Max Verstappen won the 2022 Mexico Grand Prix with ease and in doing so etched a new record by scoring his 14th win of the season, the most race wins in one season by a driver. Verstappen started on pole, however, it appeared as if the two Mercedes (Russell starting 2nd and Hamilton starting 3rd) would keep the Red Bull driver honest for the race. The first few corners of the opening lap were frenetic as Hamilton muscled his way into 2nd which forced Russell wide. Russell dropped to 4th as Perez took advantage of the opening lap intra-team tussle. From there on the race quickly settled into a repetitive pattern, Verstappen slowly opened a gap to Hamilton with the latter building up a comfortable buffer to Perez.

In the end, the race was decided by tyre strategy, Red Bull started on softs and finished the race on mediums. Mercedes opted for a different strategy, opting to start on mediums and finish on hards for both drivers. Hard tyres are used by back-of-the-field runners, very rarely are they used to fight for victory up at the front. And when you factor in that the Mercedes has efficient tyre degradation, equating for hard tyre use when in second was an odd decision.

Mercedes could well have pressured Verstappen had they followed Red Bull’s tyre strategy and possibly had an outside chance to win the race. But it is difficult to say because the Red Bull in the hands of Verstappen is the superior race car. And when you combine that superiority with a highly skilled driver the combined package is unbeatable. And that is why Verstappen claimed his 14th win of the 2022 campaign thus setting a new record for most wins in a season.

2022 Mexico Grand Prix: Race Results

1 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing 1:38:36.729

2 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes +15.186

3 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing +18.097

4 George RUSSELL Mercedes +49.431

5 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +58.123

6 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +68.774

7 Daniel RICCIARDO McLaren +1 lap

8 Esteban OCON Alpine +1 lap

9 Lando NORRIS McLaren +1 lap

10 Valtteri BOTTAS Alfa Romeo +1 lap

11 Pierre GASLY AlphaTauri +1 lap

12 Alexander ALBON Williams +1 lap

13 Guanyu ZHOU Alfa Romeo +1 lap

14 Sebastian VETTEL Aston Martin +1 lap

15 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +1 lap

16 Mick SCHUMACHER Haas F1 Team +1 lap

17 Kevin MAGNUSSEN Haas F1 Team +1 lap

18 Nicholas LATIFI Williams +2 laps

DNF Fernando ALONSO Alpine

DNF Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri