Mercedes
It was a tricky race to manage for the Silver Arrows in Mexico, with their drivers often battling for position. Russell ran across the grass at the start, which cost him a position to Verstappen, and he ran wide again a few laps later to drop behind his team mate. Mercedes then let those two fight for some time before ordering Antonelli to let a very frustrated and slightly irate Russell through, which he did. But Russell could not chase down Bearman ahead and once Piastri had gone through, the team swapped their drivers back.
George Russell, 7th
“That was a frustrating afternoon. At the start, three drivers cut over the grass at turn one and either kept or gained positions without penalty. I stayed on the track but lost out, unfortunately. That also happened when Lewis (Hamilton) and Max (Verstappen) were battling; when the Red Bull came back on the track, I had to take avoiding action, go off track, and lost several positions myself. Those two moments were ultimately the undoing of our race.
“From there, it was difficult being stuck in a train of cars and in particular, with the dirty air. We inverted the cars to try and maximise the team result but ultimately we just didn’t have the pace to fight our way forward. We’ve got four races to go and need to regain some momentum if we are to emerge ahead in the battle for second in the Constructors’ Championship. We’re relishing that fight and looking forward to Brazil.”
Kimi Antonelli, 6th
“It was not an easy race today. I lost position at turn one and we were battling from there, stuck in a train of cars that we were not quite fast enough to pass. That was a shame as I think if we had managed to gain a few places on the first lap then we could have had a much more positive result than P6. It is so difficult to follow in the dirty air and, when in clean air, our pace was decent.
“We opted to invert the cars in our second stint; we were in a train behind Bearman, and the tyre degradation was getting worse due to that. We will review whether that was the best decision or not but ultimately, we didn’t have the pace today to battle forward and both George and I lost out to Piastri who seemed to have better speed. Our focus is now on Brazil and, with four races to go, getting back ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.”
Bradley Lord, Team Representative
“That was a difficult and frustrating afternoon for us, racing amongst a group of cars that were within one tenth of a second on pure pace and defending from Piastri’s faster McLaren behind.
“The opening laps did not go our way; George was one of the only drivers in the top five to stay between the white lines, and lost out as a result, then was hung out to dry on lap six and lost two more positions. He felt rightly aggrieved at the outcome, as this ultimately shaped the outcome of his race. Kimi profited where George lost out and was managing his tyres to a planned one-stop strategy behind Bearman when George and Piastri closed to within DRS range. After several laps, we decided to invert the cars to give George an opportunity to attack the Haas, as he felt he had pace in hand, but he was unable to make inroads because the tyres were past their best after the laps in the dirty air.
“With higher-than-expected degradation, the strategy was finely balanced between one and two stops, and we triggered the two-stop with Kimi on lap 47 – boxing with Piastri and Hamilton close behind. Unfortunately, a slow stop cost Kimi a place, and once it became clear that our cars were not able to gain any more positions, we restored the running order from earlier in the race to come home P6 and P7. It was an afternoon of damage limitation, ultimately, and our championship fight remains nail-bitingly close. Onwards to Brazil.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“The first lap here is always a bit of a lottery with the long run to turn one combined with the layout of the first few corners. We were also aware that if we moved forward, we’d have a good chance of holding those positions to the flag, and if we fell back, we’d be facing an uphill struggle battle to recover. We sadly ended up on the wrong side of that equation, dropping a place with each driver.
“Our difficulties were further compounded on lap six when George was pushed wide as Verstappen rejoined the track. George ended up losing places to both Kimi and Bearman as a result. The rest of the race didn’t throw up much opportunity for either. We converted to a two-stop as the Soft tyre was looking strong and that allowed us to spend more time on it, but the cars around us covered. Unfortunately, at this point, we lost a place with Kimi due to a slow stop, Piastri taking advantage. He then utilised his superior pace to gain position on George on track too. Overall then a frustrating result. We’ve not had the car pace that we need to compete at these last two races. We have a week to regroup ahead of Brazil; we’ll be putting all our efforts into achieving a good result there and fighting hard for second in the Constructors’ Championship.”
