Round 20 of this year’s Formula One season took place on Sunday in Mexico City at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
After 71 laps that saw three cars retire from the race, Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz took the fourth win of his career and his second in the 2024 season, having previously won in Australia and having qualified on pole position on Saturday. Lando Norris from McLaren finished P2 after starting from P3. Sainz’ teammate, Charles Leclerc, rounded up the podium in P3 after starting P4. Leclerc also got the fastest lap of the race in lap 71 with a time of 1:18:336 seconds.
This is the second consecutive win for Ferrari, with Leclerc having won last Sunday in Austin. Their collective point-scoring of 42 points allowed them to overtake Red Bull Racing, the defending world champions, for second place in the Constructors’ Championship. McLaren currently leads the championship with 566 points.
Sainz briefly lost first place to Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen in the first lap, but was able to overtake him in lap nine with little defense from Verstappen. Afterwards, he led every lap until the end. Leclerc and Norris battled for second position near the end of the race, with Leclerc in P2 from laps 10 to 63 until he ran off track and paved the way for Norris to take the position. From P3, he pitted for soft tires on lap 70 without losing position to Mercedes’ George Russell in P4, who was around 30 seconds behind, and took the fastest lap of the race, earning himself and his team an extra point.
Verstappen started the race from P2, but was penalized 20 seconds after two incidents with Norris as he defended his place behind Sainz after the Ferrari took the lead back. He fell down the grid after his pit stop to the penultimate place and fought his way back to end P6, collecting a total of eight points to safeguard his Drivers’ Championship lead of 47 points over Norris.
Sainz’ contract with Ferrari expires at the end of the season, with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton coming in to replace him on the team and Sainz headed to Williams Racing, a team currently eighth in the Constructors’ Championship with only 17 points.
“Honestly, I really wanted this one,” Sainz said after the race. “I wanted one more win before leaving Ferrari and to do it here in front of this mega crowd is incredible. Four races left, I want to enjoy as much as possible and if another one comes, I will go for it.”
“Amazing race by Carlos today,” Leclerc said of his teammate. “And it’s a good weekend overall for the team, which is positive.”
Round 21 of the 2024 F1 season will take place at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Interlagos, Brazil.
