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lando norris He took the lead in the Formula One Drivers’ Championship by one point with a dominant victory at the Mexican Grand Prix.
British The driver overcame early upset to take his first win since Hungary in August and finish by 38.5 seconds Charles Leclercand led the standings for the first time in 189 days.
His mclaren Teammate Oscar Piastri, who had led the championship since round five in Saudi Arabia, finished a difficult weekend strongly to finish fifth and keep Norris’ lead down to one point.
Lewis HamiltonFerrari’s hopes of a first podium were dashed by a 10-second penalty amid bedlam on the opening lap.
Leclerc stopped max verstappen The Dutchman was forced to finish second after Red Bull adopted a one-stop strategy to earn the podium, while the 20-year-old British driver ollie bearman Achieved a sensational career-best fourth position.
Norris’s 10th F1 win allowed him to halt the pace of Verstappen, who has moved into the title picture by winning three of the last four races, beating the Dutchman for the first time in seven races.
Norris overcame his 14-point deficit over Piastri – who trailed by 34 six races ago – to 36 points ahead of third-placed Verstappen.
There are four rounds remaining and 116 points left to contest when the championship reaches Brazil in a fortnight.
A scorching track temperature of 53 degrees when the lights were off set the stage for an exciting start.
Hamilton gave his best qualifying performance for Ferrari and finished third – directly behind pole-sitter Norris.
This allowed him to slip past the McLaren for the longest time and turn one on the calendar, with Norris, Leclerc, Hamilton and Verstappen – all up from fifth – four abreast ahead after the 830 meter dash.
Top-10 – Mexico City Grand Prix
1) Lando Norris – McLaren
2) Charles Leclerc – Ferrari
3) Max Verstappen – Red Bull
4) Ollie Bearman – Haas
5) Oscar Piastri – McLaren
6) Kimi Antonelli – Mercedes
7) George Russell – Mercedes
8) Lewis Hamilton – Ferrari
9) Esteban Ocon – Haas
10) Gabriel Bortoletto – Sober
Verstappen ran into the run-off area at the first turn, before Leclerc cut the corner at the second turn and emerged into the lead.
The Monegasque rapidly gave the position back to Norris, while Verstappen rejoined in fourth, making contact with Hamilton but finishing ahead of George Russell.
Piastri is in ninth place after losing two places and Bearman is in sixth place after gaining three places.
More chaos broke out on lap seven. Verstappen slipstreamed Hamilton into turn one and the Dutchman collided with the pair in turn two.
Hamilton then closed into turn four, but failed to use the escape route as he spun across the grass.
Amidst the chaos, Bearman overtook Verstappen to run fourth for Haas.
Norris led by 8.4 seconds after 20 laps, while Hamilton’s failure to use an escape road at the previous turn earned him a 10-second penalty.
He said, “This is crazy, man.” “There is very little catch there.”
He pitted on lap 24 and dropped back to 14th after serving a penalty. Verstappen avoided sanction.
Norris ran 35 of the 71-lap races on his soft tires and rejoined with a lead of more than 17 seconds over Leclerc.
Verstappen pitted on lap 38 after a run on the medium and dropped to eighth behind Piastri and Hamilton.
Russell became embroiled in a fiery dispute with his race engineer as he requested Mercedes to let him pass his teammate Kimi Antonelli while Piastri was on his gearbox.
Mercedes wanted to cool the temperature of its brakes. He said angrily, “I have a ****ing car. A car much faster than our car.” Belatedly they agreed to the exchange.
On lap 48, Antonelli and Piastri collided and the Australian overtook the Italian.
Bearman and Russell led a lap later, before the Haas driver held off his compatriot.
Piastri attacked Russell again with 11 laps remaining and made a surprise move to move up to fifth, while Verstappen was charging after Leclerc in third.
Leclerc failed him at turn one, before a virtual safety car prevented his last-lap attack as well, allowing Bearman to pass Piastri for a brilliant fourth place finish.
Russell finished seventh, ahead of Hamilton in eighth.