2026 Mexican F1 GP

Max Verstappen won the Mexico City Grand Prix on 1 November, beating Lewis Hamilton by 0.799 seconds after 71 laps of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, while third place made Kimi Antonelli Formula 1's youngest world champion. The Red Bull driver had started fifth, the only one among the leading contenders on the medium tyre, and he turned an opening-lap clash between the Ferraris into a lead he then defended through a red flag and a late Safety Car. Hamilton, from his first pole position for Ferrari, finished second, 2:20:29.571 on the clock. Antonelli, who had started fourth, crossed the line 4.006 seconds behind the winner. At 20 years and 68 days he became the youngest drivers' champion in the history of the series, and the first Italian to take the title since Alberto Ascari in 1953. He had arrived on 365 points, 123 ahead of Russell and 124 ahead of Hamilton, and ninth or better was enough to make him champion whatever his rivals did. Third place made the permutations irrelevant.

Hamilton's pole, a 1:16.514 that beat Russell by 0.009 seconds and ended a 1,197-day wait, had put Ferrari on the inside of the front row, with Charles Leclerc third. The advantage lasted only as far as Turn 4. Hamilton held the lead into the first corner and then ran side by side with his team-mate. Both left the track. Leclerc cut back across the grass and emerged in front, while Hamilton's compromised exit let Verstappen through into second. The stewards gave Leclerc a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage, cut from the usual ten seconds because Hamilton had also gone off and the incident came on the opening lap. Russell, who had started on the front row, dropped back with an apparent energy-deployment problem and then hit Isack Hadjar at Turn 6, spinning the second Red Bull. That contact earned Russell ten seconds. Lando Norris, the reigning champion, lost places to Franco Colapinto and Arvid Lindblad before he climbed back through. On lap 7 Lance Stroll pulled his Aston Martin off at Turn 6 and Fernando Alonso stopped in the pits. Both were out inside five laps, and the Virtual Safety Car that followed let Hadjar pit from the back.

Leclerc used the clean air to pull more than five seconds clear of Verstappen. Hamilton, stuck in the turbulent wake in Mexico City's thin air, told the Ferrari pit wall that the penalty was effectively handing his team-mate the victory. The race turned in the pit lane. Oscar Piastri, who had qualified only 12th, was the first of the points contenders to stop, at the end of lap 26, exchanging softs for mediums. Leclerc and Verstappen came in together on the next lap. Ferrari had to hold Leclerc stationary for the five-second penalty before the tyre change, and Verstappen, moving from the medium onto the soft, rejoined ahead and into the effective lead. Hamilton stopped a lap later for mediums and came out behind both of them. Antonelli, still on the softs he had started with, inherited first place. Russell served his ten seconds at the end of lap 33 and rejoined eighth. Norris ran longer, stopped for mediums and dropped to a lonely fifth after a slow stop. By lap 38 Antonelli's lead over the yet-to-stop Norris was about nine seconds, with Verstappen, Leclerc and Hamilton stacked behind the McLaren. Antonelli finally pitted on lap 43. The stop took 4.3 seconds and put him back on track in fourth, moments before the interruption Mercedes had been waiting for.

Valtteri Bottas then crashed heavily at Turn 1. The front-left suspension on his Cadillac failed under braking and he went into the barrier. He climbed out unaided, was taken to the medical centre for checks and was later released. The Safety Car was upgraded to a red flag from lap 46 so the barrier could be repaired. Hamilton, Russell and Piastri had already stopped under the Safety Car, and Hamilton's stop had briefly dropped him behind Antonelli. Race control reformed the grid from the order of the last completed lap, which restored Hamilton to third. Verstappen lined up ahead of Leclerc, Hamilton and Antonelli, with Norris, Russell, Piastri, Lindblad, Colapinto and Pierre Gasly making up the first ten. Most of that group were on used softs. Piastri, among the first ten, was on a fresh set. Gasly was investigated for leaving the pit lane as the red light came on and was cleared, the stewards citing how little time he had had to react.

Hamilton passed Leclerc off the line at the standing restart and attacked Verstappen into Turn 1. The cars touched, Hamilton ran out of room on the outside and slotted back into second. The stewards took no further action over that contact, or over a possible out-of-position start by Verstappen. Leclerc locked the front-left tyre and was left with a flat spot that he would carry to the flag. Antonelli passed him into Turn 1 on the following lap, taking the podium place that settled the championship, and Norris spent the rest of the stint looking for a way by the vibrating Ferrari. On the same restart Nico Hülkenberg hit Oliver Bearman at Turn 4. Bearman retired in the pits after 47 laps, and the ten-second penalty given to Hülkenberg left the Audi 16th once the classification was drawn up. The field was neutralised again on lap 59. Piastri tried to pass Lindblad around the outside into Turn 1, was never fully alongside, and hit the Racing Bulls car at the entry to Turn 2. Lindblad, who had been running seventh, crashed out after 58 laps. After the race the stewards decided Piastri could have avoided the contact by moving further left, even if that meant leaving the track, and added ten seconds. The penalty dropped him from seventh to 15th and took away his six points.

Verstappen judged the rolling restart, with eight laps left, and kept Hamilton behind him to the chequered flag. The winning margin was 0.799 seconds, his third victory of the season, his sixth at this circuit and the 74th of his career. Leclerc held fourth, 10.707 seconds down, despite Norris trying the inside at the start of lap 70 and the outside of Turn 4 on the last lap. Norris was fifth, 1.071 seconds further back. Russell was sixth after serving his penalty. Once Piastri's ten seconds were added to his elapsed time, Colapinto was classified seventh, Liam Lawson eighth from a pit-lane start, Gasly ninth and Gabriel Bortoleto tenth for the final point. Hadjar recovered to 11th after the first-lap spin. Ryo Hirakawa, called up by Haas to replace Esteban Ocon for the rest of the weekend, finished 12th on his Formula 1 debut. Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz were 13th and 14th for Williams, and Piastri's penalised time put him 15th, between Sainz and Hülkenberg. Home driver Sergio Pérez, after a five-second penalty for exceeding the pit-lane limit by 0.2 km/h, was the last classified finisher in 17th. Hamilton's fastest lap, a 1:19.268 on lap 50, carried no extra point. Colapinto and Gasly had also been summoned over an alleged failure to slow for yellow flags, and no decision from those hearings had been published when this classification was prepared. Antonelli left Mexico City on 380 points, world champion with four races remaining. Verstappen's 25 points lifted him to second on 261, two ahead of Hamilton and 11 ahead of Russell, with Leclerc fifth on 245. Mercedes scored 23 points to Ferrari's 30, so the constructors' lead came down from 133 points to 126, at 630 to 504, and was not decided. Red Bull, with 25 points from Verstappen and none from Hadjar, moved to 380 and 15 clear of McLaren, whose total fell to 365 once Piastri's six points were removed. The decided classification still paid the standard 101 points. The paddock headed for Interlagos and the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on 6-8 November, with the drivers' title already won and both the constructors' contest and the fight for second still open.