Mexico City Grand Prix: Verstappen lands record 14th win of season

Max Verstappen turned a dominant, title-winning campaign into a record-breaking one by claiming the chequered flag at the Mexico City Grand Prix, his 14th win of 2022 and the most for any driver in a single season in F1 history.

And wasn’t it exciting?! Er, no. It wasn’t. No fault of Verstappen’s of course, the Red Bull driver brilliantly converted pole position into a lead at the first corner - usually impossible with such a long, powerful slipstream available to those behind off the line - and never looked back.

To their credit, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes threatened to battle for victory early on as the draggy W13 was unshackled by the track’s thin, high-altitude air. But their pace disappeared on the hard tyre and with Red Bull making mediums last the distance, the race fizzled out.

In fact, so uneventful was the race itself, this article might well have been headlined ‘Mexico City Grand Prix: fans wowed by catchy mariachi cover of F1 theme tune’ had it not been for Verstappen’s record. That’s how much we’re struggling for a talking point.

The other contenders… um, Ferrari failing to turn up? The race results suggest they finished fifth and sixth but if they made it into a single frame of the race coverage, it passed us by.

Fernando Alonso? The two-time champion caused a stir with his comments prior to the weekend about old foe Hamilton’s titles having “less value” than Verstappen’s, with Lewis then getting his own back by tweeting a picture of them both on the podium as teammates in 2007… with him on the top step and Alonso in P2. Cue yet another mechanical DNF for ‘Nando.

Daniel Ricciardo? If the grand prix had been the equivalent of a 0-0 draw then the McLaren driver’s performance was the epitome of ‘a game of two halves’. Running out of the points he carelessly vaulted Yuki Tsunoda up and out of the race with a clumsy move, before driving like a man possessed and slingshotting through the field to take Driver of the Day and seventh place, more than 10 seconds ahead of P8 to successfully elude the penalty he got for torpedoing Tsunoda.

Ricciardo confirmed afterwards that he definitely wouldn’t be on the grid in 2023, but was eyeing up a role with a team that’d keep him in the paddock with a view to making a full-time return in 2024. You’d be a hard nut not to sympathise with what the 33-year-old has been through lately: remember he didn’t see his family for 18 months after travel restrictions made going home to Australia impractical, and there’s been little respite for him on track since then. Let’s hope the break gives him the reset he needs.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Mexico was Mexico itself: almost 400,000 fans attended the three days of action, a record for the nation and promising numbers given it'll remain on the calendar now until 2025. And you can tell organisers have thrown the kitchen sink at it too: a stadium section! Day of the Dead costumes! A podium with a lift!

Oh, and that mariachi cover of the F1 theme tune. ¡Viva Mexico!