Mexican GP

Gasly ‘extremely happy’ with Mexican GP performance as AlphaTauri levels with Alpine

Kevin Peterson03 mins

Pierre Gasly has hailed his performance in Mexican GP as AlphaTauri moved level with Alpine in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship Gasly finished comfortably ahead of the two Ferraris to finish fourth at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. It was a lonely race for the AlphaTauri driver, finishing over 17 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc in fifth. “I’m extremely happy, yes. It’s been a fantastic weekend – fifth in quali and fourth in the race,” Gasly said. “Everything was under control with Charles [Leclerc] behind and I could pull away nicely. I managed the whole race, so no, just a fantastic day.” Mexico was an important race for Gasly having not scored in three of the previous four races before the Mexican GP. “Yes exactly. Especially in the last four races… we had two DNFs even though the pace was there. But this weekend, the car was there, we delivered yesterday in quali, we delivered today in the race and finishing [ahead of] the two Ferraris always feels nice.” The result means AlphaTauri sits level on points with Alpine in the race for fifth in the constructors’ championship – the French outfit is ahead on countback thanks to Esteban Ocon’s win at the Hungaroring. Brazil is next up in F1 – the scene of Pierre Gasly’s maiden podium for Toro Rosso back in 2019. “We’re equal on points with Alpine now,” he added. “So it’s my personal target to give that to Franz so I can have a nice Christmas gift at the end of the year! So we’ll keep pushing for that and looking at our work as a team. I think we have our chances and we’ll fight until the end.”

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Red Bull reverts on Tsunoda’s criticism after Mexican GP Qualifying mix-up

Kevin Peterson04 mins

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner backtracked on some of the criticism directed at AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda after seeing both his drivers finish on the podium in Mexico. Yuki Tsunoda was heavily criticised after qualifying in Mexico, but Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was much more understanding of the AlphaTauri driver’s blunder following Sunday’s race. The Japanese rookie, who races for Red Bull’s development team Alpha Tauri, was slammed as a “dumb idiot” by Verstappen for running off the track in the decisive moments of Q3. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said Verstappen and also Sergio Perez had been “Tsunoda-d”, while Dr Helmut Marko accused the 21-year-old of “killing both of our cars”. Predictably, Mercedes poked fun at the situation on social media. “Keep your head up, Yuki. Don’t let the haters get you down,” the team quipped on Twitter. Tsunoda also defended himself, writing on social media that there was “nothing more” he could do to get out of the way of the two Red Bulls. “I’m worried because I have to talk to Red Bull now,” the Japanese also told reporters. “But I did nothing wrong.” Tsunoda was indeed summoned to a one-on-one meeting with Marko – and afterwards, the 78-year-old Austrian had changed his tune. “The incident was not Tsunoda’s fault,” Marko insisted. “The team knew what was happening on the track and should have asked him to leave the line earlier.” When asked what he told Tsunoda during the meeting, Marko revealed: “I told him that the engineer was responsible.” Alpha Tauri boss Franz Tost also said the young driver, who was moved to Italy by Red Bull earlier this year and is now being personally coached by Alex Albon, did nothing wrong. “We told him on the radio that the Red Bull was coming and he just needed to get out of the way so they could drive by safely,” said the Austrian. “But Perez flew off the track after Tsunoda. It wasn’t Yuki’s fault,” Tost added. “To be honest, I absolutely do not understand why Perez left the track after Yuki.” Sergio Perez, whose run off the track inspired Verstappen to lift the throttle and ultimately miss pole by two tenths, explained: “Yuki suddenly went off track in front of me.

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Toto Wolf annoyed with Bottas for letting Verstappen through on Turn 1

Kevin Peterson03 mins

Toto Wolff is unhappy with how poleman Valtteri Bottas failed to prevent Max Verstappen from overhauling both Mercedes drivers at the start of the Mexican GP. Ahead of Sunday’s race, Hamilton vowed to work with Bottas to fend off any attacks from the Red Bull camp. But as the front-runners barreled down to the first corner, Bottas remained alongside his teammate in the middle of the track rather than move towards to the left towards the racing line to block Verstappen’s charging Red Bull. And to add insult to injury, the Finn was then tagged and spun around by McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, a setback from which Bottas could not recover. “That should not happen,” Wolff told Sky. “I think we had two cars in front and seemed to open up the scene for Max to come around the outside.” “And even the spin afterwards, and the complete loss of points with Valtteri’s car when there could have been a third or fourth place is annoying, to say the least.” Bottas eventually secured the fastest race lap, depriving Verstappen of an extra point, but Wolff appeared indifferent to the feat. “I mean, that doesn’t really console me at that stage.” Looking back on the race, the Austrian conceded that Mercedes would have likely been hard-pressed to prevail against Red Bull in Mexico if the start had gone according to plan “You have to congratulate Red Bull because the pace was just on another level,” Wolff said. “I don’t think we could have won the race even if he would have stayed ahead in the first corner, because they could have driven circles around us around the pit stops. “In the end, I think for Lewis’s championship it was damage limitation. And for the constructors’, Valtteri spinning out at turn one was very painful.”

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Mexican GP: Verstappen wins ahead of Hamilton, Perez third in home race(full results)

Kevin Peterson07 mins

Max Verstappen stretched his Formula 1 world championship lead by dominating the Mexican Grand Prix, as his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez narrowly failed to deprive Lewis Hamilton of second. Verstappen had surged down the outside of the front-row-starting Mercedes into Turn 1 on the opening lap, braking later and instantly sweeping into the lead. Polesitter Valtteri Bottas looked set to fall into third behind Hamilton, but was tapped into a mid-corner spin by seventh-place starter Daniel Ricciardo – who was passing Perez down the inside on the dusty line. The ensuing traffic chaos triggered by Bottas spinning in front of the pack led to Yuki Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher sandwiching Esteban Ocon and both sustaining race-ending damage, though the Alpine they had both bounced over continued. After a four-lap safety car period, Verstappen simply stormed away. By lap 20 he was 8s clear of Hamilton, who could not shake Perez off. Mercedes brought Hamilton in for his sole pitstop long before the two Red Bulls in the hope of gaining an undercut advantage. While that made no difference to Verstappen’s comfortable margin, Red Bull responded by extending Perez’s first stint so that he came in a full 10 laps later than Hamilton. That long run on older tyres dropped Perez 8s away from the Mercedes by the time he rejoined, but the hope was he could hunt down Hamilton on his fresher tyres. Sure enough, Perez caught Hamilton with 10 laps to go. Despite his best efforts, and amid various traffic headaches, the home favourite couldn’t quite make it a Red Bull 1-2. Verstappen’s points lead is now up to 19 as he was denied a fastest lap point by Mercedes bringing in the delayed Bottas (who had made little progress from the back after his spin then had a poor second scheduled pitstop) for two extra pitstops for fresh tyres late on so he could deny Verstappen that bonus point. Bottas’s first effort to take fastest lap was ironically denied when he came across Verstappen on track. The second attempt finally proved successful on the last lap. Pierre Gasly spent most of the race in a comfortable fourth for AlphaTauri, but did have to be wary of the closing Carlos Sainz late on. The Ferrari driver had left his sole pitstop very late and was charging on fresh tyres, being let through by team-mate Charles Leclerc along the way. They swapped places back as it became clear Sainz wouldn’t catch Gasly. Ferrari’s fifth and sixth places meant it swept past McLaren into third in the constructors’ championship as its rival only scored one point for Lando Norris’s 10th place – achieved from 18th on the grid. Ricciardo smashed his front wing hitting Bottas and could only recover to 12th. Sebastian Vettel took Aston Martin’s best result in nearly two months with seventh, while Kimi Raikkonen’s eighth place ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Alpine was Alfa Romeo’s highest finish all season. Raikkonen’s team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi looked like he would be Alfa’s hero as he emerged from the first-corner mess sixth, but pitting too early for his sole stop left him in the midfield and he finished 11th. George Russell and Nikita Mazepin had also leapt forward through the lap one chaos and briefly ran ninth and 11th for Williams and Haas. That proved unsustainable and they fell back to 16th and 18th respectively by the finish. 2021 F1 MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX – RESULTS POS DRIVER NAT. TEAM TIME 1 Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing 71 Laps 2 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team + 16.555s 3 Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull Racing + 17.752s 4 Pierre Gasly FRA Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda + 63.845s 5 Charles Leclerc MON Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow + 81.037s 6 Carlos Sainz ESP Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow + 1 Lap 7 Sebastian Vettel GER Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team + 1 Lap 8 Kimi Raikkonen FIN Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen + 1 Lap 9 Fernando Alonso ESP Alpine F1 Team + 1 Lap 10 Lando Norris GBR McLaren F1 Team + 1 Lap 11 Antonio Giovinazzi ITA Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen + 1 Lap 12 Daniel Ricciardo AUS McLaren F1 Team + 1 Lap 13 Esteban Ocon FRA Alpine F1 Team + 1 Lap 14 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team + 2 Laps 15 Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team + 2 Laps 16 George Russell GBR Williams Racing + 2 Laps 17 Nicholas Latifi CAN Williams Racing + 2 Laps 18 Nikita Mazepin RUS Uralkali Haas F1 Team + 3 Laps DNF Mick Schumacher GER Uralkali Haas F1 Team DNF DNF Yuki Tsunoda JPN Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda DNF

