Max Verstappen also showed strength in Mexico

Max Verstappen clinched another win, this time at the Mexican Grand Prix. The Dutch Red Bull driver saw the checkered flag first, finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez, who completed the trio.

The World Champion claimed his 14th win of the year with two Grands Prix remaining to close out the year. Bad weekend for Ferrari, Saint was fifth and Leclerc sixth.

Where was the game decided?

Verstappen’s victory was largely decided by the start but also by Red Bull’s overall strategy. The 2022 world champion stayed in first place with Hamilton behind and Perez, Russell third and fourth respectively.

The two Red Bull drivers started on soft ground, as did the two Ferraris. Russell and Hamilton had started in the middle. When they got to the pit stops, Verstappen put on Medium Rubber and Hamilton on Hard to drive safely to the end.

Especially in the course of the laps, the Dutchman was able to further expand his gap. His tires held out until the end and Verstappen took another win.

The match phase

Stages of the race included the struggles behind Verstappen early in the race. Hamilton made his attack on Russell, who didn’t get off to a good start.

In fact, the Brit also dropped to fourth while Perez moved up to third.

You surprised us

Max Verstappen’s record of 14 wins may be largely due to the unimaginably dominant car he’s had since late July, the RB18, but with performances like today the Dutchman has shown he totally deserves it.

He managed, contrary to all predictions, to protect a set of medium tires perfectly for 47 laps and to increase the gap to Mercedes, who counted on only the hard tire to last until the end.

Mercedes then showed – albeit in favorable circumstances – the tremendous progress it had made in understanding this year’s troubled W13 and solving its giant mystery to reverse its psychology and attempt to get back into the top-flight battles in 2023.

And of course we saw another driver today that we missed: good old Daniel Ricciardo, who managed to break out of his McLaren disaster of the last two years, unleashing his infamous overtaking ability and showing what he sorely misses will be from Formula 1 next year.

You let us down

George Russell had a string of back-to-back races where he failed to match the momentum he had shown in the first half of the year, consistently outperforming Lewis Hamilton.

The young Englishman lost his place on the podium from the start, unable to keep up with Perez – whom Hamilton won with relative ease.

It’s obviously very disappointing for Ferrari not to be able to compete against Mercedes and stay in contention for the podium. But the truth is that Mexico City’s high altitude has mostly left its own engine dying of breathlessness, while the Scuderia has – rightly – turned its full attention to the development of the 2023 Cavallino.

What’s next

The Formula 1 championship for the 2022 season is coming to an end. Brazil will host the penultimate Grand Prix of the year. There will also be a sprint race on Saturday (November 12). The three days begin on November 11th and end with the game on Sunday November 13th at 20:00.