In Pictures: Mexico City 2021
The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is located more than 7,000 feet above sea level, and the cars do feel the height, but the F1ESTA went on in style!
Everyone was expecting the Red Bull cars to have an advantage at Mexico City, and although Valtteri Bottas set the fastest lap of FP1, it was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen the quickest in FP2.
Saturday started well for the Red Bulls with local hero Sergio Perez doing the fastest time of Practice 3. Although qualifying had a few surprises with Valtteri Bottas taking Pole Position with teammate Lewis Hamilton behind him and Red Bull on the second row. Behind them, a fantastic Pierre Gasly ahead of Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, and Charles Leclerc.
On Sunday, the organizers had prepared a spectacular Pre-Race show to the delight of the teams, the drivers, and especially the fans.
Once the race started, Verstappen tried an on-the-limit maneuver overtaking both Mercedes on the outside of turn one to take the lead of the race. Behind him, an overly cautious Bottas braked a bit early into the same corner and an overly enthusiastic Ricciardo a bit too fast, touching the Mercedes enough to make it spin, causing a concertina effect with almost every driver behind having to sort out chaos and confusion with Tsunoda and Schumacher having to retire with damaged cars. The safety car came out while the cars were retrieved, and the track was cleaned. The race was re-started on lap 5 and Verstappen took off like a rocket, building a healthy lead from Hamilton now in second with Perez not far behind.
Verstappen, comfortably in the lead, had the fastest lap of the race, so Mercedes called Bottas in, and in the final lap of the race he secured the fastest lap, taking away the valuable point from Verstappen.
In the end, it was Max Verstappen winning the Grand Prix from Lewis Hamilton and local boy Sergio Perez.
QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM:
““It was an incredible day for the Team and also for the fans, to have Checo on the podium here in Mexico at his home Grand Prix was great, so it couldn’t have been better. I knew the start was very important today, we were three wide at one point and I was on the more ideal race line so I could brake later and get into the lead. After that I could do my own thing, the pace was very good today so I could just keep building and creating a gap, the pit stops were seamless and the car was good throughout the race which was crucial today.””
““First, congratulations to Max. That car was faster than we were this weekend and there’s nothing we could really do about it. I gave it absolutely everything and obviously a great fight with Sergio at the end but I’m grateful I could still at least get a second-place finish. It was easy enough to hold on – I’ve been in that situation many times before - but it shows how fast their car was when Sergio was that close behind me and able to follow that closely.””
““This is a great result for my country, I really wanted more but unfortunately we didn’t get that. It was so messy in turn one so to avoid incident there was critical and then I wanted second place, but we didn’t get the chance because it is just so difficult to overtake around here. I was really close to getting Lewis but the Mercedes are so quick on the straight lines so I didn’t get an opportunity to go for it but I gave my best. I could feel the fans’ energy when I was going through the stadium sector and I was thinking about how many people were here for me, I could actually hear the crowd when I was driving through Foro Sol.””