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Verstappen says Perez and Tsunoda ruined his bid to take pole for Mexican GP

Kevin Peterson03 mins

Max Verstappen confirmed Yuki Tsunoda and Sergio Perez running wide through the middle sector in Q3 “destroyed” his chances of pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix. Mercedes took a shock one-two spearheaded by Valtteri Bottas, with Verstappen finishing third, over three-tenths down on the Finn. Verstappen had his chance of improving in his final run taken away by the AlphaTauri of Tsunoda running wide through turns 10 and 11, followed by Perez. Despite no yellow flags being waved, Verstappen revealed he had lifted off. The championship leader explained: “On the last lap, I was on for a good lap. “I don’t know what happened in front of me but there were two guys going off so I thought there was going to be a yellow flag so I backed out and then you know the lap is then, of course, destroyed. “Even without that, I think we could have still gone for that pole lap. Third is not amazing but I think it is still better than starting second.” Red Bull had performed extensive work on the rear wings of both cars throughout the day but Verstappen ruled out any effect on qualifying from the issues. “We had to repair them but I think in the end, when we went into qualifying, everything was like normal,” said Verstappen. “Of course, it is not ideal but I don’t think it was the reason why it was a bit of a struggle for us in qualifying. “Qualifying did not go our way but we are not using these tyres [softs] anyway so still all to fight for.”

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Bottas takes pole as Mercedes lock out the front row in the Mexican GP qualifying(full results)

Kevin Peterson06 mins

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas has taken pole position for the Mexican GP, leading a 1-2 for the Brackley team as Lewis Hamilton claimed second place. In what was a surprising turn of events, Mercedes proved untouchable in the final part of qualifying as Bottas set a 1:15.875 on his first run in Q3. This was over a tenth quicker than what Hamilton managed, but it was Red Bull who shocked as they fell short in the crunch part of qualifying. Having looked the favourites throughout the weekend, Verstappen was left scratching his head after falling 0.350 shy of what Bottas managed. A reasonably scruffy first flying lap put him on the back foot, while his second run was ruined when AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda went off through the esses on the final runs. This distracted Sergio Perez, with the two cars being off the track and distracting Verstappen as he arrived at the scene. Perez was left in fourth, with neither Red Bull improving on their second runs as a result of the incident. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly finished in fifth, just over a tenth shy of Perez and possibly highlighting just how far short Red Bull fell in the final part of qualifying. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz finished sixth, having survived a scare in the first part of qualifying when he appeared to suffer a power unit issue leaving the pits. He managed to get the car fired back up to full power, going on to make it into Q3. McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was seventh, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, and Tsunoda in ninth. The Japanese driver will start on the Soft compound, having been the only driver in the top ten in Q2 to use the red marked tyres to get through the second part of qualifying. Rounding out the top ten was McLaren’s Lando Norris, although he will start from the back of the grid as a result of an engine change grid penalty. 2021 F1 MEXICAN GP – QUALIFYING RESULTS POS. DRIVER NAT. TEAM Q1 Q2 Q3 1 Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m16.727s 1m16.864s 1m15.875s 2 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m17.207s 1m16.474s 1m16.020s 3 Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing 1m16.788s 1m16.483s 1m16.225s 4 Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull Racing 1m17.003s 1m17.055s 1m16.342s 5 Pierre Gasly FRA Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1m16.908s 1m16.955s 1m16.456s 6 Carlos Sainz ESP Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m17.517s 1m17.248s 1m16.761s 7 Daniel Ricciardo AUS McLaren F1 Team 1m17.719s 1m17.092s 1m16.763s 8 Charles Leclerc MON Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m16.748s 1m17.034s 1m16.837s 9 Yuki Tsunoda JPN Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1m17.330s 1m16.701s 1m17.158s 10 Lando Norris GBR McLaren F1 Team 1m17.569s 1m17.473s 1m36.830s 11 Sebastian Vettel GER Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m17.502s 1m17.746s   12 Kimi Raikkonen FIN Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m17.606s 1m17.958s   13 George Russell GBR Williams Racing 1m17.958s 1m18.172s   14 Antonio Giovinazzi ITA Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m17.897s 1m18.290s   15 Esteban Ocon FRA Alpine F1 Team 1m18.126s 1m18.405s   16 Fernando Alonso ESP Alpine F1 Team 1m18.452s     17 Nicholas Latifi CAN Williams Racing 1m18.756s     18 Mick Schumacher GER Uralkali Haas F1 Team 1m18.858s     19 Nikita Mazepin RUS Uralkali Haas F1 Team 1m19.303s     20 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m20.873s     After being absent from the 2020 season calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Formula 1 returns to racing in Mexico this weekend.

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