Max Verstappen joked Formula 1 should rename Mexico’s round of the world championship after him following his sixth victory in the race.
The Red Bull driver has now scored more wins in Mexico City than he has at any other venue. He became the fourth driver to score more than five wins at the same venue and the first to do so at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.“They should actually call it the ‘Maxico’ Grand Prix,” said Verstappen. “That would be great.”
His five previous wins at the track came between 2017 and 2023. Verstappen said he saw no obvious reason why he had been particularly successful at this venue.
“I honestly love being here,” he said. “I love the city, I love the environment, I love the fans, but I have no idea why.
“It just happens. Sometimes your car just comes alive and you’ve had good races and not a lot of bad luck sometimes as well. So it’s just always come together for me here and, of course, I happily take that.”
Verstappen said he was surprised to move into a strong position immediately after the start of the race, thanks partly to Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton going off at turn four.
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“The first start already made my race a bit better, getting into turn one, and then, of course, the battle that I saw unfold in turn four put me in a quite nice spot.”
Leclerc received a five-second time penalty for his infringement and Verstappen jumped ahead of him when they pitted on the same lap.
“It was a bit tough, to be honest, I think Charles just pulled away. I could not really stay with him. I did not have the pace to follow him, but at the same time, I was still within that five-second window.
“So, then the team did a really good job to follow him in [to the pits]. It’s always very tough when you have a five-second penalty to actually make it exactly five seconds. So, I jumped him, and honestly, after that, it was quite tough.”
The race winner said he feared for his chances when the Safety Car was deployed following Valtteri Bottas’s crash. The race was stopped and restarted, and Verstappen maintained his lead ahead of Hamilton.
“Kimi [Antonelli] was flying, still, out there on the first set of tyres, and I just did not really have the grip for whatever reason. Charles was very close, but at the same time, it’s very hard to follow around here because everything overheats, and that probably helped me as well because I think at one point Charles had to back off just for cooling, and that was quite nice for me.
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“But at the same time, when I saw the Safety Car come out just out of the last corner and I couldn’t box, I was like, ‘There’s no way this is happening now,’ because that was then probably game over for me.
“Then, of course, it ended up being a red flag, so then it reset everything. I was a bit worried because our starts this year have not been amazing, but luckily today, twice, they have actually been good, and that then made my way ’til the end.
“But it was not made easy. I mean, Lewis was in my gearbox, pushing hard. It was basically a qualifying lap ’til the end. Yeah, it was tough out there. It was a tough race to the end, just to not make any mistakes. But, of course, I’m happy to win today.”