Given the level of superiority Lando Norris had shown in qualifying and the practice long runs, the only way he wasn’t going to walk away with the Mexican Grand Prix was if something went wrong in the opening seconds.
But the start was perfect and to protect himself from the slipstreaming Lewis Hamilton behind him, he backed off early while blocking the inside line. In that moment, he ensured his passage through the hot Mexican afternoon was a breeze, converting the McLaren’s big superiority into a half-minute victory.
As Norris made that lift, so it rather boxed-in Hamilton, who had used the grippier side of the grid to get a better start than team-mate Charles Leclerc, who had pulled across in front of him, allowing Lewis to use the other Ferrari’s slipstream to swoop to the other side, picking up the tow then from Norris to begin grinding ahead of Leclerc.
When Norris lifted and Hamilton moved left towards Leclerc, he didn’t realise Leclerc couldn’t give him any room because Charles had Max Verstappen to his outside. So the two Ferraris had touched as Verstappen was up on the kerb, scraping the Red Bull’s belly along the white paint and running off up the escape area.
Norris, having controlled Hamilton on the approach to Turn 1, then did the same into the interlinked Turn 2, controlled the two Ferraris side-by-side behind him. Leclerc - on the left, inner front wheel on the point of locking - sensed he might be about to hit the McLaren and swerved left onto the shallower part of the grass runoff than the one Verstappen was using.
Typical Mexican Turn 1 shenanigans. Leclerc and Verstappen rejoined in the first two positions. Verstappen blended out the gas to allow Norris ahead and as they raced up to Turn 4, Leclerc did the same, to give Norris back the lead. Verstappen then allowed Hamilton to pass between T4 and T5. This just left Leclerc needing to give Hamilton second place back. Which – perhaps recalling how Hamilton had somehow not handed him his place back, as agreed, at Baku - he didn’t do. This rather preoccupied Hamilton’s mind for the next few laps, as he repeatedly radioed the pitwall to ask what was happening about the situation.
He didn’t receive the answer he was hoping for – and instead was told to increase his lift-and-coast by 100 metres. This is a staple Ferrari requirement in order to keep the plank from wearing excessively. But it came at a bad time. Hearing this on Ferrari’s radio, Verstappen’s race engineer relayed it to his driver – who needed no second invitation.
He made an aggressively late brake into Turn 1 to begin the sixth lap, but Hamilton hung on around the outside, they banged wheels and Verstappen took to the run-off on the right, rejoining ahead but with lost momentum. Hamilton pounced up to Turn 4, trying for the outside. Verstappen held him out wide, Hamilton locked up on the gripless surface – and took to the Turn 4 escape grass. But didn’t follow the prescribed route in rejoining the track, now well ahead of the Red Bull.
The sporting regs say Hamilton should then have handed the position back to Verstappen – but Verstappen’s loss of momentum in the dice had allowed Ollie Bearman’s Haas to overtake him through Turn 5 (as George Russell was hung out to dry by the Red Bull). Rather than surrender two places to Bearman and Verstappen, Hamilton decided to press on. This earned him a 10s penalty to be taken at his pitstop, losing him five positions in the tightly bunched pack, which he’d never get back.
Meanwhile, Lando Norris was leading the race by over 2s and pulling away from the lift-and-coasting Leclerc at 0.5s per lap. That was the important action settled. In the qualifying press conference the previous day, after jokingly considering by how big a margin he was going to beat the Ferraris, Norris was asked about lift-and-coasting. “Ask these guys,” Norris smiled, gesturing to Leclerc and Hamilton. “They’re the experts at that.” Both points were spot-on.
Verstappen’s kerb-straddling at the start had deposited white paint dust on the outside of the track on which both Kimi Antonelli and Oscar Piastri had slid as they tried to turn in, obliging them to take to the escape area. This allowed Yuki Tsunoda to get between them in eighth place, which rather delayed Piastri’s progress.
Bearman’s performance was superb, converting his ninth place grid slot in the Haas to sixth by the first corner, in between the Mercs of George Russell and Antonelli. Picking off both Russell and Verstappen as they squabbled through Turn 5 had him running a fully merited fourth. He had the pace and composure to run in that company and on the same softs as almost everyone else was pulling away from the medium-shod Verstappen. The Ferraris ahead were only gradually dropping him and he moved up to third as Hamilton pitted. Bearman then pitted only to defend Antonelli’s undercut attempt.
He'd been followed into the pits by Piastri who had taken 11 laps to find a way by Tsunoda, but had then quickly closed on Russell. McLaren brought him in for an undercut attempt, Mercedes covered him off and their dice continued. Running at the pace of slower cars and unable to pass, Piastri was already half-a-minute adrift of his dominant team mate at these first stops.
Russell felt he had more pace than team-mate Antonelli. He was only behind him through being forced wide by Verstappen in the Turn 4-5 squabble and campaigned hard tor a position swap so that he could attack Bearman. He had to plead his case for longer than ideal – and warnings about his brake and tyre temperatures were not received warmly. Eventually, the place swap was made, but he wasn’t able to put a move on the Haas.
The longer you could get the softs to run, the better your strategy was going to be, for the medium was clearly a slower tyre. Verstappen had been surprised to see everyone around him starting on the soft and had suffered a gripless first stint, but knowing that he had to run long so as to not give himself too long a second stint on the softs.
Norris got his softs to go 35 laps, four laps longer than Leclerc who had pitted from 16s behind. This gave Red Bull the confidence to bring Verstappen in on lap 37, meaning a soft-shod 34-lap second stint. Suddenly, the Red Bull had a balance he could work with and everyone else was now on the mediums. He rejoined behind Hamilton but on much newer and grippier tyres quickly caught and passed him. Piastri, the two Mercs and Bearman lay just ahead – and it was going to be fascinating to see if he could use his tyre advantage to make his way through them.
But then the race split into two strategies as McLaren tried to find a way of freeing Piastri into clear air by pitting him again – on lap 47 – for another set of softs. Mercedes responded to the McLaren guys coming out of the garage to bring Antonelli in on the same lap. But the Mercedes stop was slow and Piastri got out ahead.
Russell was brought in the following lap – and Haas covered that off with Bearman. In strategising among themselves, Haas, Merc and McLaren had let Verstappen through. With a clear track ahead of him and a big tyre offset, he began quickly gaining on Leclerc. Piastri, meanwhile put a committed move on Russell into T1. This required Russell to then surrender position – as agreed earlier – back to Antonelli.
With Norris half-a-minute clear out front, the race’s closing stages were enlivened by Verstappen’s chase of Leclerc’s second and Piastri’s of Bearman’s fourth. But with two laps to go, Carlos Sainz pulled his Williams off to the side, creating a VSC for most of the remaining distance.
That VSC may come to have title implications, as it did halt the charge of both Piastri and Verstappen, even if it's debatable if they'd have gained anything without it. For Norris, the new leader of the world championship, it was the perfect flourish to a perfect weekend.
