It was 14 seconds, one turn and countless inches – the discrepancies that told the story of a season with one horse.
For Max Verstappen, who started third, it was a clinical case as he put his Red Bull through the eye of two Ferraris to take the lead in the Mexican Grand Prix – on his way to the 51st victory of his career to equal to get acquainted with the French magician Alain. Prost.
For teammate Sergio Perez of the world champion, the first corner was his last. The home hero, cheered on by a crowd of 140,000, zoomed to the front of the pack and chased 200mph on the long 900m drag into the opening corner from fifth on the grid – promising so far – before turning in too early and taking Charles Leclerc’s red-for-danger car.
Perez’s Red Bull left the tarmac, all four wheels in the air at a 45-degree angle. The shocked driver and his injured machine limped back to the pits, but no cure for his ailments could be found. He was outside, banging on the steering wheel in frustration, aware that he was letting the faithful down.
As for his career prospects, this was a serious and public humiliation on a day that meant so much to his team’s assessments of his abilities, which have been blown to bits by the megaton with whom he shares his garage.
The statistics continue to hail that core force, Verstappen, who beat Lewis Hamilton into second place. It took Prost 199 starts to achieve 51 victories; Verstappen needed 182. Prost’s last victories came in 1993 at Hockenheim, when he was 38 years old; Verstappen turned 26 last month.
And since the Dutch master won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on December 12, 2021, he has achieved 32 victories – the same number that Fernando Alonso has achieved in his entire career. This was a record 16th win of the season.
Perez’s fortunes, on the other hand, are not helped by the form of the man best positioned to take his place, Daniel Ricciardo, who qualified a brilliant fourth here in an AlphaTauri that was unlikely to be better than top-10 -material.
Perez’s plan was also not the wisest. ‘I wanted more than a stage; I wanted the win,” he said, explaining his enthusiastic start. A podium would have been nice, amigo. Just clear the first corner and then judge.
More drama came later, when Kevin Magnussen smashed his Haas into the wall at Turn 8, lap 33. The Dane, believed to have suffered from suspension failure, climbed out smoothly and his engine caught fire moments later.
The safety car phase, which preceded a red flag allowing the fencing to be repaired, gave Verstappen a free stop. But the 22-minute race break essentially allowed everyone to be re-shod. “A joke,” Verstappen exclaimed. “A red flag, for what?”
At the restart, Verstappen was in the lead, with Lelcerc second and Hamilton third. The man in front left, whistling.
The pulsating Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is a melting pot that invites pressure. A seething, dancing, screaming crowd of people pushes into the stadium, with 30,000 Perez partisans packed into the Foro Sol, the old baseball stadium through which the track runs.
As much as this fuss played on Perez’s mind, Verstappen is behaving as if he is immune to pressure, or to the booing he generates in these parts.
The thin air of Mexico City, 2300 meters with 22 percent less oxygen, puts more strain on the engine and all air-dependent systems in the car – including the brakes and tires. They get hotter here, making cooling more difficult. The shrewd management of a driver’s resources puts a premium on nous, and this is where a racer of Hamilton’s experience and intelligence would likely always come to the fore.
He started the race sixth, moved up to fifth when Perez went airborne and remained well placed throughout.
It was always going to be interesting to see how effective his Mercedes would be if driven legally. It was very quick in Austin last week after an upgrade to his floor. But that was revealed to be effectively steroid-boosted when a post-race check revealed the bumpy tack had worn his board below the required minimum depth of 9mm.
No problem, Hamilton said. Wait a second! This generation of cars attaches great importance to what is happening beneath the surface. Red Bull has prevailed – and so has Max – because they mastered the vortices around their floor, and have since refined their magic carpet by fractions of millimeters.
Hamilton’s Mercedes was not the high-powered force a la Austin yesterday, but still effective as he impressed by passing Leclerc for second on lap 40 of 71.
The Brit, who set the fastest lap, is now just 20 points off second place in the championship, held by poor Perez, of all the chased people, with four laps to go.
A word for Lando Norris. He botched qualifying badly, starting 19th and finishing fifth after passing Mercedes’ George Russell towards the end.