Max Verstappen won the 16th race of the season and updated his own record

Max Verstappen set the record for most races won in one season. On Sunday he won the Mexican Grand Prix. This is the 16th victory of the year for the three-time world champion. No one has achieved such an indicator before. Given Verstappen’s monstrous lead over his rivals, it would not be surprising if he finished the season with 19 victories. Well, while the Red Bull leader is solving his local problems, his teammate Sergio Perez is doing everything to not let the intrigue in the fight for second place fade away. The Mexican, still in second, failed at his home stage, and now Mercedes leader Lewis Hamilton is only 20 points behind him.

Max Verstappen, despite the fact that two weeks ago, after he secured his third championship title ahead of schedule, could have gone into careless couch mode, continues to prove that he has no equal at the moment in Formula 1. At the Mexican Grand Prix, the Dutchman, as a week earlier in the USA, threw intrigue into the audience, taking only third place on the starting field according to the results of qualifying. But a little and very briefly – Verstappen dived into the first turn as a leader. Let us note that Red Bull called its number one for a pit stop much earlier than other contenders for the podium. As a result, Verstappen found himself in traffic after returning to the track. But it didn’t stop him from overtaking everyone he needed, taking the lead again and not losing the lead until the finish. A confident and boring (this is a characteristic feature of this season) victory for the Dutchman. But it is a record one. Since the beginning of the year, Verstappen has won for the 16th time. No Formula 1 driver has achieved such a result before. However, Verstappen was the current record holder even before the Mexican stage. He installed it last year when he won 15 races. This victory was also Verstappen’s 51st in his career. That is, he is equal in this indicator to four-time world champion Alain Prost. True, Verstappen still has a long way to go to reach the record – it belongs to Lewis Hamilton (the seven-time world champion has won 103 Grand Prix). Verstappen was also beaten more often by Michael Schumacher (91 times) and Sebastian Vettel (53). The Dutchman can overtake the latter this year. To do this, you need to win all three races remaining on the schedule, which Verstappen is quite capable of.

However, the most discussed issue after the race was not Verstappen’s record. The incident that happened in the first turn after the start caused much more emotions. Red Bull number two Sergio Perez really wanted to excel in his home race. He reacted perfectly to the starting lights, jumped from fifth place to the front row, and even found himself slightly ahead of both Charles Leclerc, who started from pole, and Verstappen, who was pushing him from the left. All that remained was to enter the first turn as the leader. But the Mexican made a mistake, collided with Leclerc’s Ferrari, flew off the track, reached the pits, but still retired from the race. And Leclerc drove on with a damaged car, became third and was forced to put up with the fact that the Mexican public was booing him. And then publicly explain himself, declaring that Perez went into the turn so furiously that he simply did not leave his opponent any room on the track. By the way, Verstappen also agreed with this interpretation, noting that Perez’s plan was beautiful, but not very well implemented.

Well, Perez himself called the incident “the saddest moment” in his career. Not surprising, given that a misfire could cost him dearly. He may well lose second place in the overall standings. He arrived in Mexico with a 39-point lead over third-placed Hamilton. That is, all that was required of the Mexican was to avoid failure. But he allowed it. And now Hamilton, who finished second in the Mexican race, is only 20 points behind Perez with three races left in the championship. If Perez really misses out on second place (it is noteworthy that in the history of the Red Bull team, whose drivers have become world champions seven times, there has never been a single case when its representatives took the first two places at the end of the season), this will be a monstrous blow to his pride and reputation. His inability to even become second in a championship-class car will be remembered for a long time to come.

Alexander Petrov