Andrea Kimi Antonelli was crowned World Champion as Max Verstappen won at Mexico. Here’s how the drivers fared at the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen took the chequered flag in first followed by Saturday’s pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton. But it was Kimi Antonelli who made history at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez by taking P3 and becoming the youngest-ever F1 World Champion.
Max Verstappen: 10
Grid Position: P5, Race Result: P1
Verstappen took his third win of the season at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday after an opportunistic move on the opening lap as the Ferraris squabbled gave him the advantage for the 71-lap race.
From there on, the Red Bull driver consolidated that advantage and took it all the way to the chequered flag. Despite a lower grid starting slot, the 29-year-old drove a commanding race from lights to flag.
Isack Hadjar: 7.5
Grid Position: P7, Race Result: P9
Hadjar’s Mexico City GP unraveled in unfortunate circumstances as he tangled with the Mercedes of George Russell on the opening lap, spinning out and falling all the way down to P19.
But the French-Algerian racing driver put up a resolute recovery drive to drag his RB22 back into the points at the chequered flag, albeit benefitting from three post-race penalties applied elsewhere. That said, over the course of the 71-lap race, Hadjar was down on pace compared to his team-mate.
Lewis Hamilton: 8.5
Grid Position: P1, Race Result: P2
One could argue that Hamilton’s race was compromised by his own team-mate. Leclerc’s aggressive move on the seven-time World Champion compromised him against Verstappen who pounced on that opportunity to take the net race lead. And that’s a pretty coherent argument.
But having shown immense pace on Saturday, by taking his maiden pole position for Ferrari, Hamilton was expected to put up a fight against the Red Bull. He did have a chance to make things right at the Red Flag restart but fell victim to another ‘squeeze out’ in the opening complex of corners, this time by Verstappen.
Nonetheless, his second-place finish was a strong result for Hamilton, albeit one that was lacking a sort of assertiveness we had once become used to.
Charles Leclerc: 6.5
Grid Position: P3, Race Result: P4
In the words of Martin Brundle, Leclerc’s opening lap move on Hamilton was one of ‘ambition ahead of adhesion’. The Monegasque was never really going to make that move stick into Turn 4, and yet, he did.
The stewards did impose a five-second time penalty on Leclerc for leaving the track and gaining an advantage but in all fairness it wasn’t proportionate to the disadvantage he had caused to Hamilton and Ferrari.
And it wasn’t as though he then redeemed himself by at least maintaining his grid slot at the chequered flag. A late race lunge by Antonelli, who showed the Monegasque how these moves are made, meant Leclerc had ensured Ferrari missed out on a pretty sure-shot double podium finish.
Kimi Antonelli: 9
Grid Position: P4, Race Result: P3
It was a calculated 71-lap race for the Italian driver. That said, it didn’t mean Antonelli was shy to get his elbows out.
In essence, the Mercedes driver needed to finish the race to be crowned World Champion, and finish he did. But when a late-race opportunity came for him to secure that final podium place, he made a definitive move on Leclerc to bag P3.
At the chequered flag, Antonelli became the youngest World Champion the sport had seen. But his drive at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was a testament to his championship-winning season; measured but on the limit when it mattered.
George Russell: 6
Grid Position: P2, Race Result: P6
With Antonelli crowned World Champion, a sort of grim reality must have settled onto Russell. He knew he had lost arguably his best chance to win it all in his F1 career so far.
But his 71-lap race was also a pretty apt summary of how his season had led to him relinquishing the top spot against his 20-year-old team-mate. His incident with Hadjar at the start was clumsy to say the least, and the 10-second penalty thereafter ended any hopes of a top-three finish.
This would be yet another occasion where despite a very strong starting grid slot, the Briton has squandered a result over bad timing or just outright miscalculation.
Lando Norris: 7.5
Grid Position: P6, Race Result: P5
Norris was stuck in no mans land – competitively speaking – during the 71-lap race on Sunday. The Briton believed he had the pace but the fruits he had hoped to bear after long first stint were snatched away once the Red Flag was called out after Valtteri Bottas’ horrific suspension failure. With a tyre advantage now negated, Norris couldn’t improve on his P5 position.
Norris handed over the baton to Antonelli at the chequered flag as his time as the reigning World Champion came to an end with a fifth-place finish.
Oscar Piastri: 6
Grid Position: P12, Race Result: P13
It was a pretty intense afternoon at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez for the Australian. Lightning fast reactions and a proclivity to stay out of trouble meant Piastri had gotten himself into the points on the very first lap.
And though he had finished the 71-lap race with a strong seventh-place result, a post-facto penalty for his incident with Arvid Lindblad meant he was demoted to 13th in the final race classifications.
Liam Lawson: 8.5
Grid Position: P22, Race Result: P7
It was an incident-ridden weekend for Lawson at Mexico City. His practice clash with Verstappen saw him earn a one-place grid drop, and a technical gremlin during qualifying sealed his fate with a pit lane start – or so it had appeared.
