Norris seals commanding win in action-packed Mexico City GP to take World Championship lead

Lando Norris has taken a lights-to-flag victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix, with the McLaren driver becoming the new Drivers’ Championship leader by just one point after sealing the win ahead of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen in an action-packed race.

Norris had made a good launch when the event got underway amid a frenetic start that saw four cars vie for P1 into the first corner, with some going wide along the way. But the Briton held his position and quickly built a lead at the front which proved to be unchallenged as the Grand Prix progressed, eventually crossing the line by a whopping 30.324s.

A thrilling finale to the race saw Verstappen chase down Leclerc for second place, yet it was the Ferrari that held on for P2 with a margin of just 0.725s, forcing the Red Bull man to settle for third.

Behind them, an impressive outing for Ollie Bearman saw the Haas racer face increasing pressure from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri down to the wire, but the Briton ultimately took a career-best fourth. Piastri’s fifth, meanwhile, means that the Australian loses the championship lead to his team mate – albeit only by one point.

Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli claimed sixth ahead of the other Silver Arrows car of George Russell, with Lewis Hamilton following in eighth for Ferrari on a day where the seven-time World Champion received a 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in a battle with Verstappen.

Esteban Ocon added to Haas’ points haul in ninth, while Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto took the final point on offer in 10th. Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda was 11th, ahead of the Williams of Alex Albon, Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin.

The two Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto completed the order in 15th and 16th respectively, while four cars did not see the finish in Mexico. Liam Lawson was the first to record a DNF following early damage to his Racing Bulls, with Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso later retiring in the pits due to mechanical issues on their respective Kick Sauber and Aston Martin cars.

Williams’ Carlos Sainz, meanwhile, came to a stop in the stadium section with just a few laps to go.

AS IT HAPPENED

One day on from Norris claiming a commanding pole position – beating the Ferrari pair of Leclerc and Hamilton to P1 – the paddock reconvened on Sunday in preparation for the highly-anticipated Mexico City Grand Prix.

Saturday’s Qualifying had set up a fascinating scenario in terms of the Drivers’ Championship; while Norris had put himself at the front of the grid, his title rivals Verstappen and Piastri would line up in fifth and seventh. Should they each finish where they started, Norris would leave the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as the new championship leader.

While Piastri had actually qualified in eighth, the Australian had been promoted a place due to Sainz – who claimed seventh in Qualifying – serving a five-place grid penalty handed to him after the United States Grand Prix, dropping the Williams driver down to 12th. This also moved Hadjar, Bearman, Tsunoda and Ocon up by one place each.

In a continuation of the conditions seen during the weekend so far, the drivers and teams were greeted by warm and dry weather as they began to assemble for the 71-lap event, with air temperatures even higher than during previous days at around 26 degrees Celsius, while the track temperature stood at 52 degrees Celsius.

Once all 20 cars had lined up on the grid and the tyres blankets had been removed for the expected one-stop race, it was revealed that more than half of the field would start on the C5 soft compound. However, Verstappen, Hadjar, Tsunoda, Sainz, Bortoleto and Gasly had instead opted for the C4 medium, while Albon and Colapinto were sporting the C2 hard rubber.

With the formation lap completed, the five lights went out to signal the start of the Mexico City Grand Prix – and while it was a strong launch off the line from Norris, a slightly chaotic entry into Turn 1 saw four cars vie for the lead, with a fast-starting Verstappen having to take to the grass and cut the corner after running alongside the two Ferraris.

Leclerc then emerged as the leader but, having also been one of a number of cars to skip the corner, the Monegasque had to cede the position to Norris. When the order had shaken out – and the Turn 1 incident was noted by the stewards – Norris led from Leclerc, Hamilton, Verstappen and Russell, while further back Piastri had dropped down to P9.

Lawson became the first driver to pit, the Racing Bulls man stopping for a new front wing after getting caught up in contact on Lap 1, while Russell voiced his displeasure at Verstappen staying ahead of him following the earlier melee.

As Piastri tried to find a way past Tsunoda, it was all happening up at the front. Verstappen tried to make a lunge on Hamilton into Turn 1, with the pair running wheel-to-wheel before Verstappen ran wide and returned to the track ahead. While Hamilton tried to retake the place, the Ferrari driver also went wide.

Through all of this, a moment for Verstappen allowed Bearman to make a move and take fourth place from the World Champion, an impressive showing from the Haas racer. The stewards, meanwhile, noted Hamilton for failing to follow the Race Director’s instructions regarding the escape road, and his contact with Verstappen was also separately noted.

With a busy 11 laps down, Norris was leading by nearly three seconds from Leclerc, with Hamilton in third ahead of Bearman, Verstappen, Antonelli and Russell. Piastri, meanwhile, finally found a way past Tsunoda to take P8 on the main straight. Elsewhere, Lawson had become the first retiree from the race.

The drivers that had started on the medium tyres looked to be struggling to stick with those ahead. Verstappen was some 1.4s back from Bearman, while Tsunoda had quickly dropped away from Piastri by over three seconds.

While the stewards confirmed that there would be no further investigation into Hamilton’s alleged failure to follow the Race Director’s instructions, a separate investigation for leaving the track and gaining an advantage at Turn 4 – when he ran wide and took to the escape road –resulted in a 10-second time penalty.

Norris, meanwhile, had extended his lead to 7.4s from Leclerc by Lap 18, with Hamilton some five seconds back from his team mate in third. Further back, Piastri was hot on the tail of Russell in the fight for P7, while Sainz – another of the medium tyre starters – pitted for the soft compound.

As McLaren were faced with the dilemma of whether to try to undercut Russell, it was confirmed that the stewards would investigate Verstappen and Hamilton’s earlier Turn 1 collision – and while Verstappen was noted for leaving the track and gaining an advantage at Turn 3, no further investigation was deemed necessary.

On Lap 23, Antonelli became the first of the frontrunners to pit, emerging back on track in P13 with the medium tyres on. Hamilton – who was unhappy to be told of his penalty – followed one tour later and served those 10 seconds in the process, dropping him down to P14 as he also had the C4 fitted.

Further pit stops started to come in thick and fast, with Piastri and Russell also making their stops. It was Russell who returned to the circuit ahead of the McLaren, while Hamilton had climbed up to P12 after overtaking Albon.

There was disappointment for Hulkenberg on Lap 28, the Kick Sauber driver having retired the car in the pits due to a power unit issue, while the stewards were again being kept busy as it was confirmed that Sainz had been handed a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Elsewhere, Piastri was looking quick as he surged past Hadjar on the main straight to take eighth place. Further ahead, Leclerc pitted on Lap 32 and reemerged in third – and McLaren brought Norris in on Lap 35, with the extensive lead he had built prior to his stop seeing him easily return to the track still in P1.

Verstappen remained in second, having yet to pit, while Alonso became the third driver to record a DNF as he pulled into the pits with a suspected brake issue. Russell, meanwhile, was warned by his race engineer to manage his front brakes – leading the Briton to respond that a podium fight was possible with the Ferrari and Haas cars ahead.

Running in fifth behind the other Mercedes of Antonelli – and with the McLaren of Piastri right on his tail – Russell radioed in his belief that both his and Antonelli’s races were being compromised. But with the Silver Arrows not ordering a switch, the #63 car was forced to defend hard against a chasing Piastri.

As Lap 40 ticked down, Norris led by more than 18 seconds from Leclerc with Bearman in third. And as Russell continued to plead his case for being let past Antonelli, the swap was carried out to move the British driver up to fourth as he aimed to chase down Bearman – with Antonelli now having to hold back Piastri.

Up ahead, Norris was asked to "help the other side" as his race engineer questioned if he preferred the medium or the soft tyre. The race leader confirmed that the soft was the preference – so would McLaren opt to change Piastri to a two-stop strategy?

Behind the Australian, Hamilton had Verstappen applying pressure in a scrap for seventh. The Dutchman made a move to take the position into Turn 1 – and while McLaren told Piastri to box, he opted not to, instead staying out on track as he tried to overtake Antonelli to no avail.

The battle took an intriguing turn on Lap 48 as Piastri did indeed pit – only for Mercedes to also bring Antonelli in, while Hamilton pitted too. A duel between the pit crews saw McLaren win, the papaya squad getting Piastri out ahead of the Silver Arrows car.

That sequence seemed to spark a reaction amongst others, with Bearman and Russell subsequently pitting which brought the former out in front in fourth place. With a 16-second deficit to Verstappen in third, could the Haas man catch the Red Bull during the remaining 20 laps?

Behind them, Piastri picked off Ocon – an incident later noted by the stewards before it was decided that no further investigation was necessary – while Antonelli and Hamilton also overtook the Frenchman.

As the race headed into its final stages – and Sainz was handed a drive-through penalty for again speeding in the pit lane, the Spaniard seemingly experiencing an issue with his pit lane limiter – there were several tantalising battles still at play, one being that Verstappen was now just six seconds behind Leclerc in the chase for P2.

Piastri, meanwhile, was trying to find a way past Russell in the scrap for P5, while Bortoleto aimed for the final points-paying position as he followed fellow rookie Hadjar in P10. With 10 laps to go, one driver to succeed in their duel was Piastri, the nine-time race winner surging down the inside into Turn 1.

As Russell had not been able to overtake Bearman, Antonelli requested that the positions should be inverted following their earlier swap – an order that was soon carried out – while Bortoleto overtook Hadjar to move up into 10th place.

Entering into the final five laps, Norris was a whopping 29 seconds up the road from Leclerc – but Verstappen was now just 2.5s behind the Ferrari. Piastri also looked to be gaining as he tried to catch Bearman in the fight for P4 – a position that could be crucial in terms of taking back the championship lead from his team mate.

The yellow flags were waved when Sainz came to a halt in the stadium section on Lap 70 – just as Verstappen was right on the tail of Leclerc. Moments later a Virtual Safety Car was deployed, putting a stop to both this battle and that between Bearman and Piastri.

But with around half a lap remaining, the VSC period came to an end, meaning that those fights could resume. None of this affected Norris, however, who crossed the line to take his 10th career victory with a staggering margin of 30.324s.

Behind him, Leclerc ultimately held onto second – by only 0.725s from Verstappen – and Bearman also kept Piastri at bay to keep fourth place, the strongest result of the young driver’s time in F1 so far.

Piastri had to settle for fifth, meaning that the Australian loses his championship lead to Norris by only one point. Antonelli led home team mate Russell in sixth and seventh for the Mercedes pair, followed by Hamilton, Ocon and Bortoleto to complete the top 10.

Tsunoda, Albon, Hadjar, Stroll, Gasly and Colapinto rounded out the classification, with Sainz failing to take the finish after his late-race stoppage while Alonso, Hulkenberg and Lawson recorded retirements earlier in the Grand Prix.

Key quote

"What a race," said Norris. "I could just keep my eyes focused, I could just keep eyes forward and just focus on what I was doing. A pretty straightforward race for me which is just what I was after. Good start, good launch, good first lap and I could go from there."

What's next

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