Max Verstappen has won the Mexico City Grand Prix after a dominating performance ahead of Lewis Hamilton and home hero Sergio Perez, breaking the Formula 1 single-season win record in the process.
Also taking the record for the number of points scored in a single season, Verstappen comfortably led for the majority of the race as Hamilton struggled to keep pace on the different strategies.
Perez also received an awesome cheer as he took the final step of the podium at his home grand prix.
READ MORE: Mexico City Grand Prix – Race Results
It was Verstappen who started from pole and when the five lights went out, the Dutchman held off the attacks from the two Mercedes behind into turn one.
Russell was the biggest loser of the top six, losing two places to fourth at the end of the first lap.
Red Bull and Ferrari both opted to start on the red-walled soft tyres with Mercedes choosing the mediums.
Despite the early tyre advantage, Hamilton managed stayed to within a second and a half from the leading Verstappen in the first ten laps.
Pierre Gasly squeezed himself past Lance Stroll on lap 13 and locked up in the progress, sending both drivers wide. Stroll called for the Frenchman to give the place back to no avail.
Gasly was later handed a five-second penalty for the incident.
Stroll was then the first driver of the race to enter the pits, swapping his medium tyres for soft rubber on lap 18. At the same time, Verstappen had stretched out another second on Hamilton behind.
The world champion started to report a loss of performance due to the worn tyres a few laps later and the Mercedes started to chip away a few tenths of a second.
The home hero Sergio Perez was the first of the top six to enter the pits on lap 24 but was hindered by a slow rear left in a five-second stop.
His leading team-mate pitted for mediums the lap after and a good strategy call saw him leave the pit lane ahead of Carlos Sainz in fourth. This meant the duo of Hamilton and Russell lead a Mercedes one-two ahead of Verstappen.
Red Bull’s early stop forced Hamilton to cover Perez as the German team pitted him on lap 30 for hard compound tyres and committed to a one-stop strategy.
The seven-time champion came out around seven seconds behind Verstappen and withheld some pressure from Perez behind for several laps.
With Russell also out on the hard rubber, both Mercedes drivers started to voice their dismay at the more durable compound as they started to report sliding.
Verstappen peeled out a ten-second lead on Hamilton by lap 47 as Bono, Hamilton’s race engineer, explained that they are expecting mediums to suffer nearer to the end.
Daniel Ricciardo clumsily clashed with Yuki Tsunoda at turn six on lap 51 which saw the McLaren make contact with the rear right tyre of the AlphaTauri.
The Japanese driver was forced to pit for a new front wing and fresh tyres but never left the pits as the team spotted something worthy of a retirement. The Australian was then slapped with a ten-second time penalty for causing a collision.
A Virtual Safety Car was deployed on lap 65 as Fernando Alonso pulled over at turn one due to an engine failure. The Spaniard fumed on the radio in his fifth retirement of the season.
In the closing laps, Verstappen cooly managed the thirteen-second gap he had to Hamilton behind. Perez sat three seconds behind the Mercedes with Russell five seconds behind the Mexican.
The Dutchman took the chequered flag leading Hamilton by a whole fifteen seconds as the Mercedes struggled to find some pace on the hard tyres.
Perez took the final spot on his home podium while Russell finished nearly thirty seconds behind after pitting for the fastest lap.
The Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc had a quiet race as they slotted into fifth and sixth respectively.
The Alpine of Esteban Ocon came home behind them in seventh following his team-mates unfortunate late retirement.
With his ten-second time penalty added to his time at the end of the race, Daniel Ricciardo finished in eighth after a superb final stint on the soft tyres to claim a position in the points.
McLaren’s Lando Norris picked up ninth with Valtteri Bottas in rounding out the top ten for his first point since the Canadian Grand Prix over ten races ago.
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