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A perfect weekend for Lando Norris, but he isn't number one in Edd Straw's driver rankings this weekend...
Started: 9th Finished: 4th
This was the calling-card weekend Ollie Bearman’s pace had promised, but never quite delivered so far.
There have been times when he’s not nailed it when it counts, or got caught up in needless incidents and made mistakes, but everything was right about this weekend, starting off with catching up after missing FP1 and reaching Q3, in which he felt he’d got the most of the machinery.
He was two-tenths behind Isack Hadjar, which was down to time lost in the esses where the Racing Bulls car had the advantage. He then made a good start, cleared his midfield rivals and shook out sixth, with a little help from the Turn 1 chaos, but not as much as you might assume.
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He then opportunistically jumped Max Verstappen and George Russell, and picked up another place when Lewis Hamilton served his penalty.
What really impressed was how resolute he was, denying Verstappen the chance to repass him and only dropping behind when he made a second stop that was conservative, but probably necessary.
He also kept Oscar Piastri at bay late on, and probably would have done even without the assistance of the VSC. It's the extra complexity of his race, threading the needle to beat faster cars, that just clinches top spot for him.
Verdict: A weekend that will have caught Ferrari’s attention.
Started: 1st Finished: 1st
This was Lando Norris back on top form, at one with a McLaren that was the strongest package in Mexico thanks to its cooling strengths and excelling on the low-grip track surface.
That was reflected not only by his dominant victory from pole position, but also having a crushing pace advantage over his team-mate. As the title fight reaches its denouement, Norris appears to be coming into his own, although the unique characteristics of the high-altitude circuit are ones he is particularly well-suited to mastering given how strong he is at judging the limit in such conditions.
That was clear in watching his onboards, where he was usually able to pitch the car into the corner without being caught out by how the front end gripped up or rotated.
Not even missing FP1 to allow Pato O’Ward mileage could knock him off his stride as he got to the limit of the car quickly. Once he’d nailed the start, a crushing victory was inevitable and only the greater complexity of Bearman’s race denies him top spot by the narrowest of margins.
Verdict: Back at his brilliant best.
Started: 5th Finished: 3rd
Based on Friday, Verstappen looked destined for pole position but for Red Bull having to make changes, including to the cooling, to ensure the car had better race pace than the long-runs suggested. That left him frustrated to be hitting up against a brick wall in qualifying, describing it as “no grip, doesn’t turn, no traction” thanks to the low-grip, high-altitude track.
His positioning at Turn 1 was extremely high risk but he made it work, blending back in in fourth place as the rules demand, making this an unorthodox, but effective, way to gain ground.
However, his battle with Hamilton and pace on his starting mediums made life difficult. He jumped up to third when Bearman pitted and drove a superb soft stint to real in Leclerc before being denied the chance to attack by the late VSC.
Verdict: Lived dangerously at times, but effective.
Started: 2nd Finished: 2nd
Mexico isn’t Charles Leclerc’s first choice of circuit layout, and last year he admitted to struggling more in the low-grip, low-downforce conditions compared to then-team-mate Sainz.
He was more on top of the car this year and generally had the edge on his team-mate, with the one-tenth advantage by the end of Q3 broadly representative. Given the 0.234s deficit to Norris, pole position wasn’t on the cards.
The start was key to holding onto second and he was extremely fortunate to get away with regaining that position from team-mate Hamilton after taking to the grass after a snap and rejoining ahead. But after that slice of luck, which slightly hurts his ranking, he didn’t put a foot wrong and looked like he could well have kept Verstappen behind even without the VSC.
Verdict: Strong but a little fortunate at the start.
Started: 4th Finished: 7th
Russell probably could have squeezed a little more out of Q3, especially given he felt that his Q2 lap was better-executed than those at the business end of qualifying.
Perhaps with a stronger Q3, it was possible at least to split the Ferraris, although that’s being hyper-critical given the pace of the Mercedes wasn’t quite as strong as hoped. His race was compromised by the early laps, in particular being forced briefly off track by Verstappen and Bearman getting past, but while he was frustrated not to be let past Kimi Antonelli immediately, he nonetheless never showed that he had a pace advantage.
Verdict: Quicker Mercedes driver, but imperfect execution.
Started: 6th Finished: 6th
Although Antonelli flirted with disaster in Q1, scraping through to the next stage after an untidy session, but by the time he’d made it to Q3 he was in a better place and qualified just 0.075s off Russell.
He reached the first corner in sixth but carried in too much speed and had to take to the grass, which meant he shook out seventh behind Bearman. His final result was defined by the battle between Mercedes and Piastri, as he was eventually ordered to let Russell past then jumped by the McLaren in a pitlane battle when he was called in to cover a potential undercut.
Given Russell had been unable to make a better fist of attacking bearman ahead, or pull away, the positions were then reversed to give Antonelli back sixth place.
Verdict: One of his stronger weekends overall.
Started: 11th Finished: 9th
At the start of the weekend, Esteban Ocon was in search of improved rear stability in the high-speed corners in the upgraded Haas, and generally was relatively satisfied with the car come qualifying.
He was eliminated in Q2 after lapping just half-a-tenth off his team-mate, although it was perhaps stretching a point to suggest that without the presence of Yuki Tsunoda and Leclerc on his final lap and resulting dirty air, he would have been fifth given neither caused much disruption - but it might just have cost him a Q3 place.
He ran 10th on the first lap after starting on softs and spent part of that stint frustrated he couldn’t get past medium-shod Tsunoda. However, his nine lap undercut combined with Tsunoda’s slow pitstop meant that battle was won - although there was no chance to make gains beyond that.
Verdict: A better weekend than the position gaps to Bearman suggests.
Started: 13th Finished: DNF
Given the Sauber is a tricky car on low-fuel, Nico Hulkenberg’s 13th on the grid was a decent effort, and there were no cars that the package appeared to have the pace to say he should have been ahead of them.
His race started to go wrong when a lack of power and brake vibration manifested itself at the start of the formation lap, forcing him to start the race without any burnouts to build tyre temperature.
Inevitably, he dropped briefly to 18th, picking up a place when Stroll spun, but ultimately was on a hiding to nothing and despite giving it a good go despite the problems the car was retired after 25 laps.
Verdict: PU problem cost good points shot.
Started: 16th Finished: 10th
Qualifying proved to be a disappointment, as although Gabriel Bortoleto went into it confident in the car, he struggled in Q1, locking up on his first lap then struggling with a lack of grip and was “sideways the whole lap”.
That said, he looking good to reach Q2 until he got to Turn 12 and the 0.161s gap to Hulkenberg suggests the grip levels weren’t too out of keeping with everyone else.
However, a bad Saturday gave Bortoleto the opportunity to do something he hadn’t before in F1 by climbing into a points position from outside the top 10 on the grid.
From 13th initially, he passed the struggling Carlos Sainz in the first stint, overcut Tsunoda and emerged with an unexpectedly large advantage thanks to Red Bull’s slow pitstop and then did a superb job to chase down and overtake Hadjar 10 laps from home.
Verdict: Produced a good, determined race drive.
Started: 3rd Finished: 8th
Hamilton continued his recent run of decent form in a Ferrari that he’s come to terms with, running a similar set-up to Leclerc.
The gap of about a tenth in qualifying was representative of their relative pace, although he can feel unfortunate not to hold second place at the start after Leclerc had a snap between Turn 1 and 2 and cut across the grass, regaining the place he lost to Hamilton.
The battle with Verstappen proved Hamilton’s undoing, and while he gave as good as he got in the Turn 1-3 battle that cost him the place, his attempt to repass and lock-up, combined with the penalty for not giving back time gained to the resulting cut track, turned podium promise into a minor points finish.
Verdict: Decent pace, but had a hand in his disappointing race.
Started: 11th Finished: 11th
Tsunoda was much happier with life in Mexico and showed respectable pace relative to Verstappen throughout the weekend.
He lapped just 0.211s off him in Q2 but that was enough to miss out, a qualifying session with echoes of the middle stages of the season when Tsunoda would often be only a few tenths off but drop out early in qualifying.
However, Tsunoda really should have made Q3 and was well up on Hadjar before being too conservative in Turn 12.
He held eighth early on before being passed by Piastri and showed reasonable pace on the mediums in the first stint in going long. A slow pitstop (around nine seconds) cost him a minor points finish on what team principal Laurent Mekies called “his best weekend in a long time”.
Verdict: Merited a top-10 finish.
Started: 7th Finished: 5th
As Andrea Stella put it, Piastri is a driver for the high-grip conditions while team-mate Norris excels at low grip. That’s at the heart of this being comfortably Piastri’s most off-the-pace weekend of the season, coming just a week after setting a new low for that at Austin.
Piastri made progress and it wasn’t as if he was making endless mistakes; it’s just he wasn’t so at home with the grip and therefore never looked anything like as in tune with the car as his team-mate.
McLaren was as certain as it can be that there’s no underlying car problem, and given Piastri looked at his most comfortable by the time he got to Q3 it’s likely he just ran out of time to pull off his traditional in-weekend turnaround, given how extreme the conditions were.
This made the race one of damage limitation, something Piastri did well despite slipping to ninth at the start after sliding off on the dust at Turn 1. He recovered to fifth, and was pressuring Bearman for fourth, with his incisive pass on Russell the highlight of a grimly determined drive.
Verdict: Pace wasn’t there, but the grit was.
Started: 18th Finished: 15th
After sitting out FP1, he described Friday as “one of the worst of the season” as the Alpine reacted poorly to the bumps and kerbs and was once again clearly the worst car in the field.
He found the car “much more connected” after changes on Saturday, but the fundamental weaknesses and inconsistency remained. He prevailed in a qualifying battle with Franco Colapinto thanks to his team-mate making an error on his final Q1 lap, before battling with quicker cars in the early stages.
It then turned into a long, futile race and private battle with Colapinto, which turned into a late chase with his team-mate on younger softs, but that never became a wheel-to-wheel battle thanks to having to keep out of the way while being lapped and the late VSC.
Verdict: Another weekend of futility.
