With the soft tyres the best race tyre in the Mexican GP, the common-thinking was to start on the red-walled rubber before switching to the mediums for a simple one-stop strategy.
Sure, you'd be giving up the advantage you had in the first stint and left vulnerable to anyone doing the inverse, but it was the way to go.
Except for Red Bull pair Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda, who started on the mediums.
Whilst Tsunoda's race fell away after a 12s pitstop cost him buckets of time, Verstappen was faced with a 33 lap stint on softs, and would have to overtake five cars on track to grab a podium, including Lewis Hamilton, Oscar Piastri and George Russell.
Fortunately for him, a second round of stops for those ahead ensured he did not have to, with engineer Gianpiero Lambiase calling his soft tye run "insane" - and by looking at the lap-times below, you can see why.
Verstappen's 'insane' stint
| Lap | Lap time |
|---|---|
| 39 | 1:21.284 |
| 40 | 1:21.425 |
| 41 | 1:21.447 |
| 42 | 1:21.349 |
| 43 | 1:21.348 |
| 44 | 1:21.404 |
| 45 | 1:21.291 |
| 46 | 1:21.681 |
| 47 | 1:21.236 |
| 48 | 1:21.435 |
| 49 | 1:21.219 |
| 50 | 1:21.108 |
| 51 | 1:21.266 |
| 52 | 1:21.224 |
| 53 | 1:21.232 |
| 54 | 1:21.283 |
| 55 | 1:21.148 |
| 56 | 1:21.267 |
| 57 | 1:21.544 |
| 58 | 1:21.183 |
| 59 | 1:21.267 |
| 60 | 1:21.174 |
| 61 | 1:21.366 |
| 62 | 1:21.237 |
| 63 | 1:21.434 |
| 64 | 1:21.434 |
| 65 | 1:21.558 |
| 66 | 1:21.248 |
| 67 | 1:21.563 |
| 68 | 1:21.663 |
| 69 | 1:22.007 |
| 70 | 1:37.045 (Virtual Safety Car) |
| 71 | 1:35.021 |
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