Max Verstappen won the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday by 0.799s from Lewis Hamilton, in a race with a red flag, two restarts and penalties for Charles Leclerc and George Russell. Kimi Antonelli finished third, and those 15 points made him world champion: at 20 years, two months and seven days, he is the youngest in Formula 1 history. Full race results.
Champion at 20
Antonelli arrived in Mexico 123 points clear and needed only ninth place. He stayed out of every incident in a chaotic race and still finished on the podium. He beats Sebastian Vettel's record, set when Vettel won the title at 23 in 2010, and becomes the 36th world champion in the sport's history. He is also the first Italian champion in 73 years, since Alberto Ascari in 1953, and only the third ever after Giuseppe Farina and Ascari. He has done it in his second F1 season, with nine wins this year. His stats.
"We did it. Without Mercedes and my family I wouldn't be here," Antonelli said.
A chaotic start and two penalties
Hamilton started from pole, ahead of Russell, Leclerc, Antonelli and Verstappen, who lined up fifth. Hamilton held the lead off the line but made contact with Leclerc, who passed him off the track. Verstappen got by Hamilton too, and Antonelli passed Russell for fourth.
The stewards gave Leclerc five seconds for gaining an advantage off track, and Russell ten for forcing Isack Hadjar off the circuit. Leclerc did not give the place back: running in clean air, the penalty cost him less than sitting behind Verstappen. Hamilton saw it differently on the radio: "Five seconds? The stewards are handing Charles the win."
Ferrari's calculation did not work. Leclerc and Verstappen pitted together on lap 28 and, with the five seconds served in the pit lane, Verstappen came out ahead. Russell served his ten seconds on lap 34 and dropped out of the fight for the podium.
Red flag and a final sprint
With 25 laps to go, Valtteri Bottas crashed into the barriers at Turn 2 and the race was stopped. At the standing restart, with Verstappen leading Leclerc, Hamilton and Antonelli, Verstappen made the best getaway and shut the door into Turn 1. Hamilton passed Leclerc, who locked up under braking, and a lap later Antonelli also got past Leclerc to secure his podium.
A collision between Oscar Piastri and Arvid Lindblad then brought out the Safety Car and a final restart with seven laps left. Verstappen handled it without a mistake and took the flag 0.799s ahead of Hamilton, who set the fastest lap, a 1:19.268. Leclerc finished fourth, Lando Norris fifth and Russell sixth.
It is Verstappen's sixth win at the Mexican Grand Prix, a record: no one else has won more than twice at the AutĂłdromo Hermanos RodrĂguez. It is also his third win in the last four races. Every winner in Mexico.
Retirements, penalties and PĂ©rez
Both Aston Martins retired in the opening laps with power-unit pressure problems; Lance Stroll's stop on track brought out a Virtual Safety Car. Oliver Bearman, Bottas and Lindblad were the other retirements.
After the race, Piastri and Franco Colapinto were given ten-second penalties and Pierre Gasly thirty, dropping all three out of the points. Liam Lawson, who had started from the back of the grid, finished seventh, ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto, Hadjar and the debutant Ryo Hirakawa. Sergio PĂ©rez was 16th in his tenth home race. His record at the circuit.
The championship
Antonelli has 380 points and is champion with four races still to run. Behind him, the fight for second is wide open: Verstappen is runner-up on 261, ahead of Hamilton (259), Russell (250) and Leclerc (245). The standings.
I'm Alex Da Costa, a systems engineer with more than ten years of experience designing and maintaining data-heavy infrastructure. I've been watching Formula 1 since the 2005 season â Alonso's first championship, the year Schumacher's seven-title era finally cracked â and it's been an obsession ever since. Pit Lane F1 is what happens when that IT background meets a lifelong F1 habit. I started this site because the big outlets cover the headline result but rarely the data underneath: why a pit-stop window mattered, how a circuit's lap-record history actually compares, what every driver has done at every venue. So I built it. Race recaps for every Grand Prix since 1950, head-to-head career comparisons, telemetry replays for 2024 onward, and per-circuit deep dives â all from open data sources, fact-checked against multiple references, and written in plain language. The site is run independently. No team, driver, or commercial partner influences what gets published. If you spot a factual error or want to suggest a feature, the contact page is the fastest way to reach me.
