F1 Mexican Grand Prix: Red Bull's Max Verstappen Takes 16th Win of 2023 Season, Hamilton Secures Second Place

Max Verstappen set a new record for most wins in a season on his way to a dominant victory at the Mexican Grand Prix, easily defeating Lewis Hamilton and cruising to the chequered flag. Despite starting on pole, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finished third.

The Mexico City Grand Prix was won by Red Bull's Max Verstappen despite a major accident involving Kevin Magnussen just before the halfway point. Starting third on the grid, Verstappen quickly passed the two Ferraris that had dominated the front row to take the lead. When Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen's team-mate, aimed to overtake the Ferrari driver from the outside line through the first corner, he was involved in an accident with Charles Leclerc and was forced out of the race.

Verstappen was in command of the race until Magnussen's Haas VF-23 crashed heavily at Turn 8, perhaps owing to a malfunction in the back suspension, producing a major impact with the wall and red-flagged the Mexican race. After the restart, however, Verstappen's lead remained unchallenged. At the same time, Lewis Hamilton of the Mercedes team, who had started sixth, passed the Ferraris during the first round of pit stops and later secured a distant second place.

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F1 Mexican Grand Prix: Mexico Race Result

F1 Sergio Perez

The three-time world champion holds a commanding lead after winning 16 of 19 races in 2023, breaking his own record of 15 victories in a season. Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes finished a distant second by making a daring approach on Leclerc, who had started from pole position but was unable to turn it into a victory and therefore settled for third place on the podium once again.

Fourth place went to Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, while McLaren's Lando Norris drove a remarkable comeback from 17th on the starting grid to fifth place. AlphaTauri's Daniel Ricciardo finished in a respectable seventh place, closing in on George Russell's Mercedes in the last laps but failing to make the pass.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG F1 Team	+ 13.875s
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 23.124s
4	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 27.154s
5	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team	+ 33.266s
6	George Russell	Mercedes AMG F1 Team	+ 41.020s
7	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri	+ 41.570s
8	Oscar Piastri	McLaren F1 Team	+ 43.104s
9	Alex Albon	Williams Racing	+ 48.573s
10	Esteban Ocon	Alpine F1 Team	+ 62.879s
11	Pierre Gasly	Alpine F1 Team	+ 66.208s
13	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	+ 78.982s
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas F1 Team	+ 80.309s
14	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo F1 Team	+ 80.597s
15	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo F1 Team	+ 81.676s
16	Logan Sargeant	Williams Racing	+ 1 lap
17	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin F1 Team	+ 5 Laps
DNF	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin F1 Team
DNF	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team
DNF	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing

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Although he made up some distance, Lando Norris's 17th-place start on soft tyres only got him to 10th by the time the race was restarted. He clawed his way back to seventh, and McLaren intentionally exchanged spots with Piastri in an attempt to attack Ricciardo. Norris accomplished this feat and finished sixth after passing Russell with five laps to go with a daring pass at Turn 6.

Russell prevailed against Ricciardo, followed by Piastri, Alex Albon of Williams, and Esteban Ocon of Alpine. Both Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso struggled for Aston Martin on Sunday, with the former starting near the end of the grid and the latter spending most of the race towards the back and finally suffering a double Did Not Finish (DNF).