Verstappen's historic win built on 'mega tyre-whisperer' stint

Max Verstappen's uber-like consistency during the final stint of the Mexico City Grand Prix is what enabled him to stretch out a gap to a charging Lewis Hamilton and ultimately win the race.

The winning margin of 13.8 seconds is not one of the largest we have seen from the Dutchman this year, but it could have been a lot closer with Hamilton's tyre advantage, with Mercedes electing to fit him a set of Mediums for the red flag restart compared to the Hards bolted onto the RB19.

While Hamilton harboured hopes of catching Verstappen, he first had to deal with Charles Leclerc, taking five laps to slice past the Ferrari on the grass at Turn 1 before setting off in pursuit of the Red Bull.

Verstappen maintains the gap

Even though the Dutchman maintained a gap of around four seconds, he started to increase after setting his quickest race time of 1:21:644 on Lap 40.

For the next 31 laps to the flag, his pace did not exceed a 1:22, dipping occasionally into the 1:21s.

He would eventually go on to cross the line with a gap of 13 seconds to Hamilton, with the Mercedes driver taking away the fastest lap honours on the final tour.

It was a similar performance to his race last year, when the Dutchman only managed to record lap times of 1:22 in the final stint to win from Mercedes.

View the complete stint in the image below.