Round 19 – Mexico
Introduction
F1 was in Mexico this week and it was an absolutely insane weekend from start to finish. In the second free practice session, Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen made contact and they both received a one place grid drop for it, meaning that wherever they ended up qualifying on Saturday, they would start one place below that (i.e. if they qualified first, they’d start second). Esteban Ocon was replaced halfway through the weekend by Ryo Hirakawa and it was announced recently that he will no longer be driving for Haas for the remainder of the season, so his F1 career is over. (He didn’t re-sign with Haas for the next season and while there are some drivers that still haven’t renewed their contracts, the likelihood of Esteban getting a seat for next season is low.)
Qualifying – Saturday, October 31
Nico Hülkenberg somehow managed to get pole in an Audi with fourteen minutes remaining in the first session of qualifying. Fernando Alonso got pole soon after that, and Ryo Hirakawa took fifth, which was impressive considering he’s never driven a Formula One car before. Fernando was told to stop the car; meanwhile Isack Hadjar got p2 and Oscar Piastri got pole, and then Lewis Hamilton got pole. A red flag came out because Fernando was stopped. He had no visible damage, which meant that something was probably wrong with the engine. Isack Hadjar got his lap time deleted for going over track limits. The session restarted for everyone except McLaren, who decided to hold back on sending their drivers out for a bit. Pierre Gasly took pole and Nico took p3. Isack redeemed himself from his track limits violation with a p7, and Kimi Antonelli (the championship leader) was down in p18. Charles Leclerc took pole, Lando Norris took p2, and Max Verstappen took p3. Arvid Lindblad took p10, and Kimi made his way up to p3. George Russell took p5 and Arvid reported that there was smoke in his cockpit. Oscar Piastri took p2, Lewis Hamilton stole pole from his teammate, and Gabriel Bortoleto took p4. George took p4, Isack took p2, and Kimi was down in p9. Alex Albon, Ryo Hirakawa, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, Checo Perez, and Valtteri Bottas were all eliminated in the first qualifying session.
The second session of qualifying started with Lando taking p3 and Oscar taking pole. Charles took pole from Oscar and Arvid took p2. Liam Lawson took p3 and then Kimi took p3, and George Russell took p4. Isack took p6, Max took pole, and Pierre took p9. Lewis took p3 and Isack took p4. Kimi was down in p6, George was still in p4, and Pierre was still in p9. Oscar, surprisingly, was down in p13 and the session ended with Lando on pole. Oscar, Franco Colapinto, Carlos Sainz, Nico, Gabriel, and Ollie Bearman were all eliminated in the second session of qualifying.
Lewis took pole in the third qualifying session and Charles took it right after. George took p3 and Kimi took p4. Lando took p2, and Isack locked up and went off track. He was noted for crossing the line at the pit entry and was given a reprimand for it. George took pole and Isack took p5. The session ended with Lewis taking pole—his first with Ferrari and the 105th pole position of his career, which is a new record—George in p2, and Charles in p3. Max qualified p4 and Kimi qualified p5, so they would be swapping on race day. Liam Lawson got disqualified from qualifying after it had ended, so he started from the pitlane.
Race day – Sunday, November 1
This was a chaotic race right from the start. Lewis maintained his lead for a little bit and George did not at all maintain his p2. Charles decided that apparently he should’ve been on pole yesterday and went racing Lewis so hard that they both ended up off track, and Charles also decided that he wasn’t going to give back the place he’d gained. Charles received a five second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, even though other drivers have done the same thing and received a ten second penalty. The stewards’ reasoning was that Lewis also went off track. Lewis didn’t get an advantage from it, though, and now Ferrari were out of a one-two finish, because Max had snuck in between them when Charles was being an idiot. (They didn’t get the one-two finish back. Charles finished fourth, so he was an idiot for nothing.)
George had, by this point, fallen down to p5 and had been noted for causing a collision with Isack, for which he got a ten second penalty. Fernando retired the car, and so did Lance. Lance’s retirement caused a virtual safety car and if he retires again, he’ll be tied for the most retirements in the history of the sport at fourteen. (He’s at thirteen right now.) Oscar had made his way up to p7 from p12. Pierre pit and came out in p18. Ollie Bearman was in p11, and Isack was up to p15. Checo, somewhat miraculously, was up in p13, and Pierre was in p16. Isack made it up to p14, and Oscar had a 5.2 second pit stop that dropped him back down to p12. Charles pit and came out in p6, and Max pit and came out in p5. Lewis was in p1, Kimi was p2, and George was p3. Checo also had a slow pit stop and he came out in p19.
Oscar had made his way up to p9, and George had pit and come out in p8. Franco pit and came out in p13. Lando reported that his tires were bad but didn’t do anything about it. Arvid pit and came out in p10. McLaren and Mercedes had decided to keep both of their frontrunners (Lando and Kimi) out in the hopes that there would be a safety car and therefore they’d get a free pit stop. Lando pit under green flag conditions because McLaren had apparently given up waiting, and came out in p5 due to a six second pit stop. Max was in p2 and Charles was in p3. Kimi was in p1. Isack pit and came out in p15 due to a five second pit stop, and Kimi pit and came out in p4 due to a 4.3 second pit stop.
Valtteri’s suspension spontaneously gave up and he hit the wall. A safety car was called, which meant that Mercedes had missed out on a free pit stop by a lap. Lewis pit and came out in p4, George pit and came out in p6, and Oscar pit and came out in p8. A red flag was called so that the wall Valterri had hit could be repaired, and Lewis would be restarting the race in p3. Checo was noted for speeding in the pitlane and was given a five second penalty. Lewis overtook Kimi for p2 during the restart. Max was still in p1. Isack was down in p16, and Ollie Bearman was out of the race. Nico was noted for a collision and given a ten second time penalty. Isack was in p14, and Nico and Checo were fighting for p15. Arvid hit the wall after Oscar decided not to move out of the way, which caused another safety car. Isack was up to p12 by this point. Liam was in p9, which was very impressive considering he’d started in the pitlane. The incident with Oscar and Arvid was investigated after the race, Pierre and Liam had an incident that was noted, and Franco was noted for yellow flag infringement.
Max won the race, Lewis finished p2, and Kimi finished p3, making him the youngest World Driver’s Champion in F1 history at 20 years old. He is the first Italian to win the World Driver’s Championship in 73 years and Mercedes now has their first WDC win in six years. I’m hoping for maybe a Lewis or George win next week in Brazil.
