Formula 1 News: Carlos Sainz Jr. wins 2024 Mexico City GP (Update)

Race officials announced that 154,142 fans attended the 2024 Mexico City GP on Sunday and 404,958 total attended over the three-day event.

This is the first time Sainz Jr. has won more than one race in a single F1 season and a special moment as he prepares to leave Ferrari and join Williams Racing in 2025. “Gracias Mexico!” he said. “It’s incredible to see this crowd, I’ve been feeling their support all week. I’ve been saying for a while I wanted one more win before leaving Scuderia Ferrari and to do it here in front of this mega-crowd is incredible.”

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October 27, 2024 

Carlos Sainz Jr. started from pole in his #55 Ferrari, lost the lead briefly to Max Verstappen, but made the pass back to lead the 2024 Mexico City GP the rest of the way around the 2.674-mile Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

It looked like it was going to be a Ferrari 1-2, but Charles Leclerc almost crashed his #16 Ferrari exiting the Peraltada and Lando Norris was through for 2nd and finished almost 5 seconds behind Sainz.

Leclerc hung on for the final podium position, way behind Sainz because he pitted late for soft tires to take the fastest point away from Liam Lawson who took it away from Norris.

“It was a difficult one, the first stint was all about managing the temperatures,” said Leclerc. “The whole weekend I have been on the back foot, so third was the best we could achieve on my side. But a great race by Carlos and for the team which is the most important thing.

“We are working super well as a team, we are back at the level we should be at. The constructors’ is still the target and with weekends like this, we are getting closer to it.”

What a win, what a drive and what a race as Sainz ensures he will have at least one more victory as a Ferrari driver.

Two wins in a week for the Scuderia Ferrari.

Lewis Hamilton passed his Mercedes teammate George Russell with 5 laps to go for 4th, 44 seconds behind Sainz.

Russell hung on for 5th with a damaged left front wing, almost 49 seconds behind Sainz.

Max Verstappen was 6th, almost 60 seconds behind Sainz after having to serve two 10 second penalties for forcing Lando Norris off the track early in the race. Even without the penalties, the Red Bull RB20 is simply not competitive with McLaren or Ferrari.

However, Verstappen lost a probable 4th place because of his aggression, and he saw Norris reduce Verstappen’s point lead by 10 points, 362 vs. 315, a 47 point gap.

To add fuel to the Red Bull flames, Sergio Pérez was handed a five-second penalty for a false start: the Mexican had placed his car too forward in its grid box at the start. Checo too was then involved in drama when he tried to force his way past Liam Lawson’s VCARB and was taken wide by the New Zealander.

“I don’t get it,” said Pérez after finishing 17th and last. “He just went for the incident, damaging both of our races. I picked up damage to my sidepod and floor. It was an incident that was totally avoidable. I had the corner, he went off completely and then just went straight – it was such a surprise to see him there!”

Despite a disastrous home weekend, Pérez remains upbeat about his return. “I will be back next year,” he said, “and I will try for the victory – that is my dream.”

“It was a very tough race, the first few laps was just about staying in the race and avoiding any crashes,” said Norris.

“Congrats to Carlos and Ferrari, they were very quick today but I tried my best.

“I knew what to expect [from Verstappen]. This is not very clean driving in my opinion, but I avoided it, and it was a good race.”

McLaren still lead the constructors’, but their lead is down to 29 points over Ferrari now, with Red Bull and their diabolical RB20 car a distant third

Kevin Magnussen was seventh for Haas and Oscar Piastri recovered to eighth in the #81 McLaren.

Nico Hülkenberg and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top-10 today. With both Haas cars finishing in the top-10 they got a double points haul today.

It’s now on to Brazil in one week’s time to complete this tripleheader of races.

2024 Mexico City GP Results – 71 Laps