Max Verstappen dominates Mexican Grand Prix, sets single-season win record.
Max Verstappen is already the 2022 Formula 1 world driver's champion. His team, Red Bull Racing, is already constructor's champion. Verstappen had just one more thing left to race for, a 14th grand prix win to set the all-time record for most victories by a single driver in a season. Last weekend, he won his record-tying 13th and had three more races to take the record outright. It took just seven days for him to do just that.
Verstappen sailed away on the start, but could not break away entirely from Lewis Hamilton in the recently-resurgent Mercedes. Hamilton seemed to be alive in the race when his team chose to put him on hard tires for the final stint, breaking from the expectation that teams would close with a long stint on the medium tires. Verstappen went for conventional wisdom, pulling away early and making his mediums last once he had built a ten second lead.
The win consigns Sebastian Vettel's 2013 and Michael Schumacher's 2004 to sec0nd-best. Verstappen has the advantage of racing 22 times, four more than Schumacher and three more than Vettel, and his record will be in danger when F1's calendar expands further in the coming years. Sergio Perez completed the podium in his home race, with George Russell, Carlos Sainz, and Charles Leclerc directly behind. Daniel Ricciardo fought up to seventh despite a ten-second penalty for a move that ended Yuki Tsunoda's day, while Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris, and Valtteri Bottas completed the points-scoring positions.Advertisement - Continue Reading Below