The Kiwi racing driver, however, put up a spirited recovery drive, making an immense charge up through the field and finishing in the points once again for the Faenza-based squad.
And while a brand new RBPT-Ford PU in the back of his car might have made things easier for Lawson, it cannot be ignored that he is giving Racing Bulls very little room to make a negative decision on his future for 2027.
Arvid Lindblad: N/A
Grid Position: P8, Race Result: DNF
It was a woeful result for the British-Swedish racing driver at Mexico on Sunday. A very strong qualifying performance saw him convert that pace into a stellar P7 mid-way through the 71-lap race.
Contact with the McLaren of Piastri, however, sent Lindblad barreling towards the barriers and out of the race at Turn 1 on Lap 59.
Gabriel Bortoleto: 7.5
Grid Position: P13, Race Result: P8
Bortoleto’s eight-race-long pointless streak came to an end at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday.
The Brazilian racing driver was classified eighth, after taking the chequered flag in a solid P11 and accounting for the post-race penalties imposed on Piastri, Gasly and Colapinto.
Nico Hulkenberg: 6
Grid Position: P10, Race Result: P14
Hulkenberg took the onus on himself after his incident with Bearman. A top-10 starting grid slot was squandered by the German driver and his incident with the Haas only compounded his miseries as he struggled to keep up with the midfield runners throughout the 71-lap race.
Ryo Hirakawa: 8
Grid Position: P18, Race Result: P10
It was a rollercoaster weekend for Hirakawa who made his F1 debut after an unceremonious ousting for Esteban Ocon from Haas.
The Banbury-based team announced that Ocon would not take part in the proceedings at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez after FP2, and the Japanese racing driver stepped in.
Starting from 18th on the grid, he did drive a solid race to grab 13th at the chequered flag. But penalties for the likes of Piastri, Gasly and Colapinto meant Hirakawa was promoted to P10 – securing his maiden F1 championship points on his debut.
Oliver Bearman: N/A
Grid Position: P14, Race Result: DNF
It was all going well for Bearman until suddenly it didn’t. The Briton showed exemplary pace in his VF-26, strongly in the fight for points for the majority of the race.
That said, a late-race incident with the Audi of Nico Hulkenberg saw Bearman crash out of the 71-lap race.
Alex Albon: 6
Grid Position: P16, Race Result: P11
Albon would be eagerly waiting for the 2026 season to end. It was the British-Thai driver’s 13th consecutive race finishing outside the top 10.
Carlos Sainz: 6
Grid Position: P15, Race Result: P12
The Spaniard was in tyre conservation mode throughout the 71-lap race as Williams opted to put him on a divergent one-stop strategy.
This meant he could only muster a 15th-place finish at the chequered flag. A pretty uneventful race for Sainz, who did, however, have to navigate himself and his FW48 through all the chaos ensuing ahead of him. Time penalties for Piastri, Gasly and Colapinto saw him being classified as 12th.
Franco Colapinto: 6.5
Grid Position: P11, Race Result: P15
Bad luck has been swarming the Alpine duo off late, and the 71-lap race was no different.
Colapinto drove a solid race into the points but a yellow flag infringement meant all that effort was put to waste with a post-race penalty bumping him out of the points.
Pierre Gasly: 6.5
Grid Position: P9, Race Result: P17
Much like his team-mate, Gasly also got himself into hot water with the stewards after the race.
The Frenchman had initially taken the chequered flag in P10 but the stewards noted him for failing to slow down sufficiently under yellow flags and demoted him post-facto to 17th.
Sergio Perez: 7
Grid Position: P20, Race Result: P16
It was a steady race for home-hero Perez at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. And that is in fact a feather in his cap after a tumultuous and incident-ridden 2026 in what is Cadillac’s maiden F1 campaign.
Perez once again had the measure of his team-mate Bottas, and celebrated his 300th Grand Prix start with a relatively solid result for the Silverstone-based team.
Valtteri Bottas: N/A
Grid Position: P21, Race Result: DNF
Cadillac has been struggling with reliability all throughout the 2026 season. This time, it was a sensational suspension failure that left Bottas a mere passenger as his car floated towards the barriers on the outside of the Turn 1-2 complex.
Luckily for the Finn, he appeared out of the carnage without any damage.
Lance Stroll: N/A
Grid Position: P19, Race Result: DNF
Stroll made it only six laps into the race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez before a power unit issue meant Aston Martin had to instruct the Canadian racing driver to park up his AMR26 at the safe place on the track.
Fernando Alonso: N/A
Grid Position: P17, Race Result: DNF
Alonso was already perturbed by his Honda engine gremlins during qualifying, and the same issue reappeared early on in the 71-lap race forcing him to retire from the Mexico City GP capping off a double DNF for the Silverstone-based team.
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