Lando Norris romped to a dominant Mexico Grand Prix win to take the Formula 1 world championship lead from McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri by one point.
Norris easily drove away from the rest of the field in his dominant McLaren, with Charles Leclerc second and Max Verstappen taking the final spot on the podium.
Norris was offered a chance to overturn his 14-point deficit on Piastri by taking his fifth pole of the campaign, while Piastri only started seventh.
Despite the long run as cars barrelled down to Turn 1, Norris managed to keep his lead, while the main battle took place behind the poleman.
Ferrari’s Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton went side by side, before fifth-starting Verstappen made it three-wide on the outside. The Red Bull driver, who was the only frontrunner to start on mediums instead of softs, ran out of room and went onto the grass in the runoff area.
Leclerc also went off to cut Turn 2 and take the lead, but wisely handed the position back to Norris. Hamilton snatched third back from Verstappen.
On lap 6 Verstappen divebombed Hamilton into Turn 1, leading to a glancing blow between the pair, with Verstappen going through the Turn 2 grass. Their melee which continued into Turn 4, where Hamilton locked up and went wide, while Verstappen was picked off by opportunistic Haas rookie Oliver Bearman, who had made a rocket start from ninth.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lando Norris, McLaren, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
In the battle Russell lost out and dropped to seventh behind team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, while Piastri was briefly passed by the second Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda before reclaiming seventh.
Hamilton would pay a big price for going off at Turn 4, with the stewards deeming the Briton had gained an unfair advantage, slapping him with a 10-second penalty. Taking his penalty at the first round of pitstops around lap 24, Hamilton dropped to the back of the fight he was in.
At the front Norris comfortably drove away from Leclerc, who himself was under no threat for second until the final stages of the race.
On his alternate strategy Verstappen extended his stint on mediums, initially dropping behind the rest of the for five contenders.
That unleashed Bearman into an unlikely podium position, defending from Antonelli, Russell and Piastri.
Russell was incensed at being stuck between his team-mate and a charging Piastri, yet still being asked to look after his tyres. After a long back-and-forth, the Briton eventually got his wish to swap positions in his chase after Bearman.
But that midfield battle received another twist when Piastri, who was also stuck behind the Bearman train, decided to convert to a two-stop strategy with another stop for softs. Bearman and the Mercedes cars all responded, with Piastri making the undercut work on Antonelli to take sixth, still ahead of Bearman and Russell.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team
Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images
That two-stop for his rivals worked out brilliantly for Verstappen, who stayed out and suddenly re-emerged in third place behind Norris and Leclerc. Despite being on older softs Verstappen comfortably defended a 14-second gap to Bearman and instead set his sights on Leclerc, who was going to the end on slower medium tyres.
Verstappen duly caught Leclerc with two laps to go, but a virtual safety car for a stricken Williams of Carlos Sainz froze the positions. By the time the VSC was withdrawn on the final lap, Verstappen had run out of possible overtaking spots.
Norris took his sixth win of the season, taking the victory by 30 seconds over Leclerc and Verstappen, and grabbed the lead in the championship for the first time in six months.
Behind Leclerc and Verstappen, Bearman took a career-best result in fourth after a scintillating performance in the Haas.
Piastri had also passed the other Mercedes of Russell for fifth, with a move down the inside of Turn 1 on lap 60. That led to Mercedes undoing its position swap, allowing Antonelli to take sixth ahead of his more experienced team-mate.
Hamilton finished a distant eighth after his penalty knocked him out of contention, while Esteban Ocon completed a dream day for Haas in ninth and Gabriel Bortoleto took the final point for Sauber in 10th.
The race saw three retirements, with Fernando Alonso’s rotten 2025 luck continuing due to a suspected brake issue. Liam Lawson was forced to retire after contact on the opening lap, while Nico Hulkenberg suffered a power issue.
Norris now heads to the final four races with a single point ahead of Piastri, with Verstappen now 36 points off the top of the table.
F1 Mexico GP – race results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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