F1 Mexico GP: Sainz wins from Norris, Verstappen sixth after penalties

Carlos Sainz claimed his second victory of 2024 at the Mexican Grand Prix with a commanding drive, as Lando Norris finished second and Max Verstappen sixth after a 20-second penalty.

The Spaniard reclaimed the lead he'd lost into the opening corner and never conceded it thereafter; he built an unassailable lead which soaked up the potential of any threat from Norris in the closing stages once the McLaren driver cleared Charles Leclerc.

Sainz kept the lead through the pitstop phases and, despite occasional attempts from Leclerc to eat into an ever-growing lead, the Williams-bound driver returned the favour to continue his break-building efforts out in front.

Sainz had lost the lead to Verstappen off the line as the Red Bull driver arrived at Turn 1 first, and forced the Ferrari driver to take to the grass with his preservation of the racing line.

But the racing action was soon nullified after a first-corner clash between Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda brought out the safety car; Albon was pinched between Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly, and the former two ended up coalescing in the braking zone for Turn 1.

Tsunoda ended up going straight into the wall, while Albon also pulled over to retire with front-left tyre damage.

On the restart, Sainz spent two laps sat in Verstappen's wheel tracks before gathering enough pace to mount an overtake into Turn 1 with DRS and then covered off a potential switch back into the following corners.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, battles with Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24, ahead of Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, the rest of the field as Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, crashes out on the opening lap

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

This put Verstappen in Norris' clutches, and the McLaren's bid to pass around the outside into Turn 4 was once again met with Verstappen taking him off the road.

Like Austin, Norris had laid claim to the position, but Verstappen then lunged down the inside at Turn 7 and took both drivers off once more - and got ahead of Norris off the road. Both incidents resulted in 10-second penalties for Verstappen, which sent him further down the order and took him out of the lead fight. Leclerc capitalised on the skirmish between the two championship leaders, bursting into second place.

The Monegasque couldn't challenge his team-mate, however, and after the pit phase, Sainz's lead had grown to over eight seconds. Leclerc attempted to cut this down, although both Ferraris were employing lift and coast tactics to gather the requisite cooling.

Sainz stabilised at over five seconds, but Leclerc's tyres then started to run out of life and he started to fall into Norris' orbit - when the Briton closed into DRS range at the end of lap 62, Leclerc subsequently drifted wide out of the Peraltada and almost hit the wall.

Leclerc saved the snap of oversteer, but couldn't stop Norris from breaking past. Norris subsequently started to catch Sainz, but could only get to within 4.7 seconds at the flag.

With a free pitstop thanks to a 30-second gap to the Mercedes duo behind, Leclerc pitted at the end for soft tyres to clinch the point for fastest lap; which he duly collected with a 1m18.336s effort to help Ferrari's efforts in the constructors' championship.

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth after a lengthy battle with Mercedes team-mate George Russell, one in which Hamilton's myriad efforts to pass were rebuffed by his younger team-mate.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

The seven-time champion finally broke past on the 66th lap with DRS into Turn 1, and underlined his greater pace by building a 3.7s advantage over Russell.

Verstappen shook out in sixth place, albeit 11s down on Russell having struggled for pace on the hard tyre; the Dutchman was being slowly reeled in by an impressive Kevin Magnussen, who locked down seventh over a recovering Oscar Piastri.

The Australian was attempting to rescue points after being knocked out in Q1 on Saturday, but was unable to get any higher than eighth as he struggled to make headway in the opening phase of the grand prix.

Nico Hulkenberg's pace tailed off at the end of the race but nonetheless did enough to hold onto ninth, with Pierre Gasly clinching the final point for Alpine.

Sergio Perez finished last in his home grand prix; his miserable afternoon began when he went outside of his grid box lining up for the start and copped a five-second penalty.

The Red Bull driver then came off worse in an ill-tempered battle with Liam Lawson; Perez appeared to push the RB driver off at Turn 4 when attempting an overtake, which the Kiwi responded to with a robust challenge at the next corner and left the Mexican with floor and sidepod damage.