Giles Richards had the privilege of watching this historic race. His report is here:

Thanks for following along with us today, and congratulations to Kimi Antonelli. Barely older than my second kid. Time flies.

One of F1’s charms is seeing the top three drivers sitting together and watching race highlights. They seem to agree a bit on the chaos of the start, and they gasp a bit at seeing the Bottas crash.

Imagine such a feature in the NFL. Or boxing.

Rosberg asks Hamilton about his day. He pauses before answering questions. “First, look at this crowd. Congratulations to Kimi and his team.”

He thinks he had to pace to win but “it wasn’t meant to be.”

Other highlights of a very polite and yet pointed interview:

“We’ll take it offline to see what we can do.”

“Last year, I got a 10-second penalty for the same move. We have to have some serious talks behind the team, for sure.”

“I’m hoping next year we have an engine to compete with (Antonelli and others).”

But he also hits a positive note when talking about Ferrari in general: “I have 100% faith in them.”

Verstappen: “I was sweating at the end to try to keep Lewis behind.”

Verstappen on Antonelli: “What a season he had. To do that at such an age, I think, is really impressive. I’m sure this is a very emotional day for him, and I’m very proud of him.”

Antonelli speaks with Nico Rosberg: “I wouldn’t be here without Mercedes, without my family. … I am speechless. I am trying to process what happened.”

Rosberg asks what it’s like to be alongside two multiple-time world champions: “To share this podium with Max and Lewis is truly incredible.”

“This weekend, I did feel a little bit more tense, but I’m just so happy we got it done, and now we can enjoy the rest of the season.”

Verstappen pulls in for the award ceremony and immediately walks over to Antonelli’s family to congratulate them and then Antonelli himself.

Teammate Russell runs up for a handshake and hug as well.

Final results, pending a couple of investigations a few places down from the top three.

1 Verstappen
2 Hamilton
3 Antonelli
4 Leclerc
5 Norris
6 Russell
7 Piastri
8 Colapinto
9 Lawson
10 Gasly
11 Bortoleto
12 Hadjar
13 Hirakawa
14 Albon
15 Sainz
16 Hülkenberg
17 Perez

DNF: Lindblad, Bearman, Bottas, Stroll, Alonso

Antonelli lifts his visor and wipes tears from his eyes.

Lap 71 of 71: Hamilton hasn’t had a chance to make a serious run at Verstappen. Norris tries a couple more times to pass Leclerc but can’t.

Lap 70 of 71: Leclerc is now playing Lucy to Norris’ Charlie Brown. Norris gets so close through a few turns, and then Leclerc zooms away when the track is straighter.

Lap 69 of 71: The top three have left Leclerc, Norris and Russell in the dust. Antonelli is surely enjoying these ceremonial laps before he is crowned champion.

Lap 68 of 71: Norris has a go at Leclerc, but the Ferrari is just too fast, tire or no tire.

Stewards are looking at a Gasly/Lawson incident.

Brief yellow flag to deal with debris.

Lap 67 of 71: Stewards will take a close look at the Piastri-Lindblad incident after the race.

Russell is sitting behind the Leclerc-Norris battle, perhaps ready to pounce if they slip up.

Lap 66 of 71: Stewards are looking at the Piastri-Lindbland incident, but that’d be harsh.

Nothing else has changed. Antonelli is six laps away from the championship.

Lap 65 of 71: Hamilton is still showing no sign of overtaking Verstappen. Leclerc’s tire is literally hanging by a thread, and he’s still ahead of Norris.

Lawson is up to ninth.

Lap 64 of 71: Verstappen stays ahead of Hamilton. Antonelli has breathing room in third. Leclerc is somehow still ahead of Norris.

Verstappen and Hamilton quickly open space ahead of Antonelli. Leclerc once again has Norris on his tail.

Lap 63 of 71: The safety car’s time comes to an end. Hamilton salivates behind Verstappen …

Lap 62 of 71: Unsung accomplishment of the day: Liam Lawson started on pit road. He’s now in 10th, in the points. That’s quite a drive.

Leclerc’s tire seems to be in awful shape.

Lap 61 of 71: Piastri asks if he has a little bit of damage or a lot of damage. The team says it’s a “reasonable amount of damage.”

Lap 60 of 71: This crash doesn’t appear to be as serious as the Bottas crash, so a red flag seems unlikely.

Replay shows Piastri pulled alongside Lindblad, who wound up running over Piastri’s wheel.

Lindblad’s car has come to rest against the wall without barrier damage, but there’s a bit of debris to clean up.

Lap 59 of 71: Lindblad has hit the wall!

Yellow flag for now. Then a safety car.

Lindblad says he’s OK.

Lap 58 of 71: Now both McLarens are trying to pass --= Norris is still behind Leclerc, and Piastri has come up close to Lindblad.

