Red Bull’s Max Verstappen got his third record career Mexico City Grand Prix victory ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez – the first Mexican driver to take a Formula 1 podium at a home race.

Verstappen’s pace was better than Hamilton’s in the opening stint (The portion of a race between pit stops), which kept him ahead. With Hamilton losing time to Verstappen and Perez, he pitted for hards (new, more durable tires) on Lap 30 and Verstappen did as well on Lap 34, coming out second to make Perez the first Mexican to lead his home race. 

Perez came in for new hards on Lap 41, nine seconds behind Hamilton, and began to cut down the gap to one second on Lap 60. The crowd cheered when they saw how close their home hero was to Hamilton, but Perez couldn’t make the pass and finished third – just 1.1 seconds behind Hamilton – in spite of having hard tyres that were 11 laps newer than his.