Our 2021 Mexican Grand Prix Result Review is here and the championship defining race was won by Max Verstappen with sporadic action behind the dominant race winner.
Verstappen took the upper hand with a great start and superb first corner, leaving the Mercedes in his dust and for Bottas turned around by Daniel Ricciardo, which led to chaos further behind.
Mexico’s Sergio Perez lit up the crowd with his late race pursuit of Lewis Hamilton’s second place, and they didn’t seem to mind when he settled for third.
Our review usually covers what happened in the race so you don’t have to in the laps that matter. Plus we throw in our Race Ratings, the Best (Great) and Worst (Grape) drivers of the race weekend. This time there’s not much to do.
The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered. And we don’t blame you.
The 2021 Mexican Grand Prix Result Review Summary gives you just enough to catch up, and stand by for our Power Rankings which highlight our driver of the season so far.
2021 Mexican Grand Prix – THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch both races? Well here are the laps that mattered.
We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Lap 1 – The Mercedes get off the line OK, but Max Verstappen makes a storming start from the second row and they are three wide down the straight heading into the first corner. Verstappen on the outside outbrakes both of the Mercedes and sensationally takes the lead. Hamilton slots into second and behind there is chaos. Bottas is clipped by Daniel Ricciardo into a spin with the pack having to negotiate the Finn’s car. Sergio Perez goes to to the grass, Ocon and Tsunoda clash with the Alpha Tauri worst affected and into retirement. Mick Schumacher is also out in the shenanigans and Ricciardo’s front wing has also removed itself. Safety Car comes out to help sort this one out.
ORDER – VER HAM PER GAS LEC GIO SAI VET RUS RAI
Lap 5 – RACE RESUMES – Max Verstappen gets a good restart and maintain his lead over Lewis Hamilton. Cars stay as is until Alonso overtakes Mazepin for 11th. The Russian driver may have been suffering altitude sickness from being as high as 11th. Further back Ricciardo gets past Bottas just to rub salt into the earlier crash’s wounds. Both of these drivers are now on the hard tyre and could be going non stop from here. And Lance Stroll outbrakes himself into turn four in an amateurish piece of driving for an amateurish driver.
Lap 9 – At the front Max Verstappen has a solid three second gap to Lewis Hamilton, who will surely come on the radio to complain about the pace of his Mercedes soon. Verstappen sets a fastest lap just to double down on the dominance. Further back old dog Kimi Raikkonen overtakes new pup George Russell for 9th. His team mate Giovinazzi is a solid 7th too in a good race for Alfa Romeo. Alonso gets past Russell the next lap for 10th into turns 1./2.
ORDER – VER HAM PER GAS LEC SAI GIO VET RAI RUS
Lap 12 – Without too much action at the front the cameras look back to 13th and Ocon taking Mazepin for it. The Russian driver doing well to not be too difficult to pass. Pitstops have started. Latifi stops for tyres and Stroll stops for tyres too. And they fight each other for last as a result. Battle of the Billionaires they could call if anyone cared.
Lap 14 – Max Verstappen’s lead is out to five seconds now, as our lap 9 prediction comes true. Perez is just over two seconds behind the Mercedes of Hamilton so maybe the Red Bull team will try the undercut to nab a 1-2 and make Hamilton thoroughly miserable. The race’s Best o’ the Rest is being decidedly led by Pierre Gasly in fourth and plenty of gap to the Ferraris behind. Mr Saturday George Russell loses another spot to Lando Norris.
Lap 17 – Ricciardo and Bottas continue to battle it out, now for 11th. Which makes them the highest placed cars who have pitted. Bottas looking every chance of taking the McLaren and getting some revenge for the first corner touch.
Lap 20 – Max Verstappen sets another fastest lap is now 6.6 seconds in front. Perez just two behind Hamilton. Pits stops will come soon surely, so time for a quick order check. Verstappen’s lead in the Championship is currently 20 points, almost an entire race win worth of points and an insurance policy against failure or crash.
ORDER – VER HAM PER GAS LEC SAI VET RAI ALO NOR
Lap 29 – Bottas is still battling Ricciardo. Perez is slowly gaining on Hamilton. And Max Verstappen is slaying them out in front.
Lap 30 – Lewis Hamilton pits for tyres. Drops from second to 5th behind Leclerc after a drag race into the first corner. Double blow for Mercedes as Red Bull were going to pit Perez but then didn’t. Opening up a big chance for 1-2 with Hamilton’s pace compromised behind the Ferrari. Leclerc pits the next lap which is very handy. The Amazon graphic says Perez can overtake after the pitstop. Hamilton sets fastest lap at the time after his pitstop and is on a charge in general.
Lap 32 – Gasly pits from third. Nothing special but a decent effort in the Alpha Tauri. Same for Kimi Raikkonen pitting for eighth.
Lap 33 – Max Verstappen pits from the lead which gives Sergio Perez first position and a lot of cheering from the crowd. If he doesn’t pits at the end of the lap he’ll be the first Mexican to lead a lap of his home race. Who could begrudge him that moment. For the record our second favourite Mexican driver of all time was Hector Rebaque.
Lap 36 – Perez continues to lead in front and is eight second in front of his team mate and it’s another seven second back to Hamilton. Just passed halfway so time for an order.
ORDER – PER VER HAM SAI GAS LEC ALO NOR VET RAI
Lap 40 – Sergio Perez pits from the lead and rejoins third behind Hamilton (10 seconds-ish)
Lap 42 – Just to ensure Valtteri Bottas’ day doesn’t dare exiting from the official rating of crap, the Finn’s tyre change was a shocker. At least it is a change of scenery from the back end of Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren. 15th isn’t where you’d expect a Mercedes to be running around however. He is to get some scorn from his team later on.
Lap 45 – Just as a side interest more than anything actually happening. Positions 8th, 9th and 10th feature seven World Championships between them. Second position also has seven Drivers Championships between him.
Lap 47 – The Amazon graphic says Sergio Perez will be caught up to Hamilton in 15 laps, Something to look forward to. Although, as the great, great Murray Walker did say – catching is one thing, passing is another. For the record Perez is within seven seconds of Hamilton who is 12 seconds behind Max Verstappen.
Lap 50 – Perez sets another fastest lap and is just six seconds behind.
Lap 58 – Perez is rapidly closing in the gap to Lewis Hamilton. By lap 58 it is down to two seconds. And the crowd is loving it.
ORDER – VER HAM PER GAS SAI LEC VET RAI ALO NOR
Lap 61 – The gap is under a second, the crowd are getting more excited.
Lap 65 – Hamilton v Perez maintaining their rage at the front. But Hamilton speeds up to save second place. Two seconds in it now. Perez was slowed by backmarkers.
Lap 70 – Mercedes pit Bottas to see if he can steal the fastest lap. Which he does. In other news Perez is under a second behind, and he has a big look down the side of Hamilton but doesn’t clash, I mean pass.
Lap 71 – Max Verstappen wins the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix, extending his Championship lead.
FINAL ORDER – VER HAM PER GAS LEC SAI VET RAI ALO NOR
2021 Mexican Grand Prix Result – RACE RATING
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 9/10
Another win for Max Verstappen and he edges closer to that first Championship. Mercedes had their chances by taking the front row in qualifying, but by the first turn it was all over.
ON TRACK ACTION – 6/10
A couple of first corners prangs, a chase for second at the end and some racing in between wasn’t bad at all. And a McLaren annoying a Mercedes for most of the race.
ENDING – 7 / 10
Depending on your loyalty to either of the top two drivers, the ending to the race was pretty exciting, with the non Hamilton fans and neutrals hoping for Perez to steal second.
OVERALL RATING 22/ 30
Good track, decent race, big Championship result. Solid Grand Prix it was.
2021 SEASON RACE RANKINGS
Bahrain GP – 25/30
Emilia-Romagna GP – 17/30
Portuguese GP – 11/30
Spanish GP – 18/30
Monaco GP – 12/30
Azerbaijan GP – 23/30
French GP – 22/30
Styrian GP – 12/30
Austrian GP – 20/30
British GP – 22/30
Hungarian GP – 26/30
Belgian GP – 0/30
Dutch GP – 12/30
Italian GP – 25/30
Russian GP – 26/30
Turkish GP – 13/30
US GP – 21/30
2021 Mexican Grand Prix Result – Great & Grape
Here we go through the field and highlight the three drivers we think deserve a little extra love, and one driver whose had the grapest weekend of all.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 / -2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Another win, and another step closer to the 2021 Drivers World Championship and our Martini Medal for Driver of the Year. Nailed the start and the first corner, and made it look easy at the front.
THE GREAT – SERGIO PEREZ
A podium at his home race with many thousand well wishers is a good day out for the Mexican.
THE GREAT – PIERRE GASLY
Another sensational performance from the Alpha Tauri driver. Fourth behind the two big teams is as good as he could hope for.
THE GREAT – CHARLES LECERC
Fifth place will do nicely. And those points scored in this race help in the McLaren
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
KIMI RAIKKONEN – Great day out for the Finn, points ahoy.
YUKI TSNODA – Despite the race ending crashes this season and this race, he looked OK through most of the practice and qualifying.
THE GRAPE-EST – VALTTERI BOTTAS
Failed to turn pole position into first corner leader. Gets punted into a spin by Ricciardo. Then ironically has to spend the first half of the race behind the McLaren Then he second pitstop sucked and he dropped even further draft.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
DANIEL RICCIARDO – Big chance today after beating his team mate in qualifying, he then turns Bottas at the first corner and both have to repair. No points and no point to his race. Ferrari take upper hand in battle for third place in the Constructors as a result.
2021 Mexican Grand Prix Result – Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix and the overall 2021 F1 Season Power Rankings leader/s.
Read our last edition from after the US Grand Prix here.