But Russell is now just behind Norris.

Norris’ team informs him that Leclerc has a flat spot on his tire. Norris says he already sees it.

Lap 57 of 71: The only scenario now in which Antonelli will not clinch the championship today would be if he has a catastrophic problem while Hamilton passes Verstappen. Or five cars in front of Russell disappearing from the earth.

Lap 56 of 71: Norris is once again right behind a car that he just can’t pass. The Ferraris, for all their costly in-fighting, have been pretty fast, so one would think Leclerc should be able to hold him off, yes?

Lap 55 of 71: Verstappen yells something about the braking. The next time Verstappen complains about the car and then falls off the pace will be the first, as far as I can recall.

Sainz is under investigation for moving too soon on the restart.

Lap 54 of 71: The gaps are opening up.

Hamilton is asking his team if they can look into Verstappen bumping into him. The stewards already did. His team doesn’t think he has significant damage.

Lap 52 of 71: Top 10 is Verstappen, Hamilton, Antonelli, Leclerc, Norris, Russell, Lindblad, Piastri, Colapinto, Gasly.

So the only changes in that bunch from the restart are Hamilton and Antonelli past Leclerc, then Lindblad past Piastri, which is surprising.

Lap 51 of 71: Hamilton posts the fastest lap. Leclerc has complained of vibrations in the tires, and Norris nearly slips past him.

Hülkenberg gets a 10-second penalty. He’s already back in 16th.

Verstappen investigation is over, and he’s OK.

Lap 50 of 71: Verstappen noted for being out of position at the restart?? How many twists will this race have?

Antonelli posts the fastest lap but is still 1.3 seconds behind Hamilton.

Hülkenberg did indeed make contact with Bearman,.

Lap 49 of 71: Fastest lap goes to Hamilton. There’s no further investigation on the start.

Farther back – Bearman is out of the race, and Hülkenberg is under investigation for the start. Are those notes related?

Lap 48 of 71: Race control has noted a Hamilton-Verstappen incident, but that can’t be anything.

Hamilton says he can’t see out of his right mirror.

For now, they’re comfortably ahead of Antonelli, who is comfortably ahead of Leclerc, who is uncomfortably ahead of Norris.

Verstappen is pulling away from Hamilton. Leclerc isn’t thar far back, but Antonelli is closing in on him … and passes!

This will be a standing restart. And fraught. Hamilton will be hoping Verstappen flies on the start, giving him room to get past Leclerc.

It’s not a great homecoming for Sergio Perez. His teammate’s car had a catastrophic failure. He’s nearly last among the cars still running.

And now he’s got a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Less than five minutes before we get rolling again …

Ferrari – bad luck or bad strategy? Or bad driving?

To recap the day of Lewis Hamilton, who came into the day almost giddy after winning his first pole in three years …

Leclerc, his teammate, pulled up alongside him and wound up going far off the track. Hamilton also wound up off the track a bit. Leclerc got a five-second penalty but also spent dozens of laps enjoying the clean air of first place.

With the safety car deployed, Ferrari quickly pulled Hamilton into the pits – but not Leclerc, though maybe he wasn’t in position to pit right away. Hamilton dropped a place to Antonelli.

Should Ferrari have waited for a possible red flag before bringing in Hamilton? Or is that expecting too much psychic ability of the Ferrari team?

Replay of the Bottas accident from his onboard camera – his left front wheel just suddenly popped up out of place. The car whipped around 180 degrees as it skided toward the barrier.

Must be terrifying. Nothing he could do but hit the brakes to slow down as much as he could.

He did walk away from the accident, looking a little worse for wear but also waving to the crowd.

Bottas is out of the car.

Hamilton on the radio: “We’ve got big problems. Big, big problems.”

Lap 44 of 71: Antonelli finally pits. The crew has a little bobble, but he returns in fourth, 12.4 seconds behind Hamilton and 6.1 ahead of Norris. This should be easy …

Or …

Lap 43 of 71: Leclerc says the car is difficult to drive. I’d imagine at least 18 of the other 21 drivers in this race are not the least bit sympathetic.

Lap 42 of 71: Hadjar pits for the second time. The first was likely a result of the messy start.

Albon also pits, but please don’t ask me to try to explain pit strategy of drivers battling for 15th place.

Lap 41 of 71: Bearman pits – awkwardly. Nearly grazed a wall. He returns in 14th.

Antonelli is the only driver who has not yet pitted. He might as well wave to the crowd as he zips around the track in first place.

Lap 40 of 71: Bortoleto pits and comes back out in 15th. Norris pits, but he overshoots his space! That’ll cost him some time.

Antonelli and Bearman are the only drivers yet to pit. If Antonelli pits now, he’d almost surely come out in fourth. Bearman would drop far outside the points.

