Mad Max: Verstappen sets F1 season record

MEXICO CITY, October 31

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Red Bull’s double world champion Max Verstappen won the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday to set a Formula One record of 14 victories from a single season, as well as the most points scored.

The Dutch driver led from pole position at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, stopping on lap 26 of 71 to switch from soft to medium tyres and taking the chequered flag 15.186 seconds clear of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

“It’s been an incredible year so far, we are definitely enjoying it and we’ll try to go for more,” said Verstappen, who clinched his second title in Japan on October 9 and had an untroubled afternoon.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez finished third in front of his cheering home crowd after a race that was low on thrills and all about tyre strategy.

Verstappen’s win was the 25-year-old’s fourth in Mexico and the podium was the same as last year. Last weekend in Texas’ Austin, he had pulled level with German champions Michael Schumacher (2004) and Sebastian Vettel (2013) on 13 wins in a season. — Reuters