Hidalgo Sport.- As in 2023, the race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez had a chaotic start that, fortunately for the Mexican fans, did not have Checo Pérez involved. It was Yuki Tsunoda, who is looking for the Mexican’s place in Red Bull, who had an accident with an Alex Albon at the start, which caused the retirement of both cars and the release of the safety car.
The race resumed moving on Lap 7 and Sainz, who lost position with Max Verstappen at the start, soon regained the lead. The Dutchman tried to recover, but the RB20 couldn’t against the SF-24 or the MCL38 of Lando Norris, who soon got into the fight.
As if it were a carbon copy of what happened in Austin last week, the Dutchman and the British once again engaged in a battle to the limit, in which any friction would be fatal. And it was the Red Bull driver who was hurt, because although there was no touch, he did receive a double penalty of ten seconds.
Unlike what happened at the Circuit of the Americas, race management did not forgive the three-time world champion for driving at the limit and gave him a 20-second penalty: ten for pushing Norris off the track and another ten for gaining an advantage on the outside. . With this, after his pit stop, Verstappen fell to the penultimate position, just ahead of his teammate Checo Pérez.
Although he managed to climb back to P6, the Dutchman could not catch up with the Ferraris, who maintained the double until the final laps, in which Charles Leclerc could not defend himself from Norris and after a mistake he went wide to leave him second place. With this result, those from Maranello surpassed Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship and were 20 points behind McLaren.
Catastrophic career for Checo Pérez
The Mexican climbed five places at the start to place P13, but received a five-second penalty for a false start, which conditioned his race.
Furthermore, a tough fight with Liam Lawson took away any chance of a comeback due to the damage his car suffered. Both drivers complained that their rival ran them off the track, but after the pit stop the driver from Jalisco could not recover and finished P16.
