Race Report: Frustrating Sunday in Mexico

Kimi Antonelli finished P6 with George Russell P7 in Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

Both drivers started on the Soft compound tyre, George in P4 and Kimi in P6.

Unfortunately, a frantic first few corners saw both George and Kimi lose one position each.

George then dropped to P7, and behind his team-mate, as he attempted to pass the battling Hamilton and Verstappen.

After switching to the Medium compound, the team opted to invert the cars to enable George to attack the Haas of Bearman ahead; he was unable to make the move though and the team opted to convert to the two-stop strategy.

Kimi lost position to the McLaren of Oscar Piastri with a slow pitstop, with George then losing out to the Australian on track.

Running on the Soft compound to the end, the team then inverted the cars once again to give Kimi back the position he had handed to George earlier in the race.

The battle for second in the Constructors’ Championship continues to be fierce with Ferrari now just one point ahead with four races to go.

George Russell

That was a frustrating afternoon. At the start, three drivers cut over the grass at turn one and either kept or gained positions without penalty. I stayed on the track but lost out, unfortunately. That also happened when Lewis (Hamilton) and Max (Verstappen) were battling; when the Red Bull came back on the track, I had to take avoiding action, go off track, and lost several positions myself. Those two moments were ultimately the undoing of our race.

From there, it was difficult being stuck in a train of cars and in particular, with the dirty air. We inverted the cars to try and maximise the team result but ultimately we just didn’t have the pace to fight our way forward. We’ve got four races to go and need to regain some momentum if we are to emerge ahead in the battle for second in the Constructors’ Championship. We’re relishing that fight and looking forward to Brazil.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

The first lap here is always a bit of a lottery with the long run to turn one combined with the layout of the first few corners. We were also aware that if we moved forward, we'd have a good chance of holding those positions to the flag, and if we fell back, we'd be facing an uphill struggle battle to recover. We sadly ended up on the wrong side of that equation, dropping a place with each driver.

Our difficulties were further compounded on lap six when George was pushed wide as Verstappen rejoined the track. George ended up losing places to both Kimi and Bearman as a result. The rest of the race didn't throw up much opportunity for either. We converted to a two-stop as the Soft tyre was looking strong and that allowed us to spend more time on it, but the cars around us covered. Unfortunately, at this point, we lost a place with Kimi due to a slow stop, Piastri taking advantage. He then utilised his superior pace to gain position on George on track too. Overall then a frustrating result. We’ve not had the car pace that we need to compete at these last two races. We have a week to regroup ahead of Brazil; we'll be putting all our efforts into achieving a good result there and fighting hard for second in the Constructors’ Championship.