During the three day weekend there was a shake up in both starting positions and the ending pole places. Naturally, Mexico saw Verstappen take home his 16th consecutive win of the season with an eager Lewis Hamilton following behind to take P2. Hamilton's P2 finish closes the gap on Checo in the drivers championship, leaving only 20 points between the two. What this means for his future in Red Bull is undetermined, clouded by team principle Christian Horner. The 16th victory for Red Bull brought home another 25 points, totalling at 731 for the team. With only three weeks left, it seems as though another constructors championship is secured for the team. In regards to Red Bull, their secondary team Alpha Tauri had some significant success on the grid. A favourite of the grid, Daniel Ricciardo, qualified with a phenomenal P4 right behind Verstappen. This starting position helped contribute to his P7 finish at the end of the 71 laps.
While the fiesta weekend was full of positive poles and podiums, the same cant be said for Red Bull's Sergio Perez and Haas' Kevin Magnussen. Checo's home race unfortunately came to a short end when contact was made between himself and Leclerc on turn one, lap one. Formula 1's journalists interviewed Checo after the incident in which he claimed "As drivers you take risks. I took a risk, I paid a high price for it." While there was clear damage done to both Charles and Serigo's cars, this wasn't the end for crashes in Mexico. Haas' Magnussen would fall victim to a failed rear left suspension collide with a barrier, luckily, Kevin would walk away injury free. However, this incident would lead to a red flag being implemented, restarting the race. In response to the incident, team principle Guenther Steiner claimed "It seems to be heat related. We could fight for almost... but almost isn't good enough".
The 2023 Mexican Grand Prix was a problem for collisions but saw a variety of arguably magnificent overtakes across the grid. This weekend saw new additions to the roster of 'Best Overtake': Hamilton proudly overtook Leclerc for second position on lap 40, bringing a smoke of grass and dirt onto the track with him. This overtake created a collection of reactions from other drives in the cooldown room, including Verstappen and Leclerc himself. Arguably more impressive was the performance from Mclaren's Lando Norris. After a poor qualifier leading to a P17 starting position, Norris flew around the track making up 12 places to end in P5 after 71 laps. While this was not a podium finish for Norris, the Mexican Grand Prix perfectly highlights his skills behind the wheel.
Overall, the 2023 Mexican Grand Prix was a head-turner filled with successes and failures for teams all across the grid. While some aspects were familiar outcomes to viewers and drivers, qualifying and the red flag created some interesting footage and a chance for people to highlight their skills.
