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Max Verstappen (right) overtakes the Mercedes right after the start
Photo:
ALFREDO ESTRELLA / AFP
Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won the Mexican Grand Prix.
The Dutchman clinched his second win in a row after the race in the USA and extended the championship lead ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who came second.
The Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) finished third in his home race.
The race started catastrophically for Mercedes.
With Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton, the world championship team surprisingly took the front row after weaker training sessions, but Verstappen, who started in third position, had already passed both of them on the sidelines in the first corner after the start.
Also bitter for Mercedes: Bottas spun in turn one after Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) touched it and fell back from pole position at the start to last place.
A lot also happened in the back field in the first lap: In addition to Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Mick Schumacher (Haas) also retired in the first lap.
Next tactical battle
Both watched the next tactical battle in the fight for the drivers' championship from the pit lane: Hamilton tried a premature pit stop, a so-called undercut, in order to catch up with the runaway championship rivals with fresher tires. At the US Grand Prix two weeks ago there was a similar, albeit reversed, situation; Verstappen overtook Hamilton with clever times for the pit stops.
However, Hamilton was denied that in Mexico.
Red Bull reacted to the premature stop by the world champion and sent Verstappen to change tires just four laps later.
Even more: With the local hero Sergio Pérez, Red Bull left the second driver on the track a little longer in order to put Hamilton under pressure towards the end of the race.
Hamilton now not only fought for the lead, but also had to defend himself.
As a result, he finally lost touch with Verstappen.
Pierre Gasly in the AlphaTauri was a strong fourth, the Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc (fifth) and Carlos Sainz (sixth) followed in front of the strong Sebastian Vettel, who was seventh in the Aston Martin.
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