Lap 39 of 71: OK – standings with pit stops included …

1 Antonelli, not yet (soft tires)
2 Norris, not yet (soft)
3 Verstappen, yes (soft)
4 Leclerc, yes (medium)
5 Hamilton, yes (medium)
6 Russell, yes (medium)
7 Piastri, yes (medium)
8 Bearman, no (soft)
9 Bortoleto, no (medium)
10 Lindblad, yes (medium)

Lap 38 of 71: We may no longer have such a thing as clean air – the leaders have lapped the Cadillacs and then Hirakawa.

Lap 37 of 71: I’ve been waiting for Antonelli and Norris to pit before updating the standings, but they keep hanging on out there.

Lap 35 of 71: Worth noting – Hamilton posted that fastest lap on the medium tires, not soft.

Colapinto has pitted, so Piastri, Bearman, Bortoleto, Hadjar and Gasly have gone past. Not sure which of those drivers has pitted.

Lap 34 of 71: Russell is pitting, and he’ll serve his 10-second penalty. He returns to action in eighth place. He’s behind Colapinto, who is quietly having a good run.

Lap 33 of 71: Well, well, well … Hamilton has posted the fastest lap! He’s 2.5 seconds behind his current object of derision, teammate Charles Leclerc.

Lap 32 of 71: How long will the Mercedes pair, running 1-2, stay out on soft tires? Reminder: Russell has to serve a 10-second penalty.

Perez pits, and there’s a glitch. He’s back out, but he lost a considerable amount of time there. His shot at the points is probably gone.

Lap 31 of 71: Verstappen posts the fastest lap.

Antonelli leads by 4.3, and then Norris is where he has been – looking tantalizingly at Russell, so close and yet so far.

I’ll disagree with Hamilton – the stewards haven’t handed Leclerc the race. Ferrari has handed it to Verstappen.

Lap 30 of 71: Verstappen’s team tells him he needs one of his “magic Mexico” races. He’s on soft tires and should be faster than Leclerc, but for how long? When will the soft tires degrade?

Lap 29 of 71: Will Hamilton get to spend some time out in front in clean air? Nope. Ferrari brings him. Hamilton’s blood pressure must be through the roof.

Kimi Antonelli leads!! (But he’ll give that back when he pits.)

Lap 28 of 71: Verstappen also pits! The top two drivers are in the pit, but Leclerc must serve the penalty, and Verstappen gets out 1.6 seconds ahead … in fifth, because Hamilton, Antonelli, Russell and Norris have not yet pitted.

Lap 27 of 71: Verstappen pulls with 4.8 seconds. He’s pretty good, you know.

Piastri pits, and it takes more than 5 seconds instead of the usual 2-point-something.

Leclerc to the pits!

Lap 26 of 71: Meanwhile, Kimi Antonelli sits contentedly in fourth place, cruising to the F1 championship at age 20. He isn’t challenging Hamilton for third, nor is Russell challenging him from behind.

Lap 25 of 71: The lead is 5.1. The intrigue is killing me.

Lap 24 of 71: Hamilton: “The stewards are basically handing Charles the win. We agreed in the drivers’ meeting.”

Agreed … to what?

Gasly is working his way back up after pitting. He has sailed past the debutant Hirakawa.

Lap 23 of 71: A look at the standings before the pit-stop shuffle …

1 Leclerc
2 Verstappen +4.8
3 Hamilton +2.5
4 Antonelli +1.8
5 Russell +3.4
6 Norris +0.7
7 Piastri +7.6
8 Lindblad +9.0
9 Colapinto +2.6
10 Hülkenberg +4.2

Then Bearman has climbed within a second of 10th.

Lap 22 of 71: The lead is five seconds, the same duration as the penalty Leclerc must serve.

Lap 21 of 71: Russell is holding Norris at bay. Leclerc has almost pushed his lead to five seconds. Hamilton can’t gain on Verstappen.

Lap 20 of 71: Bearman neatly passes Bortoleto for 11th, one spot out of the points. After Gasly’s pit stop, Perez is up to 13th – can he get a point in his home country? He finished third here twice in his Red Bull days in 2021 and 2022.

Lap 19 of 71: Gasly has pitted, only noteworthy in the sense that we’re now in a window in which pit stops are not unexpected. Albon also goes in.

Lap 18 of 71: Leclerc now has 4.4 seconds over Verstappen, who’s on medium tires. Then Hamilton is another 2.0 back – while his complaints aren’t unwarranted, he hasn’t made any progress chasing down Verstappen while on softer tires.

Lap 16 of 71: Norris is still on Russell’s tail, not content to wait for the penalty to be served.

There’s also a close fight between Bortoleto, Bearman and Gasly for 11th place.

Lap 15 of 71: Hamilton is informed of the five-second Leclerc penalty. He immediately notes that Leclerc is still getting the benefit of clean air. Indeed he does, and he’s making the most of it – the gap to Verstappen and Hamilton is growing.

