Lewis Hamilton says whether or not he has a chance at snatching second in the drivers championship is up to the under-pressure Sergio Pérez after the Mexican’s first-lap crash slashed the margin between them to 20 points.
Pérez’s struggles this season have left him with less than half of champion teammate Max Verstappen’s points total, and he’s now vulnerable to attack from Hamilton behind, particularly as Mercedes grows in confidence with its latest series of updates.
Hamilton’s disqualification from the United States Grand Prix blew out the shrinking margin to 39 points, but Pérez’s first-lap crash at his home Mexico City Grand Prix allowed the Briton to close to within 20 points.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSAussie rising star Jack Doohan says his racing future is secure despite being unable to confirm a program for 2024.
Doohan is currently competing in his second season of Formula 2, where he’s fourth in the championship standings with one round to go in Abu Dhabi.
The 20-year-old, who is also Alpine’s Formula 1 reserve driver, has said he won’t recontest the junior series next year, with his focus switching to securing a seat on the premier-class grid.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSDaniel Ricciardo was surprisingly plucky for a man who’d finished his previous race stone-cold last.
Just days before arriving in Mexico City, Ricciardo had trundled to 15th at the United States Grand Prix, his first race back from a broken hand ending anonymously a lap down from the leaders.
And yet here he was seemingly brimming with confidence for his second crack behind the wheel.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSMax Verstappen is accumulating Formula 1 records so fast that he’s starting to re-break some of his own.
Verstappen’s 16th win of the season eclipses the previous best of 15 set by — you guessed it — himself last season.
Of course you might argue that numbers like these are historically meaningless with so many races in modern F1.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSFor exciting results, just remove oxygen.
Mexico City always produces interesting and unusual results, with its elevation at 2.2 kilometres above sea level creating a unique set of conditions for Formula 1.
The thin air means there’s less grip. Small changes in track temperature have a huge impact on grip — and the track temperature can vary massively based on minor changes in cloud cover.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSLando Norris opened the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend by declaring that McLaren wouldn’t be very competitive.
As has often been the case this year, the exact opposite of his pessimistic forecast appears to be coming true.
To be fair to Norris, on paper this track shouldn’t suit the MCL60. It’s mostly slow, fiddly corners of the kind the car hates, even after its massive round of mid-year upgrades. The low-grip conditions are also generally not McLaren territory, nor are the long straights.
Continue reading on FOX SPORTSMax Verstappen topped a drizzly FP2 to sweep Friday practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Light rain arrived in time for the start of the session and intensified in the last sector in the last 15 minutes, but it was never hard enough to suspend running or force drivers onto wet-weather tires.
The cooler track conditions appeared to bring the field closer together, with seven manufacturers represented in the top eight, which was spread over just 0.391s.
Continue reading on RACERMax Verstappen has pipped Alex Albon to top spot in first practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Verstappen set the benchmark at 1m 19.718s on a sole run on fresh softs, though he subsequently had to cut short his stint on the red-marked tire after reporting something loose in the footwell.
Albon was his closest challenger, the Williams car propelling him to a time just 0.095s further back thanks to a purple first sector.
Continue reading on RACERThere are 20 drivers competing in Formula 1 this season, but Mexico’s energetic crowd has eyes only for Sergio Pérez.
The Mexico City Grand Prix is built on Pérez’s idol-like status in his home country, where he’s held up as one of the nation’s great sporting exports.
It might be easy to see Pérez only through the lens of his struggles this season, but it’s worth remembering the body of work he’s put together over more than a decade in the sport, including six victories — one of which was a superb midfield win with Racing Point — and 28 other podiums.
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