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McLaren driver Lando Norris has won the Mexico Grand Prix to move ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri at the top of the world championship standings.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc held off a resurgent Max Verstappen to secure second, while the reigning champion has closed to within 36 points of the championship lead.
Haas driver Ollie Bearman finished fourth to record his best F1 finish, with the 20-year-old defending brilliantly against Piastri in the closing stages. It also equalled the best result in Haas’ history.
GO FURTHER
Mexico City Grand Prix briefing: Norris wins, Bearman impresses, disaster for Hamilton
Talk about final stretch. Just four more to come …
See you all in Brazil!
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MEXICO CITY — Lewis Hamilton found it “pretty nuts” to be the only driver penalized for cutting a corner in Formula One’s 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix, after missing out on a potential first Ferrari podium due to the sanction he accrued in a feisty battle with Max Verstappen.
Hamilton received a 10-second time penalty in Sunday’s race after the stewards said he left the track and gained an advantage by keeping position ahead of Verstappen during the early laps.
Hamilton ran off the track at Turn 4, locking up his brakes while battling for position with Verstappen. The Red Bull driver had attempted an overtake at the first corner and also gone on the grass at Turn 3 after the pair had clashed on the short approach to Turn 2.
We have a new leader — and an even closer battle in the drivers’ championship.
Good work, guys.
“Hurry up dad, I’ve got to get out of the car!” — Haha!
This race was headed to a dramatic finish until finish a late Virtual Safety Car neutralized two battles for podium positions.
With just two laps remaining, Carlos Sainz spun and stopped at Turn 14, bringing out the VSC and freezing the action as Max Verstappen closed on Charles Leclerc for second place — and Oscar Piastri hunted down Oliver Bearman for fourth.
The VSC seemed to drag on longer than seemed necessary at the time, but the FIA has since issued a statement explaining the decision:
💬 “Sainz spun and stopped in the runoff area on the outside of Turn 14. His car came to a halt in an exposed position. The car subsequently began smoking and race control received notifications of fire, making it clear marshal intervention would be required for recovery.
“As is standard procedure when marshals are deployed to recover a car, the race is neutralized — in this case, a VSC was triggered until the car was moved to a safe location behind the barriers. The VSC ended as soon as the car was in a protected position, and the race concluded under green-flag conditions.”
The VSC ultimately preserved Leclerc’s second place ahead of Verstappen. Bearman held off Piastri for fourth, allowing Norris to take the championship lead by a single point.
Following Liam Lawson’s near-miss with track marshals, the FIA has issued a statement explaining what happened:
💬 “Following a Turn 1 incident, race control was informed that debris was present on the track at the apex of that corner. On Lap 3, marshals were alerted and placed on standby to enter the track and recover the debris once all cars had passed Turn 1.
“As soon as it became apparent Lawson had pitted, the instructions to dispatch marshals were rescinded, and a double yellow flag was shown in that area. We are still investigating what occurred after that point.
“We would like to underline our respect and appreciation for the local ASN, OMDAI, as well as the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and their marshals, who are volunteers and play a vital role in the safe and successful running of our sport. Their professionalism and dedication are invaluable to every event we stage.”
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Give it another look yourself. What did you make of the start?
The more you watch it, the more ridiculous it was that Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc went unpunished.
You can share your thoughts by emailing: live@theathletic.com
George Russell did not enjoy a lot of that grand prix — and you can understand why not, when you look back at the opening exchanges at Turn 1 on Lap 1.
Here is Russell, who finished P7, speaking to Sky Sports:
💬 “I don’t understand how three drivers can cut the first corner and then reenter where they continued … It allows you to risk everything and have a get out of jail card if you get it wrong.
“Obviously, Max and Lewis when they came together, Lewis got a penalty — rightly so — but Max was off the track. Wrong place, wrong time and I lost three positions, so I was pretty frustrated.
“We have seen it almost every year we have been here. It’s like lawn mower racing. Something needs to change there. If that was gravel, no one would be there.
“In the end, we deserved to finish where we did (but) it all stems from Turn 1.”
A wonderful, dominant race for Lando Norris — and of course, he now has the drivers’ championship lead.
But it is only by one point from Oscar Piastri, who will still feel he could finish the season on top.
And Max Verstappen is now 36 points off the championship leader, when he was 40 at the start of the weekend.
A fascinating picture heading to Brazil.
Lando Norris is good at driving an F1 car (obviously).
