MEXICO CITY — Max Verstappen secured a record 14th victory of the season in the Mexico Grand Prix Sunday, breaking a tie with Michael Schumacher (2004), and Sebastian Vettel (2013) for the most victories in a single season.
Piloting the No. 1 Red Bull machine, Verstappen crossed the start/finish line at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez 15.186 seconds ahead of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
“Of course, (the start) helped me out a lot for the rest of the race to stay in the lead after turn one,” Verstappen said. “We were also on a different strategy to the cars around us, but (it’s) an incredible result.
“The pace of the car was really nice; we had to look after our tires because (of the) very long stint on the mediums, but we made it work. It’s been an incredible year so far. We are definitely enjoying it and we will try to go for more.”
In a home race for Sergio Perez, the Red Bull driver completed the podium in third.
Both Hamilton and Mercedes teammate George Russell were displeased with the team’s strategy, opting to run the harder compound tire, instead of a soft-medium tire that Verstappen was able to scamper away with.
Russell would finish a disappointing fourth after showing speed throughout the weekend.
“I had a good start but lost two positions in the first lap and our strategy with medium – hard was not the right one in hindsight,” Russell said. “I couldn’t get the hard tire working as there was just no grip. Red Bull and Ferrari both started on the softs and we need to understand why the other teams opted for the soft as that looked like the right strategy for this race.
“So that’s clearly our learning for today, as we might have been able to get closer, being on the same strategy. Nevertheless, as a team we’re making progress and I’m very happy about that. I’m intrigued to see how Brazil goes, although I don’t think we will be quite as competitive as in Mexico, but still a huge positive takeaway from this weekend and a great job by the whole team.”
Ferarri suffered a lackluster race, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finishing fifth and sixth.
The American team of Haas F1 finished near the tail-end of the field, with Mick Scumacher placing 16th, and Kevin Magnussen in 17th.