On a track where the altitude is high, and so too are the stakes, the Mexico City Grand Prix continues this American leg of the 2025 season.
Formerly a place where a Formula 1 campaign would conclude, it was brought back in 2015 and it is a place in which championships have been sealed, and battles have raged on.
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A Verstappen stronghold
Max Verstappen has won this race five times, regardless of whether the event was labelled the 'Mexico' or 'Mexico City' Grand Prix. Yet only one of those wins has come from pole position.
In 2017 and '18, he passed the polesitters of those races, Sebastian Vettel in the former and Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in the latter, by the first braking zone and never looked back.
We're back in Mexico this week - home of dramatic starts, like this one in 2017 😮💥#MexicoGP 🇲🇽 #F1 pic.twitter.com/zhTwHEHWnf
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 1, 2021
In 2021, he did the same thing, but with an outrageous late-braking overtake on the two Silver Arrows, including his then-championship rival Lewis Hamilton. And 2023 was no different; he started from third but passed the two Ferrari s in a heartbeat.
In fact, Verstappen has led this race after the first lap every time since 2021, and has led the first tour in six in the last seven races at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Although he seized the lead on the first tour of last year's race, the worrying pace of the RB 21, coupled with two 10-second penalties, set him back to sixth place.
Mexico's other recent winners
On its return in 2015, Nico Rosberg defeated Lewis Hamilton to the victory, his first win of seven that laid the foundations for his title triumph in the following year.
That is just one of three victories that Mercedes have earned following the event's return to the sport, with Hamilton standing on the top step of the podium a year later, and followed that up with a stunning and sharp drive, in 2019, out-foxing the two leading Ferraris on strategy.
With the exception of Verstappen, Hamilton is the only current driver to have won this race on multiple occasions.
And last year, Carlos Sainz scored his and Ferrari's latest win to date, after he converted pole position into a commanding win, despite the late-race growing presence of McLaren's Lando Norris.
Tight and fiery battles
The massive braking zone at turn one, slowing from one of the highest speeds of the season, has always been the most inviting opportunity for a pass.
Verstappen, Hamilton, Vettel have all made use of it at some point. But with the even bigger run-off zone, that has seen drivers take liberties with track limits. Lewis Hamilton did so on the first lap of the 2016 race, although it did go unpunished.
But because of how tight the track can get on the exit of the first turn; especially is cars are running three, or even four, wide; clashes are common.
Yuki Tsunoda learned that on the first lap of last year's race. He was being edged to the very confines of the track, but when he slightly tried to gain more, he collided with Alex Albon's Williams.
In 2023, Sergio Perez pinched Charles Leclerc during the turn-in phase, with Max Verstappen to both of their insides. The home hero was subsequently, and dramatically, launched into the air and picked up terminal damage.
Later in the lap, and you will find the scene of a major flashpoint between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris during last season's title battle. Forced off twice by the Red Bull driver, into turn four and seven, Norris brutally learned of the difficulty of making it two-wide through these sequences of corners, unless you are afforded space.
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