He’s also pretty good at the champagne celebrations!
It’s also worth bringing you more of what Oscar Piastri had to say after his race, because he was quite open about having to relearn how to drive his McLaren after a disappointing run of results — in both qualifying and races.
Here’s how he picked it apart:
💬 “I’ve just had to drive very differently the last couple of weekends — or I’ve not driven differently when I should have. That’s been a little strange to get my head around because I’ve been driving exactly the same all year.
“It’s just the last couple of weekends the car or the tires or something required quite a different way of driving. I’ve tried to change it up a bit today and once we analyze if it’s effective or not, that will hopefully help see some progress.
“The car’s obviously not changed for a while so … given how the pace has differentiated, clearly Lando has found it easier to dial into that and I haven’t.
“It’s important to remember the other 19 races and the way I’ve been driving has been working pretty well. It’s about adding some tools to the toolbox, rather than reinventing myself.”
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Ah, Lewis Hamilton. How did that happen? From being really happy on the qualifying podium and hoping to line up his first top-three finish for Ferrari, it all unravelled and left the seven-time to finish eighth.
And that’s why his post-race interview with Sky Sports was just a few words …
💬 “It was fun at the start and it didn’t end up the way I’d hoped. That’s motor racing.
“It’s very, very dirty offline and I did the best I could to bring the car back to the track safely. That’s all I could hope for.
“There are some positives. We got some points, at least.”
Some brilliant drives come with a bit of luck. Today from Oliver Bearman was all on his pace, and some good work at Turn 1.
He says luck, but that’s just being modest! A superb race from a driver growing into his role with each race. Here is the Haas driver’s reaction, speaking to Sky Sports:
💬 “It feels great. I’m really happy that is our joint-best finish in the history of the team. We had a great race and of course I was lucky to be where I was before the first stop, but actually we had the pace to stay there.
“I held off Max (Verstappen) in the first stint, I held off the Mercedes in the second and the McLaren in the third, so I was under a lot of pressure.
“I spent most of the time looking in my rear view mirrors than in front but that is sometimes how it has to be. I’m really proud of the team because that really validates all the hard work we’ve been doing for the past few races.”
In a lapse of safety protocols, Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson nearly collided with two track marshals who were running across the circuit during the race.
Lawson had just left the pits after boxing for hard tires when the incident occurred. Lawson explained after the race:
💬 “I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing but I boxed, came out on a set of hards and then I got to turn one and there were two dudes just running across the track, and I nearly hit one of them.
“Honestly, it was so dangerous and obviously there’s been a miscommunication somewhere. But I’ve never experienced that before and I haven’t really seen that in the past, so it’s pretty unacceptable.”
Lawson retired early in the race after being hit by Carlos Sainz in Turn 1. Lawson added:
💬 “I completely understand Turn 1 on the first lap, it’s chaotic, but we’re all trying to be aware of what’s going on and you can’t just decide to cut the chicane without looking to your left.
“He’s hit me so hard that it’s just destroyed the whole side of the floor, broke my front wing and just killed our race.”
The battles for second and sixth remain tight with four races to go. Fair play to Haas for that. A great day for F1’s smallest team.
This is the reality for Oscar Piastri, however. The bad news is he has lost all of his previously significant championship lead.
The good news is it’s just one point — and it could all turn on its head again come Brazil …
*Inactive driver
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An interesting day for Oscar Piastri, who was trying to learn how to best drive his car today — as well as recover from his P7 start.
It sounds like he made some progress on both, although the real proof of this pudding will be in the racing, in Brazil.
Here he is, speaking to Sky Sports:
💬 “I felt like the whole race I was right behind someone and struggling with the dirty air. That was pretty difficult. For me the biggest thing is trying to learn the things I wanted to learn today.
“Yesterday it became obvious after the session there was a few things I needed to change pretty majorly in how I was driving.
“Today was about trying to limit the damage, but also trying to learn some things about that. If I’ve made some progress with that I’ll be happy.
“Obviously when your team-mate wins the race, finishing fifth is nothing that extravagant.”
Here is how the rest of the field finished up. Tsunoda not in the points again, albeit he held up Oscar Piastri for Max Verstappen’s benefit.
And a desperate day for Williams, when you consider the Haas performance.
The not classified drivers who failed to finish were Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso (34 laps), Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg (25) and Racing Bull’s Liam Lawson (5).
Let’s take you through the final result here in Mexico City, starting with how the points have been dished out …
