2026 Mexico City Grand Prix – Race Report

Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Sunday, 1 November

Find out what happened during the Mexico City Grand Prix, and get the thoughts of McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, as well as Team Principal, Andrea Stella.

It was yet another bittersweet afternoon at the Mexico City Grand Prix. The standard of performance shown today would certainly have allowed us to challenge for the podium, but Lando finished the race in fifth place – just one position higher than his starting grid position. Oscar had finished the race in seventh place, but the penalty he received for contact with Lindblad defenestrated him out of the points, undoing his fine comeback from twelfth place. It was precisely the Qualifying result and the confirmed extreme difficulty in overtaking – caused by the limitations of the current technical regulations and the characteristics of the circuit – that proved costly.  

Lando started P6 and Oscar P12, with the pair having contrasting opening laps. Lando dropped to P8 while Oscar hooked up a great start to rise to P9. Once the field started to spread, and cars ahead lost Overtake Mode, Lando was able to pass Franco Colapinto and Arvid Lindblad to regain P6, but could not pass George Russell, with Oscar following him through into P7. 

Lando believed he had more pace than the cars ahead and was keen on the undercut, but with a gaggle of midfield runners on his pit window, there was nowhere for him to go without becoming mired in traffic. Russell had a 10s penalty to serve, but Lando was more interested in the cars ahead.  

Oscar was struggling a little more with his rear tyres, and opted to pit on lap 26, swapping from Soft to Medium in a 2.57s pit stop. That triggered a cascade ahead, with Leclerc, Verstappen and Hamilton all pitting. Lando’s best option at that point was to go long, hanging out for a Safety Car or at least to build a good tyre delta. He rose to P2 when Russell pitted and made his own stop on lap 39 to swap Soft for Medium. 

Lando came out of his pit stop in P5. With 30 laps to go, he was 20 seconds behind the Ferraris and lapping six- or seven-tenths quicker and set for a long chase. The race was thrown into another turn, however, when Valtteri Bottas was pitched into the barriers at Turn 1 after a car failure. The initial Safety Car was good news for Lando; the subsequent Red Flag was the opposite. 

Oscar had pitted under the Safety Car on lap 44 to swap back onto the Soft tyre, but the Red Flag did not cost him position, and he took the restart in P7, with Lando in P5. The entire field had fitted Soft under the Red Flag, with a Sprint distance of 24 laps to run. Lando held P5 at the standing start, but Oscar dropped to P8. On lap 59, when battling Lindblad for P7, the rookie driver collided with Oscar at the first chicane, resulting in floor damage for Oscar, debris on track, and a second Safety Car.  

When the race once again went green, Oscar had significant floor damage and a loss of load, but managed to work hard to defend his P7 and retain the place to the Chequered Flag. Up ahead, Lando could not find a way past Charles Leclerc and finished P5. Having spent much of the race in the slipstream of first Russell and then Leclerc, his afternoon underlined how difficult overtaking was at this circuit, despite the pace available. 

McLaren Driver Development Programme driver Christian Costoya finished his 2026 Italian F4 Championship season at Mugello with a P9 finish in Race 3 and a P14 finish in Race 4. This puts the Spanish driver P9 in the end-of-season standings, having recorded three victories and one podium finish.  

"The race pace today was exceptionally strong and capable of at least fighting for a podium, if not for the win, which is a huge positive for the entire team. However, our Sunday was compromised by our Qualifying position and the straight-line speed limiter, which made overtaking virtually impossible regardless of how closely we followed. We know the areas we must address, and we’re looking forward to introducing upgrades in Brazil as we continue our fight for third in the Constructors' Championship. 

"I also want to extend my congratulations to Kimi on securing the Drivers’ World Championship. To achieve what he has done at just 20 years old and in only his second season in Formula 1 is outstanding. He thoroughly deserves every bit of this success, and while I look forward to putting up a much stronger fight to reclaim the title next season, I hope he takes the time to celebrate a truly historic achievement." 

“Congratulations to Kimi on his Championship win; he has driven a solid season from the start, and to achieve what he has at such a young age is remarkable. Looking at our performance today, it was a tough and tricky afternoon in Mexico City. We showed promising pace to climb positions throughout the race following a disappointing Qualifying session yesterday, which had put us on the back foot.  

“Despite the damage picked up towards the end, we carried on through the final laps and still had enough pace to hang on, even if the last stint wasn’t easy. It’s disappointing not to come away with the points for P7 following the racing incident ruling against us, but we’ll use that as motivation to fight at the front in Brazil next week. We’ll review the whole weekend as a team and focus on looking to finish this triple-header with a strong result." 

Andrea Stella 

Team Principal 

"First of all, on behalf of the whole team, I would like to congratulate Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes on a truly historic achievement. Becoming the youngest World Champion in the history of Formula 1 in just his second season is something extraordinary. For Italian motor racing, Kimi now joins an exclusive group alongside legendary names such as Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina, who have inspired entire generations of Italian fans. His incredible consistency, his reliability and the remarkable progress he has made over the past year have made this triumph truly exceptional. 

“As for our performance today, the race confirmed that we had the potential to finish on the podium. Unfortunately, we paid the price for both our drivers’ starting grid positions and the limitations imposed by the technical regulations, which make overtaking practically impossible on a track like this: with all the time Lando spent in the slipstream – first behind Russell and then behind Leclerc – I think he could now draw the rear of their cars with his eyes closed! Furthermore, the harsh penalty Oscar received for the contact with Lindblad cost us further valuable points: a real shame because Oscar had staged a good comeback. 

“In our battle with Red Bull for third place today, we could only limit the damage after a Qualifying session that had put us in a difficult position. We have 16 points to make up, but I believe that with the pace we showed today and the upgrades coming to Brazil next week, we have every chance of achieving at least that target. To do so, however, we’ll have to be perfect as a team, in every respect.”