Lando Norris has ignited his Formula 1 world title charge after taking 10 points out of Max Verstappen’s lead by finishing second, with his twice-penalised Red Bull rival sixth, in a Mexico City GP absolutely dominated by Ferrari’s victorious Carlos Sainz.
On a second successive contentious Sunday in F1’s title battle as the two protagonists squabbled and the stewards intervened, Verstappen was given a pair of 10-second penalties for quick-fire incidents with Norris on a chaotic 10th lap of the race.
Norris branded his Red Bull rival’s driving “dangerous”.
Verstappen was found to have forced Norris off the track at Turn Four in the first, and then to have gained an unfair advantage by running wide three corners later in the second, with the combined 20s sanction dropping the Red Bull driver out of third place and down the order when he served the double penalty as his pit stop.
The championship leader briefly dropped out of the points places altogether and although he quickly recovered to sixth, he made no further progress from there as his Red Bull struggled with tyre wear on another difficult day day for the once all-conquering world champions.
With Norris taking over third after his rival’s penalties and then passing Charles Leclerc amid a late charge to deny Ferrari a second successive one-two, the McLaren driver has closed down Verstappen’s title lead to 47 points with four race weekends of the season still to go – with the Sao Paulo GP and its Sprint event next up this coming week, live on Sky Sports F1.
Polesitter Sainz had originally lost the lead of the race to Verstappen in a dramatic start which saw RB’s Yuki Tsunoda crash out before the first corner after a tangle with Williams’ Alex Albon on the season’s longest run to the first corner.
But after a six-lap Safety Car phase, Sainz underlined Ferrari’s expected superiority by breezing past Verstappen down the main straight, with Norris then getting on the Red Bull’s tail one lap later and launching his own attack on the Dutchman to trigger fresh championship controversy.
Mounting what appears a stunning late charge for the Constructors’ Championship title, Ferrari have still now usurped reigning champions Red Bull for second place in the standings and closed down McLaren’s lead to just 29 points.
Red Bull’s woes were compounded by another miserable day for Sergio Perez, the home Mexican favourite, who received a five-second penalty for a jump start from his 18th-place grid spot and then sustaining car damage in a clash with Liam Lawson, who drives for sister team RB and is in contention to take the struggling Mexican’s seat for 2025.
Lewis Hamilton won out after an entertaining ding-dong battle with George Russell to beat his Mercedes team-mate to fourth.
However, the British pair finished over 40 seconds behind Sainz to underline the Silver Arrows’ current lack of competitiveness on a weekend when Russell had to revert to the specification of floor they introduced back at May’s Miami GP after a crash here on Friday followed one from qualifying in Austin.
Despite the Mercedes’ late-race duel, Verstappen was unable to make any impression on them and finished 10s behind Russell in sixth place.
How F1’s title race boiled over in fresh Max-Lando scuffle
The first two legs of F1’s Americas triple header have now been dominated by contentious wheel-to-wheel moments between Verstappen and Norris, firm friends off track but increasingly fraught title rivals on it as the sport’s biggest prize looms large into view into the closing weeks of the season.
McLaren had been left dismayed by the podium-losing penalty handed to Norris in last Sunday’s United States GP – so much so that they took their challenge on to a right of review this week, which was subsequently dismissed by the same stewards – with the incident having triggered wider discussion over F1’s racing guidelines.
It took 10 laps for that debate to be spectacularly re-opened once more on Sunday.
Although Verstappen had made a dream start to the race from second by overtaking Sainz down the inside towards Turn One, with Norris unable to follow through from third, the world champion’s stay at the front lasted just three laps beyond the Tsunoda-triggered Safety Car.
Norris then sensed his own chance and one lap later the McLaren had arrived large in the Red Bull’s mirrors.
In a near carbon-copy of his attempted overtake into Austin’s Turn 12 last week, Norris attacked the outside of the Red Bull down the short straight towards Mexico City’s left-handed Turn Four and this time clearly edged ahead of his rival’s front wheels.
But as the Briton started to turn into the corner, Verstappen kept his foot in on the inside in a bid to hold position and the inevitable happened, Norris was crowded out on the outside and left with little choice but to turn right and go across the grass to avoid a collision.
With the McLaren now the car ahead through the next series of corners, Verstappen attempted to reclaim the place before any outside intervention and steamed in down the inside of the McLaren at the end of the next straight into Turn Seven. Unable to slow down and going straight on, with Norris again forced wide too, Verstappen this time rejoined the track ahead.
“I was ahead the whole way through the corner,” said an unhappy Norris over McLaren team radio.
“This guy is dangerous. It’s the same as last time. I’ll be in the wall in a minute.”
Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle was left particularly unimpressed by Verstappen’s second move in particular.
“I’m sorry, Max. That was outrageous,” said Brundle bluntly.
Stewards swiftly launched investigations into both incidents and soon issued Verstappen with a pair of 10-second penalties, which he would serve in his pit stop.
When informed by race engineer of his first 10-section sanction, Verstappen said: “10!? That’s quite impressive, to which Gianpiero Lambiase replied: “There was a lot of whinging. A lot.”
Verstappen continued to run just ahead of Norris all the way to his sole pit stop but then dropped down the order to 13th with the Dutchman forced to wait 20s in the Red Bull to serve his penalty before mechanics could start his scheduled tyre change.
And while the midfield runners he came out behind proved easy enough to overtake on fresh tyres, Verstappen made no impression on the top five the longer the second and final stint went on.
‘I need it for myself’ – Williams-bound Sainz savours impressive win
Sainz had been in supreme form around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez all weekend and a second win of the season and fourth overall in F1 had never looked in doubt once he regained the race lead from Verstappen at the start of the ninth lap.
And although Leclerc benefitted from the Verstappen-Norris squabbles to take over second place when the pair both ran wide in their second incident, the second Ferrari did not have the pace to chase down his team-mate – and ultimately fell back into the clutches of the recovering McLaren.
For Sainz, who finished second to Leclerc last week in Austin, the result was particularly poignant given he is in his final weeks as a Ferrari driver before being replaced by Lewis Hamilton for 2025 and leaving to join Williams.
“I really wanted to his one,” admitted the Spaniard.
“I needed it for myself. I said I wanted one more win for Ferrari and to do it here with this mega crowd is incredible.
“Now four races left, I want to enjoy it as much as possible. If anyone comes, I will go for it.”
Behind the top six, Haas enjoyed another bumper points day with Kevin Magnussen seventh a week on from finishing eighth in the USA and Nico Hulkenberg ninth.
The American-owned team have now moved 10 points clear of RB in sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.
After joining Perez in dropping out in Q1 in a costly Saturday Saturday, Oscar Piastri raced back to eighth in the second McLaren to give the Woking team four potentially handy additional points to go with Norris’ second amid Ferrari’s surge.
Pierre Gasly capped a fine weekend to take 10th and score a rare point for struggling Alpine this season, moving them to within three of eighth-placed Williams.
Formula 1’s Americas triple-header concludes this weekend with the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, with every session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime