First day

The Formula 1 Mexican stage has received a new name this year.

If earlier it was named after the country, now the Grand Prix of Mexico City is officially listed on the calendar.

So the promoters decided to celebrate the city's merits in organizing the racing weekend.

But apart from the sign, nothing has changed.

The racers this season were waiting for the same aerodynamically demanding race track named after the Rodriguez brothers with full stands of fans and another round of the struggle for the championship.

At the end of the previous US Grand Prix, Max Verstappen of Red Bull was 12 points ahead of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.

Taking into account that the stage in Mexico City is the fifth from the end this year, such a distance between the two best riders is already quite significant.

They both won twice on the highest Formula 1 track and returned with equal chances of success.

The first test of the circuit showed that the drivers of Mercedes and Red Bull can really fight for the victory, but not only those who lead the overall standings. In the first session, Hamilton's partner Valtteri Bottas showed the best seconds, and the owner of the track Sergio Perez, although he became fourth, lost only a quarter of a second to the Finn. The main characters of the season are located between them.

By the evening, the Mexican circuit was cleared of dust, and it became possible to show even greater speed on it than in the morning.

Then the protocol was headed by Verstappen, and Bottas, Hamilton and Perez lost about half a second to the Dutchman.

Given that this track is one of the shortest on the calendar, this was a wake-up call for Mercedes.

Other stables lagged even more significantly, so that both from qualification and from the race itself, one could expect only two teams to fight with each other.

Second day

By the beginning of qualifying, the situation in the paddock had changed slightly.

During the last training session, the pilots of the two leading teams still dominated, only now Perez led the protocol to the great delight of local fans.

Verstappen missed half the session and lost almost two tenths of a second on his best lap.

Mercedes, though located behind, could not be satisfied with its dress rehearsal - Hamilton and Bottas were half a second behind the leader of the championship.

Listen to the crowd ROAR as @SChecoPerez topped the timesheets 🤩



Can the Mexican driver put it on pole next?

👀 # MexicoGP 🇲🇽 # F1pic.twitter.com / 0QW7Evq5tg

- Formula 1 (@ F1) November 6, 2021

However, the Red Bull pilots were not destined to confirm their form in qualification. The rear wing of Verstappen was damaged, and he had to look for a replacement, and the old element went to Peres. In the first two sessions, the Dutchman began to give way to Bottas, then Hamilton, and the Mexican did not rise above fifth place. The pilots of the Austrian team were also lucky that the mechanics had time to tinker with the settings, as Lance Stroll crashed his Aston Martin at the beginning of qualification. The races had to be stopped for almost half an hour while debris was collected from the track.

In the final round, Perez was given the command to disperse his team-mate, but this did not pull him into pole position.

In the first wave, Verstappen lost to rivals from Mercedes.

Soon, Red Bull riders again tried to use their tactics, and it would not hurt them to initiate the pilot of the subsidiary AlphaTauri Yuki Tsunoda into it.

The Japanese athlete did not yield the trajectory in time, as a result of which Peres had to twitch to the side and fly to the side of the road.

Due to the loss of the slip stream, Verstappen missed a few fractions of a second and was noticeably inferior to his first result.

Things did not go according to plan for Red Bull in qualifying 😕 # MexicoGP 🇲🇽 # F1pic.twitter.com / tGZSk2AtKU

- Formula 1 (@ F1) November 7, 2021

As a result, the victory was celebrated by Bottas, who won his third pole of the season.

Hamilton took a seat next to him on the front row of the starting grid.

The Red Bull pilots were content with the following two positions.

Nikita Mazepin has risen to a rather high 15th line for himself.

In qualifying, he was 19th thanks to Stroll's retirement, but he was helped to rise even higher by the penalties of his opponents.

Race

The joy of successfully qualifying at Mercedes was short-lived.

Immediately after the start, Verstappen passed both pilots, after which Daniel Riccardo from McLaren ran into Bottas.

The Finnish rider was turned around, and the Australian damaged the wing, so they both rolled to the end of the peloton.

Their contact also triggered an accident involving Esteban Okon.

Tsunoda and Mazepin's partner Mick Schumacher crashed into his Alpine, damaging their suspension.

As a result of all the retirements and kickbacks that occurred, the Russian pilot climbed to 11th place and could show off for some time while there was a safety car on the track.

LAP 4/71 SAFETY CAR ENDING



The moment of contact between Bottas and Ricciardo 💥



Both currently sit in P18 and P17 #MexicoGP 🇲🇽 # F1pic.twitter.com / sSFblkFqUU

- Formula 1 (@ F1) November 7, 2021

After the restart, Verstappen began to rapidly break away from Hamilton, and a gap of two seconds was formed between them. Perez followed the Briton, trying in his own way to put pressure on the vice-leader of the championship. However, his partner did a good job himself - several times Verstappen set the best laps in the race and sometimes won back half a second from Hamilton at once. When the attack of Perez began to really threaten the second place of the Briton, he turned into the pits and got the strongest tires with which he could try to reach the finish line.

The new tires allowed Hamilton to take away the best lap from Verstappen, and the Red Bull pilot also went to the pit stop.

After returning to the track, he continued to win a comfortable 7.5 seconds, and Perez briefly became the leader of the race and the first Mexican to achieve this on his home track.

He also needed to change tires, and after changing shoes he lost to Hamilton for about ten seconds.

After that, any rearrangements in the top three became unlikely.

The only intrigue boiled down to how much Verstappen's lead over the seven-time world champion would grow - it depended on who got the best lap.

Hamilton had the opportunity to change tires in the last kilometers and earn an extra point.

However, this had to be forgotten.

Perez began to approach the second place so rapidly that he had to think only about defense.

Ten laps before the finish line, he again came close to the Mercedes pilot, but did not enter the attacking maneuver.

LAP 66/71



Traffic for both Perez and Hamilton has hampered the battle slightly, but it's still all to play for!

🤩 # MexicoGP 🇲🇽 # F1pic.twitter.com / rTYZhqURt2

- Formula 1 (@ F1) November 7, 2021

Meanwhile, Bottas reminded of himself again.

After the incident with Riccardo, a long 12-second pit stop was added to his troubles, which shattered all hopes for points.

But the Finn could still take away the point for the best lap from Verstappen.

This idea did not come true right away - from the first attempt, Bottas did not accelerate properly and demanded new tires.

After another pit stop, when the trio of leaders had already finished the race and Verstappen won the ninth victory of the season, the Mercedes driver still got his way.

Showing the best seconds of the day, Bottas rendered albeit a small, but still an important service to his partner.

At the next stage in Brazil, which will be called the São Paulo Grand Prix, Hamilton will try to win back 19 points from Verstappen.