Started: 20th Finished: 16th
With FP1 allowing Alpine to benchmark Colapinto against his rival for a 2026 seat, Paul Aron, he had perhaps one of his strongest Fridays of the season in an Alpine that was particularly tricky in Mexico.
He carried that form into Saturday, outpacing Pierre Gasly on the first Q1 runs, then lapping just four-hundredths off on the second before taking too much kerb at Turn 3 on his final attempt and spitting himself off track. That added up to a 0.124s deficit as Gasly squeezed a little more out of his final attempt.
He spun at Turn 2 after being forced to put the right side of the car on the grass by Stroll, but thereafter drove a good race in limited machinery. His hard stint was needlessly long, but a 15-lap tyre offset in his favour meant he was able to reel in Gasly and he might well have passed him but for the interruption of being lapped and the late VSC. But for throwing away his final Q1 lap, he would likely have outranked Gasly.
Verdict: Showing the pace he needs.
Started: 8th Finished: 13th
The Racing Bulls car was stronger in qualifying than in the race, which is reflected in Hadjar’s strong qualifying and the struggle to hang onto a top-10 place in the race.
However, he would likely have been able to score had he held onto the eighth place he emerged from the first sequence with. Instead he lost the rear at Turn 6 while battling with Antonelli, slipping behind Tsunoda, Piastri and Ocon to run 11th.
Although Tsunoda’s pitstop problems later handed that place back, Hadjar’s race boiled down to hanging on to 10th on softs, which he did until about 10 laps from home when Bortoleto passed him, with Tsunoda and Albon following them through and relegating Hadjar to a frustrated 13th.
Verdict: First lap error cost likely points finish.
Started: 14th Finished: DNF
The Aston Martin didn’t work well in Mexico City; it never does and Alonso was eliminated from the race early on with overheating brakes.
That followed a so-so qualifying performance, as although the car probably wasn’t a Q3 threat, he didn’t have the tidiest lap and only gained a tenth of a second from Q1 to Q2.
The same could be said of the first lap as he picked up minor endplate damage after clipping Ocon in Turn 1, then got shuffled back to 16th by the end of the lap. The car was far from at its best, but so too was Alonso despite having a clear pace advantage over Stroll of almost four-tenths in qualifying.
Verdict: A nothing weekend.
Started: 15th Finished: DNF
After a solid Q1, albeit 0.228s off Hadjar, it all went wrong for Liam Lawson in Q2. His first run yielded nothing after he locked up and ran off track at Turn 4, while on the second, he was instructed to abort because he wasn’t quick enough and there was an opportunity to squeeze in a third run.
However, he had a lack of grip on that run and ended up a second slower than the next-slowest car as the lack of grip baffled him. But while he was responsible for the qualifying struggle, he was the innocent victim of Sainz’s sudden dive for the grass at Turn 1, picking up front wing damage, then was faced with two marshals on the track between Turn 1 and 2 after pitting at the end of the second lap before retiring thanks to damage.
Verdict: Disappointing in qualifying, unlucky in the race.
Started: 17th Finished: 12th
While his team-mate thrived, Albon was never comfortable in Mexico. Although he battled brake problems through practice that carried into qualifying, he felt that even with those, he should at least have made Q2 but struggled badly for grip.
“We’ve been extinguishing fires throughout the weekend”, was his verdict after qualifying. His race was similarly frustrating, as starting on the hards used only by the desperate and running long meant there was no chance to make gains.
He did what he could, but was irritated he wasn’t switched to a two-stopper when it became clear the hard was hopeless.
Verdict: His worst weekend of ‘25 in terms of pace.
Started: 12th Finished: 17th
Just as in 2024, Sainz was on mighty form in Mexico City and far more comfortable with the Williams than his team-mate despite sitting out FP1.
He translated that into seventh in qualifying, leading the midfield pack and ahead of the struggling Piastri, but always faced a tough challenge in the race thanks to the five-place grid penalty he carried into the weekend.
A recovery from there would have put him in contention for a place near the top of the rankings, but instead the race got away from him. And it was Sainz who started that by diving for the grass at Turn 1, hitting the innocent Lawson along the way.
That gave Sainz wheelrim damage that harmed the first stint, and wheel-speed sensor damage that earned him two speeding penalties. There was no coming back from there, and he spun at Turn 16 while 15th, damaging the right rear and retiring.
Verdict: Strong…until his disastrous race.
Started: 19th Finished: 14th
Qualifying has been a big problem for Stroll throughout 2025 and it was the same old story in Mexico, falling in Q1 after lapping 0.374s off his team-mate.
While the first half of the lap compared well with Alonso, it fell away from him from then on as he once again complained about a lack of grip. And the chance of a good result vanished on the first lap as having already inconvenienced Colapinto between Turn 1 and 2 while squirming all over the road, he then attempted to go around Gasly at Turn 5 and spun on the dirty outside line.
Although he spent eight laps in 11th place, he was never in the hunt for a top 10 as he had to make a second stop. While the Aston Martin was not a points car in Mexico, his qualifying underachievement then lairy first lap meant he didn’t use it well.
Verdict: Underdelivered in qualifying and the race.
