FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO 2025 – Race

What a scintillating race. It lived up to all expectations.

Given the hot conditions of an air temperature of 26C (79F) and track temperature of 52C (126F) with a 25% less dense air than usual, the demands on driver and car were extreme.

Lando Norris (McLaren), who after a stunning lap record qualifying, started and ended without ever giving up the lead of the race. A judicious strategy from McLaren saw him maintaining the lead even through Lando’s one pitstop. He pitted on lap 35 and swopped his starting soft tyres for mediums. At that stage he was twenty nine seconds ahead of Max Verstappen (Red Bull) who had not yet pitted. When Lando exited the pitlane he was a comfortable eight seconds ahead of Max.

Max pitted on lap 38 to change his medium tyres for soft. He came out in eighth place but on those soft tyres he was almightily fast. He overtook 5 of the cars in front of him and chased after Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) who was in second place. Max got into DRS range of Charles, and it looked inevitable that he would overtake Charles when the race director called a Virtual Safety Car (VSC). The VSC was initiated to recover Carlos Sainz’s (Williams) car which had stopped with mechanical problems on lap 67. A pity that VSC was called as it would have been a sight to see if Max could have actually overtaken Charles. This was particularly sad as it appeared that the William’s car of Carlos Sainz was stopped well off the racing line. Charles came second and Max third.

Oliver Bearman (Haas) had a very impressive race. Starting from ninth on the grid he fought his way to end fourth. His overtaking made him look like a seasoned driver and not the rookie in his first year in F1 that he is. His defence against Oscar Piastri (McLaren), who came fifth, was magnificent. With his teammate Esteban Ocon coming in ninth, this gave Haas a haul of points sufficient to overtake Sauber for eighth place in the World Constructors’ Championship.

Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli claimed sixth ahead of his teammate George Russell.

Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) finished eighth for Ferrari following a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage over Max Verstappen. Something is wrong at Ferrari. Normally the team strategist or the race director would be monitoring the situation and via Lewis’ race engineer be advising the driver to give the place back to avoid the penalty. Had Lewis given the place back he would have finished the race in a much higher position.

The other rookie to not look like a rookie was Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber). He started in sixteenth and grabbed the last point for tenth Place.

All the grid to flag performances-

The full race lap chart-

The World Drivers’ Championship has really hotted up. With Lando Norris (McLaren) just one point ahead of his teammate Oscar Piastri and the outsiders Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and George Russell (Mercedes) having suffered from “altitude and heat problems” the next four events are highly anticipated.

Where we are with the World Drivers’ Championship – Top 10

World Drivers’ Championship – Last 11-

With the World Constructors’ Championship already decided, the teams remain battling for the millions in prize money. This is also fascinating. Ferrari are now 2 points ahead of Mercedes and Haas has just overtaken Sauber.

The World Constructors’ Championship situation-