Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz made it back-to-back race wins for the Italian team and three wins in the past five races after making the most of pole position to win the Mexico GP.
The Spaniard had lost the lead to Max Verstappen on the first lap but he was back in the lead within a lap of the race’s resumption from being put under the safety car following a collision between Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda.
Sainz then had to hold off team-mate Charles Leclerc who was on his tail between laps 13 and 17, much to Sainz’s ire, although he opened up a comfortable lead after both drivers made their pit-stops.
The race could have ended in a Ferrari one-two as it did in Austin last weekend for the US Grand Prix, but Leclerc’s car veered wide off track and came within whiskers of crashing into the wall in the final corner of the last lap.
While the Frenchman was able to get back on track, the momentary moment off trck allowed Lando Norris – who had been closing in on Leclerc in the closing laps – to pounce at the chance to take second place and boost his cause to overhaul the gap between him and Verstappen in the championship.
At the moment, Norris trails Verstappen – who was slammed with penalties for violating race regulations to see him end up in sixth – by 47 points, while Leclerc is 24 points behind Norris in what is proving to be a thrilling end to the F1 season.