Max Verstappen twice-penalised for Lando Norris battle as Carlos Sainz wins
Max Verstappen hit with double penalty for Lando Norris clash as Carlos Sainz takes Mexico City win.
Max Verstappen was penalised twice for a battle with F1 title rival Lando Norris as Carlos Sainz won an action-packed Mexico City Grand Prix.
Three-time world champion Verstappen was hit with two 10-second time penalties for separate incidents with Norris in Sunday’s 71-lap race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez, dropping him to sixth.
Norris finished second to enjoy an 10-point swing over Verstappen and reduce the Red Bull driver’s championship advantage down to 47 points with four rounds remaining.
The controversial flashpoints occurred on Lap 10 when Norris attempted to sweep around the outside of Verstappen at Turn 4, only for the Red Bull driver to force his rival wide.
Verstappen then lunged down the inside of Norris into Turn 8, taking both cars off track and into the run-off, which enabled Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to sneak past and move up to second.
Verstappen served his penalty totalling 20-seconds during his first pit stop and fell as low as 15th, before starting his fightback drive.
For the second consecutive weekend, an impressive Ferrari victory was overshadowed by controversy involving F1’s two championship protagonists, as Carlos Sainz converted pole position into his second victory of the season.
Norris claimed second after Leclerc had a huge wobble coming out of the final corner on lap 62 and surrendered a place to the McLaren driver. Leclerc somehow managed to keep his Ferrari out of the barriers as a second 1-2 for the Italian team in as many weekends went begging.
Lewis Hamilton prevailed in a duel with Mercedes teammate George Russell to take fourth, with Verstappen coming home sixth to limit the damage to his championship lead, which remains healthy.
Kevin Magnussen claimed seventh ahead of the recovering McLaren of Oscar Piastri, while Nico Hulkenberg endured a double points finish for Haas, whose impressive recent momentum continued in Mexico.
Pierre Gasly rounded out the points-scorers by finishing 10th for Alpine.
RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Williams’ Alex Albon were wiped out in a first-corner collision which left both drivers with irreparable damage and saw the Safety Car deployed.
What should have been a celebratory 400th grand prix appearance for Fernando Alonso proved to be one to forget when the Aston Martin driver was forced into retirement with a brake issue on Lap 16.
