Verstappen wins his ninth race of the year, Perez records the first home podium for a Mexican driver and Bottas records the worst ever finishing result for a polesitter in Formula 1. Here are the facts and statistics from the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix!
VERSTAPPEN WINS AGAIN IN MEXICO
Max Verstappen won the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix, recording the nineteenth victory of his Formula 1 career. It was his ninth win of the season, making this the seventeenth occasion on which a driver has won nine or more races in a single year.
Verstappen recorded his third win at the Mexican Grand Prix, setting a new record for most wins at the event in its World Championship history. On his way to victory, Verstappen surpassed Jim Clark’s record tally of most laps led in Mexico.
Red Bull recorded their third win in Mexico, equalling the record for most team wins at the event. Lotus, McLaren, Williams and Mercedes have also won the Mexican Grand Prix three times.
This was the fifth win for a Honda-powered car at the Mexican Grand Prix. Honda now have more wins in Mexico than any other engine manufacturer. This was the first win for Honda in Mexico since 1989, when Ayrton Senna won for McLaren.
ON THE PODIUM
Lewis Hamilton finished as runner-up and in doing so equalled the record for most podium finishes at the Mexican Grand Prix. This was Hamilton’s fourth top three result at the circuit.
Both Hamilton and Verstappen overtake Nigel Mansell as the driver to have scored on the most occasions in Mexico. This was the sixth time that both drivers have scored at the event. They also equalled Pedro Rodriguez as the drivers with the most top ten finishes in Mexico.
With 107 points remaining on offer in the final four races of the 2021 season, Hamilton and Verstappen are now the only drivers who have a mathematical chance of winning the title this year.
Sergio Perez became the first Mexican driver to finish on the podium at their home Grand Prix. He also led six laps of the race, becoming the first Mexican driver to lead on home soil.
This was the third race in a row in which Perez has finished on the podium. It’s the first time he’s recorded three successive podium results in his F1 career.
Perez finished in third place for a third consecutive race. It’s the first time that a driver has finished third at three races in a row since Kimi Raikkonen did so at the 2018 British, German and Hungarian Grands Prix.
THE POINTS SCORERS
Finishing fourth, Pierre Gasly recorded his team’s best ever result at the Mexican Grand Prix. The previous best result for the Red Bull junior team here was ninth place, recorded by Max Verstappen in 2015 and Gasly himself in 2019.
Charles Leclerc finished fifth, becoming the first driver to start eighth at the Mexican Grand Prix and finish the race since 2016. Fifth is the best result for the driver starting from this grid slot in Mexico since Riccardo Patrese finished third in 1987.
Finishing in sixth place, Carlos Sainz scored points at the Mexican Grand Prix for the first time. This was the eleventh consecutive race in which the Spaniard has scored, making him the 24th driver to score at eleven or more races in a row in Formula 1 history.
Sebastian Vettel finished in seventh place. Having finished fifth at the United States Grand Prix, this was the first time that Vettel has scored at consecutive races since the Monaco, Azerbaijan and French Grands Prix.
Vettel’s seventh place marks the fifth time in the last six Mexico races that one of the Silverstone-based team’s drivers has finished seventh.
Kimi Raikkonen equalled his best result of the season, finishing in eighth place. He also finished eighth at the Russian Grand Prix.
With ninth place, Fernando Alonso recorded his best ever Mexican Grand Prix result. His previous best was tenth, which he recorded with McLaren in 2017.
Lando Norris picked up a single point with tenth place at the Mexican Grand Prix. This was only the third time that a McLaren driver has scored in Mexico since the sport’s return to the track. The team’s tally of points scored here since 2015 now stands at six.
THE OTHER FINISHERS
For a third successive race, Antonio Giovinazzi finished just outside of the points in eleventh place.
Daniel Ricciardo finished twelfth, failing to score in Mexico for the third time from his six appearances. His other two non-scores here were retirements, in 2017 and 2018.
Finishing fourteenth, Lance Stroll recorded his worst Mexican Grand Prix result to date.
Polesitter Valtteri Bottas finished only fifteenth in the Mexico Grand Prix. That’s the worst ever result for a polesitter who has not retired from the race. The previous worst result for a polesitter was fourteenth, recorded by Nico Rosberg at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. That’s also the last time that the polesitter finished the race but failed to score.
This was only the third time that the Mexican Grand Prix polesitter has failed to finish in the top six at the event. The only other times it has happened were in 1965 and 2018, when Jim Clark and Daniel Ricciardo retired. Clark also retired from the race in 1964, but was classified in fifth place.
Valtteri Bottas set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap and just missed out on breaking the Lap Record by 0.033 seconds. Bottas already holds the record here, with his 1:18.741 lap in the 2018 race.
Bottas’ fifteenth place was the first time that a Mercedes driver has failed to score in Mexico since the race’s return to the calendar. The team’s previous worst result here was ninth for Lewis Hamilton in 2017.
Finishing sixteenth, George Russell equalled his worst result of the season, aside from races which he has retired from. He also finished sixteenth at the Portuguese Grand Prix. Russell has now finished sixteenth on both of his appearances at the Mexican Grand Prix.
Nicholas Latifi lost four places from where he started at the Mexican Grand Prix. It equals the most positions he’s lost in a race in which he has crossed the finish line. He also fell four places from his starting spot at the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix.
THE RETIREES
Both Yuki Tsunoda and Mick Schumacher retired on the first lap of the race. They were the first drivers to retire on the first lap of the Mexican Grand Prix since Pascal Wehrlein in 2016 – which was also the last time that the full Safety Car was deployed in Mexico.
Schumacher recorded the Haas team’s first ever retirement at the Mexican Grand Prix. It was his second retirement of the year. He also retired from the Russian Grand Prix.
Yuki Tsunoda failed to cross the finish line for the fourth time in his career. He recorded the Red Bull junior team’s second retirement at the Mexican Grand Prix – their first since Brendon Hartley’s retirement in 2017.