Tag: Mexico City Grand Prix

Red flag robbed Riccardo of top five in Mexico

Daniel Ricciardo believes he could have finished in the top five of the Mexico City Grand Prix if it wasn’t for the red flag timing, but took the positives of racing George Russell to the flag. AlphaTauri was particularly competitive in Mexico and …

Daniel Ricciardo believes he could have finished in the top five of the Mexico City Grand Prix if it wasn’t for the red flag timing, but took the positives of racing George Russell to the flag.

AlphaTauri was particularly competitive in Mexico and Ricciardo qualified fourth before running fifth for the majority of the race. However, a red flag caused by Kevin Magnussen’s heavy crash led to a restart that led to Ricciardo – who was already on a set of used hard tires – dropping behind Russell and then also lose out to Lando Norris later on, although he nearly re-passed Russell on the final lap.

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“I think everything was actually working pretty well,” Ricciardo said. “Honestly the red flag I think hurt us. But I don’t want to say it too selfishly, because there was a big accident, I believe a car failure, so nothing Kevin could do.

“As much as that hurt our race, I would like to think because strategy and everything was looking pretty smooth then, obviously the main thing is he’s OK.

“It obviously bunched everyone up and allowed some cars to use the mediums, which we didn’t have. I think at that point, it was probably a bit more nervous on pit wall, but to still come out with seventh and six points, and nearly eight points – we got very close to George at the end – I think big picture, we have to be very happy.

“I was honestly trying as much as I could. It was a little weird, at the start of the stint, I didn’t feel as good as towards the end. It felt like it took me a little bit to get a rhythm with the tire. Then the last probably 10 laps, I was able to really start pushing harder, and yeah, I think Lando getting George probably hurt George’s tires a little bit, so that brought him back to me.

“It was tough. I probably didn’t expect to get that close. When you’re that close, you’re like ‘ah, we could’ve!’ but he protected well in Turn 4. At one point, I was trying to go on the outside, but I could see we were both going to run off and had to abort mission. He did well, he did well to defend. We tried, but I think ultimately, just to be battling a Mercedes at the end, that makes me more happy than just missing out on sixth.”

While Ricciardo feels more points were on offer without the race interruption, he says the jeopardy of the race starts in Mexico City mean he’s still satisfied to score his first points since returning to AlphaTauri.

“I don’t know if Lando’s pace in that second half of the race was as good as the first half. We were holding Oscar (Piastri) at bay. We had gaps, it felt like at that moment, I was like, ‘this could be a nice, lonely fifth place’, and I was OK with that.

“I definitely think we could have been better than seventh, let’s say that, without the red. That’s racing. On one hand, you could say unlucky, but it can always be worse. The restart we could have had a crash or something, so to still come through, I’m happy.”

Perez ‘could have left a little bit more space’ – Verstappen

Max Verstappen says he understands why Sergio Perez took such a big risk at the start of the Mexico City Grand Prix but believes his teammate could have left more space. Perez was attacking for the lead around the outside of Turn 1 having made a …

Max Verstappen says he understands why Sergio Perez took such a big risk at the start of the Mexico City Grand Prix but believes his teammate could have left more space.

Perez was attacking for the lead around the outside of Turn 1 having made a great start form fifth place, but turned in too early on Charles Leclerc who had Verstappen on his inside. The following contact took Perez out of the race on the opening lap in front of a huge crowd that was largely there to support him, but Verstappen says the situation made such an aggressive move understandable.

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“I understand because it’s his home grand prix,” Verstappen said. “You want to be on the podium, I fully understand that he went around the outside and he tried. Looking at the footage, I think he could have left a little bit more space but on the other hand if it would have worked, you look amazing. I think it’s just more that excitement of wanting to be on the podium and this time it didn’t work out, unfortunately.

“At the time, I didn’t really see a lot. At one point, I just saw that a car was flying in the air, but then I saw the footage after the race and then you can comment on it. But while driving it’s a bit hard because I was mainly focusing on Charles, because I couldn’t see what was happening on the outside.

“(I was) not nervous at all. I mean, it’s not the first time that I’ve been two-wide or three-wide into Turn 1 here. But also, I mean, we all trust each other. And of course, we’re all on the limit, braking into the corner, but it was all fine, I think. But then I saw on my outside that something happened. But luckily, on the inside, we could stay out of trouble.”

With Perez out of the race and Leclerc picking up damage, Verstappen went on to win his 16th race of the season, setting another record for the most single-season victories.

“It’s been another incredible season. I mean, the car has been unbelievable to drive in most places. So when you then, as a team, work really well together and you try not to make too many mistakes over the whole season, then you can achieve something like this.

“I’m very proud of the achievement, because I think after last year, when I won 15, I was like, ‘well, if I can ever try and replicate something like that, I will be very happy’ and now we are here with 16. So yeah, just very happy with everyone’s performance in the team, for the whole year for basically not making a lot of mistakes.”

Norris’s Mexico charge ‘one of the best races that I’ve been part of’ – Stella

Lando Norris’ recovery to fifth place in the Mexico City Grand Prix was one of the best races that McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has ever seen. A scrappy Q1 led to Norris being eliminated in that first part of qualifying and facing a tough …

Lando Norris’ recovery to fifth place in the Mexico City Grand Prix was one of the best races that McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has ever seen.

A scrappy Q1 led to Norris being eliminated in that first part of qualifying and facing a tough race on a track that is tough to overtake on given the cooling requirements the cars face at altitude. Despite Norris having to take the red flag restart in 10th and dropping to 14th, he then fought through to an impressive fifth with multiple eye-catching overtakes.

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“We were having exactly this conversation on the pit wall as his race engineer Will Joseph turned to me and said to me ‘that’s one of the best of Lando’,” Stella said. “I said, ‘Will, that’s one of the best at all’.

“Overtaking, so many overtakes, in Mexico, where (on Saturday) if you read the quotes everyone is saying it’s so difficult to overtake, while managing PU temperatures, having to do lift and cost. I’m just impressed. One of the best races for a driver that I’ve been part of.”

Given the fact Stella has worked with both Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, it was high praise from the Italian.

“Yeah, this race made me think of Valencia 2012, where at the time we started 12th (with Alonso), we won the race. But this one… on one side we are excited, having seen this kind of masterpiece, on the other side like Lando said on the in-lap, ‘guys let’s do a good job on Saturday and we can fight for podiums’, so the pace was there to fight for podiums.”

Despite the impressive Sunday recovery, Stella admits the run of form McLaren has been on means the outright pace suggests an opportunity for another top three result was missed.

“That’s what I’m trying to say, there’s a little element of frustration, but at the same time if you asked me (after qualifying) I would not have thought we could overtake so many cars.

“So I’d rather take the positives out of this race and I hope that the entire team at the factory and the fans receive the same sort of message: we are there, we don’t give up, we are competitive, but we need to do a better job overall the whole race weekend.”