Red Bull take podium but no victory at Mexico City Grand Prix

Red Bull saw Max Verstappen take a third place finish at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

A busy race for Verstappen saw him eventually come through to take third from fifth on the grid, although he was denied a chance to take second off Charles Leclerc in the final stages due to a virtual safety car.

Meanwhile, teammate Yuki Tsunoda missed out on points thanks in part to a slow pit-stop, with the Japanese driver finishing 11th.

On a weekend that saw Lando Norris take the championship lead, Verstappen is now 35 points off the lead of the F1 Driver’s Championship in his pursuit of a 5th straight title. The Dutchman has 321 points, with leader Norris up to 357 and previous championship leader Oscar Piastri narrowly behind Norris on 356.

With Tsunoda unable to add to his 28 points, he sits 17th in the championship.

In the Constructors Championship, Red Bull remain in a close fight with Mercedes and Ferrari for the runner-up spot behind the already crowned champions McLaren. The Milton Keynes-based team have 346 points with 4 races and 1 sprint left in the 2025 season, with the team 9 points behind Mercedes and 10 behind second-place Ferrari.

Red Bull had arrived into the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend with Verstappen in form, having won 3 of the previous 4 races and taking a second place finish in the other. But although the Dutchman had previously won 5 times in Mexico City, the Red Bull didn’t seem as comfortable in qualifying, with the Verstappen starting 5th.

A melee of a start saw Verstappen overshoot turn 1 after getting beached on a curb while trying to pass the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, with Leclerc also going off track.

Verstappen reverted back to 4th position, but by lap 6 he made an attempt to pass Hamilton. The two bumped wheels into the opening series of corners before both cars locked up going into turn 4. Hamilton left the track and his re-join earned him a time penalty, while Verstappen wound up getting passed by the Haas of Ollie Bearman in the process of navigating the following turns.

On a counter-strategy where he began with medium tyres while most of the field began on softs, Verstappen went further than the rest before pitting, with the Red Bull passing Hamilton a few laps later.

With uncertainty over whether the race was a one or two stop, the 4 cars immediately ahead of Verstappen chose to pit for a second time to get fresh soft tyres for the final stint of the race. Verstappen however chose to stay on the tyres he was on, and the Dutchman soon found extra pace in clear air.

That pace saw Verstappen catch up with Leclerc, whose medium tyres had faded in the final stages of the race and meant that, by the final laps of the race, Verstappen had got to within DRS range. However, before he could try and make an overtaken, the virtual safety car was deployed after Carlos Sainz crashed his Williams in the final sector. Although the green flag would resume for the final part of the final lap, it wasn’t enough for Verstappen to try to make his move.

Meanwhile, Tsunoda initially made a bright start from 10th on the grid, with the Red Bull running in 8th for a while ahead of slow-starting Piastri. The McLaren would eventually get back past the Red Bull, but Tsunoda had been running in the lower points in the opening phase.

However, the Japanese driver had trouble at his pit-stop. When Tsunoda made his stop, a problem with the rear jack saw his stop last well over 10 seconds, dropping him further back. Tsunoda stayed on a one-stop in attempts to recover a point, but he was unable to catch up with Gabriel Bortoleto as the Sauber took the final point, with Tsunoda finishing 11th just over 2 seconds behind the Brazilian.

Red Bull will now recharge before the next F1 race, which takes place in Sao Paolo in Brazil. The race will be a sprint weekend, with the third-distance sprint taking place on November 8th and the full distance race on November 9th.