The Crown Was Arithmetic. The Race Was Lost at Turn 4.
Kimi Antonelli finished third in Mexico City on 1 November and became the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history. The title had been settled by arithmetic long before Sunday. The race itself turned on a first lap fight between two team mates, a red flag, and a restart with eight laps to go.
Max Verstappen won the Mexico City Grand Prix on 1 November, and the result that will be remembered is not his. Verstappen took the flag in 2:20:28.772 after 71 laps at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 0.799 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton, with Kimi Antonelli third at 4.006 seconds. Third place was worth 15 points. It made Antonelli, at 20 years and 68 days, the youngest world champion the sport has had, with four races of the season still to run.
Ferrari were running first and second. One corner later, the race belonged to the man who started fifth.
The arithmetic
None of it was in doubt when the weekend began. Antonelli had won in Austin a week earlier, from pole position, covering 56 laps in 1:35:16.650 and finishing 13.078 seconds clear of Charles Leclerc. Third place in Mexico City closed the championship with four rounds to spare. His total is now 380 points, 119 ahead of Verstappen, and no driver can reach him. George Russell, the last of the three drivers who arrived in Mexico with a mathematical chance of the title, finished sixth. Five of Antonelli's nine wins came consecutively in the opening stretch of the season, which is where the championship was really built; the run in since has been arithmetic.
The record he takes is Sebastian Vettel's. Vettel was 23 years and 134 days old when he won the title in 2010; Antonelli is more than three years younger. He is also the first Italian world champion since Alberto Ascari in 1953, and he has done it in his second season in Formula 1, in the Mercedes seat Hamilton vacated for Ferrari, with nine wins recorded across the season so far. Afterwards he credited the team and his family, and said: "I'm speechless. I'm trying to process what has just happened."
Turn 4
The race Antonelli did not need to win was nearly won by Ferrari, and then lost by Ferrari inside one corner. Hamilton started from pole position, the 105th of his career, with Leclerc third on the grid and Antonelli fourth; Verstappen started fifth. Both Ferraris started well and ran first and second through the opening sequence. At Turn 4 Leclerc attacked his team mate, both cars left the track, Leclerc crossed the grass and emerged in the lead, and Verstappen used the compromised exit to pass Hamilton. The stewards gave Leclerc a five second penalty, confirmed on lap 12. When Leclerc and Verstappen stopped together on lap 27, Verstappen came out ahead of the penalised Ferrari, and the order at the front had been settled by a fight between two cars in the same colours.
Ferrari's own report does not soften the conclusion, describing the incident as effectively handing victory to Verstappen. Team principal Fred Vasseur said: "We were running one-two on track here in Mexico and, when you are in that position, you have to make the most of the opportunity." Hamilton at least converted the pace into second place. Leclerc, delayed again after the restart by a locked wheel and the flat spotted tyre that followed it, finished fourth.
The interrupted finish
The race was stopped once and neutralised three more times, counting a brief early Virtual Safety Car. Antonelli made his only pit stop shortly before the first interruption. On lap 45 Valtteri Bottas crashed heavily at Turn 1 after the front left suspension of his Cadillac failed under braking; the Safety Car was deployed, and then a red flag while the barriers were repaired. Bottas spoke to his team on the radio after the impact, climbed out of the car unaided, and went to the medical centre for precautionary checks. At the standing restart Verstappen led from Leclerc and Hamilton, but Hamilton passed his team mate immediately, Leclerc locked up into Turn 1 and fell behind Antonelli to fourth, and a second Safety Car followed late in the race after Oscar Piastri collided with Arvid Lindblad in the opening corners and Lindblad hit the wall at Turn 2, an incident for which Piastri received a 10 second penalty. At the final restart, with eight laps remaining, Verstappen held his lead and Hamilton stayed within a second of him to the flag without finding a way past.
What remains
With the drivers' title closed, the run in has two live contests. The first is second place: Verstappen has 261 points, Hamilton 259, Russell 250 and Leclerc 245, four drivers covered by 16 points with four rounds still to run. The second is the constructors' championship. Mercedes lead Ferrari by 630 points to 504, but Ferrari have outscored every rival for three races in succession, and Red Bull's win moved them third in the official standings, on 382 points to McLaren's 365. The Americas triple header closes in Sao Paulo on 6 to 8 November, where Antonelli will make his first start as world champion. The crown is settled. The order behind him is not.
