MEXICO MAGIC FOR MAX EXTENDS HIS LEAD
Some motorsport moments are just magic. Bits of driving that are just spinetinglingly good, showcasing supreme skill, flair and sheer bloody-mindedness. Max Verstappen’s start to the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix had it all. So much of what the Dutchman displayed last Sunday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on his way to victory was brilliant, but his breathtaking double pass on the Mercedes drivers will surely be what lives longest in Formula 1’s collective memory. Doubly so if, whisper it, this for-the-ages campaign ends in a championship victory…
The whole Mexico City weekend was about Verstappen’s Red Bull squad, really. The team that was expected to be in command thanks to the track’s high altitude and high-downforce requirements had badly underperformed in qualifying. Getting caught out on the temperamental soft tyres as temperatures climbed in Q3 was its main failing, but it, and sister squad AlphaTauri, also badly messed up the tow game (for everyone except the majestic Pierre Gasly). But Red Bull hit back on race day.
And it did so at the precise moment that Mercedes – which had shocked itself with its front row lockout, Valtteri Bottas heading Verstappen’s title rival Lewis Hamilton – knew it was most vulnerable. This was the run to the Turn 1 braking point – the longest of the season.
The Mercedes duo had vowed to work as a team to keep Verstappen behind when the lights went out, but a positive here actually became a negative for the Black Arrows. “Lewis got a better jump than Valtteri,” Mercedes director of
