Max Verstappen took another commanding victory in Mexico City, with Norris and Ricciardo executing brilliant drives further down the grid.
Verstappen recovered from a tricky qualifying to take victory in Mexico, emphasising his dominance at one of his best venues historically. Hamilton and Leclerc finished just behind, putting together strong drives for their respective teams.
There were several impressive drives across the field, with significant consequences for the F1 standings. Mercedes managed to minimise the damage from a lacklustre Saturday performance, not losing any points to Ferrari,
AlphaTauri, meanwhile, jumped from P10 to P8 in the Championship. Daniel Ricciardo drove very impressively to finish in a season-best 7th for the team at a circuit well-suited to the AT04.
The Australian was within a few tenths of passing George Russell on the last lap, a testament to his speed. Yuki Tsunoda recovered well from his engine penalty to reach P8, but a miscalculation saw him make contact with Oscar Piastri. This is a significant blow for the Japanese driver but also for AlphaTauri – who left some points on the table.
Still, Ricciardo’s stellar drive (combined with Tsunoda’s P8 in COTA) relegates Alfa Romeo and Haas. Nico Hulkenberg’s heroic drive in Mexico is representative of the American outfit’s season so far. Mostly, 2023 has consisted of strong performances from drivers but a lack of pace from the car.
The VF-23’s newest updates have unlocked small performance, it seems, but nowhere near enough. Alfa Romeo missed out on points, though they will be confident of keeping P9 (at least) and potentially scoring in the last three rounds.
Speaking of upgrades, it was a catastrophic race for Aston Martin. The British outfit was legitimately the slowest last weekend, lacking any performance in race trim.
If they cannot identify their issues soon, there will be very big concerns for 2024. The American GP seemed to show signs of potential, but Aston will need to prove this potential before the season concludes.
Lando Norris was voted the driver of the day in Mexico, and for good reason. Impressive overtakes and excellent pace (even after a horrible red flag restart) promoted him into a very healthy P5.
