Red Bull earned itself one heck of a Formula One fiesta. Max Verstappen won the Mexico City Grand Prix with a dominant race Sunday to stretch his season championship lead over Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. Teammate Sergio Perez was the first Mexican driver in race history to not just lead the race, but also to earn a podium when he finished third.
And the result pulled Red Bull nearly even with Mercedes in a team championship worth millions of dollars at the end of season.
While Verstappen and Perez basked in the chants of “Olé! Olé!” from the massive crowd during the podium ceremony and Perez’s father wildly waved the Mexican flag, Hamilton could only watch and listen.
He had to know he’s running out of time and races to catch Verstappen in pursuit of a record eighth F1 season title.
Verstappen now leads Hamilton in the championship by 19 points with four races left, starting next week in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Verstappen won in 2019 and likely will be favored to again. The two have traded the lead several times this season, and even crashed into each other twice, in F1’s tightest title chase in years. “Today with their superior speed, if they work to carry that into the next ones, we may be in trouble, or we will be in trouble,” Hamilton said.