Verstappen wins record-breaking 14th victory in a season at Mexico GP

Max Verstappen took a record 14th victory in a season at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, after finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton and teammate Sergio Perez.

Red Bull elected to pit Verstappen and Perez on a one-stop Soft-to-Medium tyre strategy to counter both Mercedes drivers, who went on a Medium/Hard strategy.

Despite Hamilton making early progress on the Hard tyres, his lap times slowly dropped off from Verstappen who showed superior pace.

George Russell was also attempting to recover places after losing out at the start, but his pace on the Hards did not match Perez in the final stint as Red Bull elected to switch to a one-stop.

Carlos Sainz rounded out the top five, as both Ferrari's looked to struggle compared to the Mercedes and Red Bull. Charles Leclerc made quick work of Valtteri Bottas at the start, but had to settle into sixth for the rest of the race.

Russell drops back at the start

Verstappen covered both Mercedes at the start, with Russell losing two positions after running wide at Turn 4 enabling Hamilton to go through to second, before getting out-braked by Perez for third at the following corner.

As Verstappen led the way, both Mercedes drivers sat back having started on the Medium tyre to go longer in the first stint.

Both Red Bull's started on a used set of Soft tyres, with Perez being the first of the leaders to make a stop for a set of Mediums. A slow left-rear tyre change meant he emerged behind both Ferrari's.

A couple of laps later Verstappen made his first stop, which was much slicker from the pit crew and enabled him to emerge ahead of the Ferrari's.

This effectively gave him the 'net' lead heading into the second stint, as both Mercedes drivers were still managing their Medium tyres before switching to the Hards.

Bottas loses out as Ricciardo breaks into the top ten

While Bottas dropped back at the start, he was out-witted strategically by both Alpine drivers having been the first out of the midfielders to pit.

With Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon electing to stay out a couple of laps longer, the Alpine drivers emerged ahead into P7 and P8. All three of them switched to the Hard tyre to go to the end of the race, having stretched out their first stint.

The strategical masterclass was short-lived for Alonso though, after a power unit problem forced him to retire with six laps to go.

Elsewhere Lando Norris rounded out the top ten, while teammate Daniel Ricciardo was among the last to make a stop for a set of Soft tyres in an attempt to break into the top 10.

Ricciardo would emerge from the pits in a dispute with Yuki Tsunoda for P12, but a move into Turn 5 from the McLaren driver caused light contact, which pitched Tsunoda into the air.

The collision caused enough damage for the AlphaTauri driver to retire and ended up with Ricciardo getting a 10-second time penalty.

With the rest of the cars in front of him on Hard tyres, Ricciardo made swift work of passing Norris and Alonso for P8 before the Alpine retired.

A final move on Ocon enabled him to get into clean air and stretch a gap to Ocon to more than 10 seconds to cover his penalty, enabling him to finish in P7.