Mexico City GP 2024: Sainz wins as Verstappen takes two penalties

Carlos Sainz won the Mexico City Grand Prix from pole position on 27 October, finishing 4.705 seconds ahead of Lando Norris at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Charles Leclerc made it two Ferraris on the podium, 34.387 seconds back. The result that mattered most for the championship was sixth place: Max Verstappen collected two 10-second penalties for his driving against Norris.

How Sainz won in Mexico City

Sainz's pole lap of 1:15.946 was 0.225 seconds quicker than Verstappen, whose first Q3 effort had been deleted for track limits. Norris qualified third and Leclerc fourth. At the start Verstappen got the better launch and led into Turn 1, while Sainz cut the corner and had to hand the place back.

The safety car came out straight away. Yuki Tsunoda tried to go around the outside of Alex Albon, the two touched, and both were out on the spot: Tsunoda in the wall, Albon with broken front-left suspension. Racing resumed on lap 7, and soon after Sainz used DRS and a late lunge on the main straight to take the lead. Nobody got it back from him.

The race for second turned on lap 10. Norris attacked Verstappen, who pushed him wide, then came again at Turn 7, where Verstappen dived down the inside and both cars went off the track. Leclerc went past the pair of them. The stewards gave Verstappen 10 seconds for each incident, he served the 20 seconds at his stop on lap 27, rejoined 15th and worked back to sixth. "Not very clean driving in my opinion," said Norris.

Leclerc held second for most of the afternoon until he slid wide at the final corner late on and Norris took the place. He then pitted for softs and set the fastest lap. Fernando Alonso's 400th start ended after 15 laps, with Aston Martin reporting overheating brakes.

The teammate duels in Mexico

Ferrari. Sainz beat Leclerc on both days, by three tenths in qualifying and by half a minute on Sunday. It was his fourth career win and his second of 2024, his last season before Lewis Hamilton takes his seat. The bigger picture still favours Leclerc: their head-to-head stands at 12–7 in qualifying and 12–6 in races on F1 Duels.

McLaren. Oscar Piastri locked up on his first Q1 lap, lost the next one to track limits and went out 17th. His race was a long recovery to eighth, with a late pass on Nico Hülkenberg. Norris now leads the McLaren duel 16–4 in qualifying and 13–7 in races in our count, which is roughly why McLaren's title hopes rest on one driver.

Red Bull. Sergio Pérez went out in Q1 at his home race and started 18th. He then picked up a time penalty for being out of position in his grid box, banged wheels with Liam Lawson and finished 17th, last of the classified runners. Verstappen leads their duel 17–0 in races on F1 Duels, and Christian Horner declined to say whether Pérez would see out the season.

Mercedes. George Russell outqualified Lewis Hamilton, fifth to sixth, and passed him early in the race. Hamilton had the last word, passing him into Turn 1 on lap 66 to take fourth. Russell still leads the season 15–5 in qualifying and 10–6 in races in our count.

What it means for the title

Verstappen now leads Norris by 47 points with four rounds left, down from 57 before Mexico. Ferrari's second win in a row lifted them above Red Bull into second in the constructors' championship, 27 points behind McLaren. Every verdict from the weekend is on the Mexico City GP duels page.