The Dutchman dominates the third to last race of the year: overtaking Schumacher and Vettel for successes in just one season. Beaten Hamilton and Perez. Ferrari never of the match: Sainz fifth, Leclerc sixth
Giusto Ferronato
October 30
– mexico city (mexico)
And there are 14! Max Verstappen has today become the driver with the most victories in a single season in the history of F1 in Mexico City. A golden season for the Dutch world champion, who not surprisingly celebrated this GP with a golden helmet and this new record, which allows him to leave two sacred monsters like Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel at 13 victories this season, equaled last Sunday in Austin. Today no escape for Lewis Hamilton, also author of a good race: but this Mercedes is not at the level of Red Bull in terms of race pace and tire management. Verstappen’s winning stint was impressive, as he allowed himself the luxury of running the race interval between lap 25 and lap 71 with medium tires. Sergio Perez’s second Red Bull completed the podium, to the delight of the local public who was able to salute the Mexican flag. Weekend to forget for Ferrari, who finished with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in fifth and sixth place behind George Russell. Reds never competitive on this track, there will be a lot of homework to do.
exciting routes
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The start was very exciting, with Verstappen who got off to a good start and, despite the long straight and the slipstream allowed, managed to repel the attack from Hamilton, who was also good at overtaking Russell. George was also surprised by Perez, who took the third position in braking again on the first lap. The two Red Bulls started with the soft, while the Mercedes with the medium. The two Ferraris immediately found themselves in a duel with each other, but Leclerc did not sink the blow on Sainz who maintained the fifth position in front of his teammate. So Alonso, Bottas and Ocon. In the first part of the race Verstappen managed the pace so as not to wear the soft tires too much, leaving Hamilton at 1 ”5, Perez and Russell at 3” and 5 ”and the Ferraris at 10” and 12 ”. The Dutchman maintained an impressive lap consistency.
tire duel
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The duel between Verstappen and Hamilton was beautiful despite the unequal compound: Max extended the first stint managing the soft tire wonderfully, to the point of placing the fastest lap on lap 15, when in theory the softer compound should have started to show the rope. . In this first phase, the Ferraris did not shine at all: with the same compound as the Red Bulls, they broke away inexorably: on lap 21 Sainz accumulated 19 seconds behind Verstappen, Leclerc 23, much worse than the two Mercedes that instead remained under 10 seconds from the world champion.
decisive stop
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Verstappen brought his soft to lap 26, putting the averages at the first pit stop. Hamilton instead stopped on lap 29, probably to avoid restarting behind Perez. Russell, on the other hand, remained in the lead on the track to make the stop at 34th, also mounting the white tire and releasing the lead at Verstappen. This is a decisive phase of the race: Hamilton has in fact aimed to go all the way with respect to Max, but to break the eggs in his basket here is Perez, who attacked him with the intention of slowing him down or making him wear more his tires, thus favoring Verstappen. Moreover, between the 38th and the 43rd lap he started to gain ground on Hamilton, taking his advantage over Lewis to 9 ”7, and then to 10” at 48th. In view of a second stop? No, in view of going to the finish line because the RB18 does not use the tires, it pampers them. Another victory and another extraordinary record for super Max.
October 30, 2022 (change October 31, 2022 | 00:29)
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