Lando Norris and Max Verstappen came to blows as the title battle roared back into action at the Mexican Grand Prix. Nobody, however, could touch Carlos Sainz as he marched to a dominant fourth career race win.
The chaos began immediately as Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda came together on the run down to Turn One, sending the VCARB man into the barrier and shattering the front axle of the Williams driver’s FW46 machine.
At the ensuing safety car restart, Verstappen initially held the lead after picking the pocket of polesitter Carlos Sainz on lap one, but the Spaniard fought back to reclaim the lead. The real drama began shortly after.
Sensing an opportunity with Verstappen boxed in on the inside, Norris made a lunge for P2 at Turn Four. His title rival was having none of it and shoved him off, but similarly to in Austin, the Brit kept his foot in and retained the position.
This set up a second incident as Verstappen attempted an overzealous lunge at Turn Eight shoving both drivers way off the race track and leaving Norris furious. The stewards responded in the harshest possible fashion, firing two 10-second time penalties the way of the three-time world champion.
When Verstappen came in to serve his penalties and the pack shuffled through, the Red Bull racer found himself down in P6, struggling to keep up with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton ahead.
Norris, meanwhile, began to eat into the advantage of second-placed Charles Leclerc. With just over 10 laps to go, the McLaren driver moved within DRS range of the Ferrari man.
On lap 63 things nearly came undone for Leclerc. With Norris hot on his heels the Monegasque racer suffered a massive wiggle as he rounded the final corner and would have found the outside barriers at speed if not for an exceptional save.
After clearing Leclerc, Norris set off after Sainz and with an extra five laps, he was tracking towards a race win. Ultimately though, Ferrari’s Spanish star reached the chequered flag with time to spare, claiming his second victory of the season and the fourth of his career.
