Max Verstappen became the driver with the most wins in a single Formula 1 season with his 14th podium at the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday.
The win helps the Dutch driver break Michael Schumacher’s and Sebastian Vettel’s previous records of 13 wins in 2004 and 2013, in both. Verstappen still has the opportunity to further raise this record, due to the season.
Verstappen successfully defended the F1 championship after finishing first in the Japanese GP on October 9. He then won the next two stages in the US and Mexico to assert overwhelming power.
At the Mexican GP, Verstappen finished 15 seconds ahead of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. His teammate, Sergio Perez, enjoyed the race at home when he finished third.
Perez’s pressure at the end of the lap helped Hamilton’s attempt to attack Verstappen. Perez now has three points more than Charles Leclerc on the personal scorecard.
The race in Mexico was imprinted with the tactical imprint of Red Bull, the team has just won the championship in the racing team category for the first time since 2013.
The Austrian racing team succeeded with the soft tyre strategy, while Hamilton expressed confusion when Mercedes changed, let him start with hard tyres instead of medium tyres.
Hamilton’s teammate George Russell finished fourth, and was also displeased when Mercedes didn’t let him remove the hard tyres.
It was not until the race had two laps left that Russell was called to the pit to change the soft tyres. He set the fastest-lap after that.
Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished fifth and sixth, respectively, ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.
