Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took victory at the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix, whilst Andrea Kimi Antonelli wrapped up his maiden F1 title.
Verstappen executed the alternative strategy to take the lead on lap 44 once Antonelli pitted from the lead, having initially moved from fifth to second on the first lap after a clash between Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, which saw the latter penalised.
The race then was red flagged on lap 45 after a high-speed suspension failure for Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas, and Verstappen cruised to victory on the restart from Hamilton and Antonelli as the latter wrapped up his first F1 title in just his second season in the sport.
In the drivers’ standings, Antonelli wrapped up his maiden F1 title with an unassailable 119-point lead to become F1’s youngest-ever champion at 20 years and 68 days, surpassing the previous record set by Sebastian Vettel in 2010 of 23 years and 134 days.
Antonelli also became the first Italian to win the F1 title in 63 years after Alberto Ascari achieved the double in 1952 & 53, with Giuseppe Farina having preceded the latter in 1950, whilst Antonelli is the first Italian to achieved the feat in a non-Italian F1 car.
Verstappen’s win meanwhile lifted him into the vice-champion position and just two points ahead of Hamilton.
Despite locking his front-right soft tyre on the formation lap, Hamilton got a clean start from pole to lead Russell whose Mercedes failed to fully deploy his battery and saw him slip to fifth as Leclerc jumped to second from Verstappen and Antonelli.
Leclerc soon opted to attempt an outside move on Hamilton into Turn Four for the lead yet ran wide and cut the following corner, whilst Hamilton too ran deep and rejoined off line which allowed Verstappen to pass him on the inside of Turn Six on the medium tyre.
Just behind the lead quartet, Russell on the inside of the same corner clipped Isack Hadjar’s right-rear tyre to spin the Red Bull driver out of contention for a top-eight finish.
Stewards subsequently handed Leclerc a five-second time penalty much to the disgruntlement of Verstappen and Hamilton, whilst Russell was slapped with a ten-second time penalty for spinning Hadjar.
Leclerc consequently built a circa five-second gap to Verstappen until he pitted at the end of lap 27, only for Verstappen to follow suit and snatch the net lead with a faster stop due to the Monegasque’s penalty, which saw him rejoin with a 1.4 second net lead over Leclerc.
Hamilton pitted a lap later and the trio found themselves separated by around five seconds as Verstappen assumed the actual lead on lap 44, just before Bottas spun out at Turn One due to his left suspension having suffered a sudden snap during braking.
Stewards subsequently opted to throw a red flag a lap later whilst under the safety car due to the damage caused to the barriers.
The race resumed under the safety car after a 38-minute delay initially before the grid undertook a standing restart on lap 47 with Verstappen on restart pole, and the former four-time champion got a clean restart as Hamilton sailed past Leclerc who then locked up into the first corner.
Verstappen subsequently survived pressure from Hamilton until the safety car was deployed on lap 59 after Oscar Piastri on the outside of Turn One clipped the left-rear tyre of Arvid Lindblad, which sent the Brit airborne and slid sideways into the barriers at Turn Two.
The safety car was deployed until the end of lap 62 and Verstappen subsequently held off Hamilton to claim his fourth overall victory of the season and his sixth win around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, and his first win from fifth position on the starting grid.
Antonelli meanwhile sealed his title with third place after he passed Leclerc into Turn One on lap 48 and left the Monegasque to finish fourth.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 71 | 2h 20m 28.772 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 71 | + 0.799 |
| 3 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 71 | + 4.006 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 71 | + 10.707 |
| 5 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 71 | + 11.778 |
| 6 | George Russell | Mercedes | 71 | + 12.263 |
| 7 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 71 | + 19.475 |
| 8 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | 71 | + 20.204 |
| 9 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | 71 | + 20.899 |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 71 | + 21.483 |
| 11 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | 71 | + 22.041 |
| 12 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | 71 | + 22.503 |
| 13 | Ryo Hirakawa | Haas | 71 | + 25.373 |
| 14 | Alex Albon | Williams | 71 | + 27.562 |
| 15 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 71 | + 28.638 |
| 16 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | 71 | + 29.977 |
| 17 | Sergio Perez | Cadillac | 71 | + 30.695 |
| RET | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | 58 | Collision |
| RET | Oliver Bearman | Haas | 48 | Collision |
| RET | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | 43 | Suspension |
| RET | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 5 | Power |
| RET | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 5 | Power |
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