Brundle: Verstappen dominant – but Hamilton bid not over

Max Verstappen took his ninth victory of the season in Mexico by way of a largely untroubled 71 laps to extend his championship lead to 19 points over Lewis Hamilton, with just four races to go.

But Max knows very well, just as Lewis does, how quickly this can all turn around given he only has the equivalent of one second place and a fastest lap points advantage.

On Sunday race morning back at Silverstone in July, for example, he led by 33 points. The crash that day turned the season on its head, and Max is smart enough to keep his hands firmly in his pockets rather than even begin to reach out towards his first world title.

There’s 107 points still available as we head to Brazil where we will have the third and final Saturday ‘Sprint’ race of the season, along with the double jeopardy of two grid charges down to the first corner in close formation.

Red Bull is probably the favourite heading into Sao Paulo given the bumpy track layout and 765 meters of altitude. After that we have two completely new and unknown venues to the F1 calendar in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, followed by potentially the championship showdown in Abu Dhabi, a track layout which is now 10+ seconds per lap faster and more flowing than before.

The story of Mexico and how Mercedes – initially – stunned Red Bull

If Red Bull were particularly unlucky in races such as Azerbaijan and Hungary, then a poor performance in qualifying in Mexico turned out to be just the ticket. The entire paddock including Mercedes were pretty sure Red Bull would be on pole position, it was just a question whether they would have both cars on the front row.

While Mercedes beavered away to close a gap that appeared as big as six tenths of a second at one point, Red Bull were busy with resin and tape lashing their rear wings back together. As the track temperatures rose the Mercs settled down and the Red Bulls started to slide more. Mercedes won the tyre temperature lottery in spectacular style.

On the critical final lap of qualifying not only was Max already not fast enough for pole position, but Yuki Tsunoda in the sister Alpha Tauri, who due to grid penalties was only out on track to slipstream his ever-impressive team mate Pierre Gasly down the long pit straight, decided his best route to get out of the way of other runners was to take to the filthy run-off area in the high speed turns 10/11 rather than boot it round to the pits after helping Gasly.

Sergio Perez in his Red Bull, who had been nicely on the pace, seemed to fall off the track in sympathy, which then gave Verstappen a double dose of dust and the uncertainty of what was the other side of it all including any yellow flags. This consigned him to third place on the grid which he immediately said he preferred to second. How right he was.

After probably the race of his life back in Istanbul, Valtteri Bottas put in the qualifying laps of his life to grab pole position, albeit not ideal for Mercedes. VB was then handed a pole trophy of a replica Juan Manuel Fangio helmet by Sir Jackie Stewart. Jenson Button and myself were watching on green with envy at all this.

Hamilton, Bottas leave door open for mighty Max

That was largely as good as it would get for Valtteri. In other news, the grid was a mash-up to an extent because Lando Norris, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon and George Russell and the aforementioned Tsunoda would all take technical penalties.

But all eyes were on the front two rows, and unfortunately for Hamilton he got away a little too well on the dirty side of the grid, such that he couldn’t really tuck in behind his team mate. Verstappen could for a while and then pulled left to make it three abreast. Bottas didn’t want to give the Red Bull a slipstream and so just drove in a straight line.

This perfectly opened up the space, angle, and much cleaner racing line for Verstappen to brake later and sweep around the outside of both Mercedes. Bottas’ track position effectively pinned Hamilton to the grubby inside and very tight line.

He was then cautious on the brakes presumably to let Hamilton through and was clouted by Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren which arrived rather hot and locked up into the braking zone and first apex.

Ricciardo was lucky the stewards were feeling generous after his contact with Bottas, but a pit stop for him for a new front wing and tyres, and for Bottas who grabbed tyres, meant they were now running last – albeit during a full safety-car period which was deployed to allow the wreckage to be cleared away after Mick Schumacher and Tsunoda tripped over Ocon in the ensuing melee.

Ricciardo and Bottas would race the wheels off each other for the rest of the afternoon for zero reward until Mercedes pulled Bottas in to successfully steal the fastest lap point off Verstappen, The McLaren was losing over a second a lap due to damage and I can only assume the Merc was losing aero too.

It took Bottas and Mercedes two attempts for a fastest lap largely due to Max conveniently being in the way first time around. A further set of tyres and a clear track generated the new fastest lap for that single point saved, which Bottas doesn’t get because he wasn’t in the top ten at the finish. It’s the very point which now separates Mercedes and Red Bull in the constructors’ championship. Game on.

Verstappen dominates – and does a Brazil bonus await?

It was now the dream ticket up front for Red Bull with Verstappen leading Hamilton, and then Perez in front of his totally adoring and rapturous home crowd in third, and presumably an ally in Gasly in the sister Alpha Tauri team running in a fourth place he would comfortably keep for the duration.

Verstappen would control and dominate the rest of the race, occasionally keeping himself occupied enquiring after the state of the tyres and relative performance of rivals. Other than some squabbling midfield and Perez catching Hamilton at the end on fresher tyres to the delight of the vociferous crowd, not a whole lot more happened. The only two retirements were out in turn one.

The Ferraris had a solid day in 5th and 6th pulling 13.5 points clear of McLaren in their battle for third in the Constructors’. There was a good fight between former world champions with Seb Vettel’s Aston Martin in 7th, Kimi Raikkonen in a fine 8th for Alfa Romeo, and Fernando Alonso salvaging 9th for a struggling Alpine team on this circuit.

Lando Norris stole a championship point for McLaren from near the back of the grid. Frustratingly for Lando in different circumstances, he could well have won in Spa, Monza and Sochi, and since then it’s been 7th, 8th and 10th. At least he has a fresh motor for the next races and no doubt he’ll be back.

Honda won their first-ever F1 race at this track with Richie Ginther back in 1965 and they powered three of the top four cars this year. Verstappen has won at all the circuits this season which have an element of altitude, being Mexico, two races in Austria, and Spa, which underlines why they are expected to be strong in Brazil too.

Interlagos can throw up some truly wild weather and races though.