstappen	Oracle Red Bull Racing	NED	1:38:36.729
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team	GBR	+15.186s
3	11	Sergio Pérez	Oracle Red Bull Racing	MEX	+18.097s
4	63	George Russell	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team	GBR	+49.431s
5	55	Carlos Sainz	Scuderia Ferrari	ESP	+58.123s
6	16	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari	MON	+68.774s
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren F1 Team	AUS	+1 lap
8	31	Esteban Ocon	BWT Alpine F1 Team	FRA	+1 lap
9	4	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team	GBR	+1 lap
10	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN	FIN	+1 lap
11	10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia AlphaTauri	FRA	+1 lap
12	23	Alexander Albon	Williams F1 Team	THA	+1 lap
13	24	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN	CHN	+1 lap
14	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team	GER	+1 lap
15	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team	CAN	+1 lap
16	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas F1 Team	GER	+1 lap
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	DEN	+1 lap
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams F1 Team	CAN	+2 laps
19	14	Fernando Alonso	BWT Alpine F1 Team	ESP	DNF
20	22	Yuki Tsunoda	Scuderia AlphaTauri	JAP	DNF

Data courtesy of Formula 1.