Verstappen is informed of the Leclerc five-second penalty and laughs. “I thought all the new penalties were 10!”

Lap 14 of 71: And now George Russell gets a 10-second penalty. He’ll likely lose out to the McLarens of Norris and Piastri. Norris has him in his sights already.

Lap 12 of 71: Piastri zips past Lindblad like a Maryland driver on the Capital Beltway. (If you know, you know.) He’s up to seventh, a nice recovery from yesterday, and if some of the people ahead of him are penalized, he’ll move up more.

Lap 11 of 71: George Russell is under investigation for the opening contact with Hadjar. Three of the top five drivers have the telltale exclamation point by their names on the F1 graphic.

Lap 10 of 71: Penalty or not – how does Ferrari let that happen? If Leclerc ends up penalized, they’ve handed control of the race to Verstappen, and he’s unlikely to give it back.

Lap 9 of 71: Compounding Hamilton’s problems – Antonelli is on his tail.

The Virtual Safety Car has finished. Hadjar pitted and is 20th, last of the cars still competing.

Replays of the start – Hadjar spun out after contact. Leclerc was much faster than everyone, flying past multiple cars to pull alongside Hamilton.

Leclerc certainly went very far off the track, but Hamilton also went off. Would they both be penalized?

Lap 8 of 71: Will anyone pit this early in the race, knowing they won’t lose much time because of the Virtual Safety Car? Maybe if we were a few more laps into this race.

Lap 7 of 71: And now Lance Stroll has been asked to stop, which he has now done by the edge of the track at a strange angle.

So both Aston Martins are out, and … virtual safety car!

Lap 6 of 71: The two Aston Martin drivers, Alonso and Stroll, have already pitted. Go figure.

Perez, running in front of fans who would love to see him do well, is up to 14th.

Alonso has to retire the car. Pity that.

Lap 4 of 71: Hamilton inquires as to what action is being taken. He’s assured that people are looking into it.

For now:

1 Leclerc
2 Verstappen
3 Hamilton
4 Antonelli
5 Russell
6 Lindblad (up from 8th)
7 Colapinto
8 Norris … oh, wait, he just passed Colapinto
9 Piastri, moving up after a terrible qualifying session
10 Hülkenberg

Lap 3 of 71: The incident has been noted.

Of note: Hadjar went all the way back to 22nd. That’s not good.

Colapinto roared up to seventh.

Oh – and the guy who’s about to be the youngest F1 champion ever is still in fourth. Verstappen went ahead of him, but Russell had a lackluster start and is now fifth.

Tires or tyres: Most drivers are opening on softs, but Nico Hülkenberg and a few others further down the grid are on mediums. Intriguingly, so is Max Verstappen, who starts fifth.

Formation lap in progress …

Questions

Calling on readers to answer these thought experiments:

1. Are we looking at the beginning of a Kimi Antonelli era, or will we see Max Verstappen or Lando Norris fighting back next year? Or maybe one of the Ferrari drivers – Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, who has taken a few steps back toward championship form this year?

2. Where does a 20-year-old F1 champion fit in terms of precocious athlete accomplishments? Do we compare it with Pele winning his first World Cup at age 17? Should we only consider individuals, like a 20-year-old Mike Tyson winning the heavyweight championship? Maybe Mikaela Shiffrin’s breakthrough at age 17? Garry Kasparov holding the world chess championship and becoming the world’s top-ranked player at age 22? Justin Bieber having hits at age 15?

3. How did Haas replace Esteban Ocon’s livery so quickly? (To answer a question from earlier: Yes, the F1 graphics team got Ryo Harikawa into the pre-race montage. “Congratulations on your debut, now before you attempt qualifying for the first time in your life, can you stand in front of this green screen and look cool?”)

Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Giles Richards on how qualifying went down on Saturday:

Even as Formula One’s young gun Kimi Antonelli remains on course to claim his first world championship on Sunday it was the veteran, seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton who gave a salutary reminder that there is very much fight left in the old dog yet as he claimed a spectacular pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Hamilton delivered a superb lap for Ferrari to secure his first pole for the team and just beat Mercedes’ George Russell into second. World champion in waiting Antonelli was in fourth place but remains in position to close out the title on Sunday, although Hamilton and Russell, who must win the race to have any hope of keeping the fight alive, have at least locked out the front row.

It was clearly a hugely emotional moment for Hamilton at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez to finally nail the top spot for Ferrari in his second season with the team, with the 41-year-old’s 105th pole also his first since 2023.

“Thank you so much, that’s been such a long time coming,” he said. “That feels good. I’m lost for words. My first pole with Ferrari. 105 poles, I like that number.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way. It’s all in the mind. For sure, you might feel aches and pains, luckily I don’t, I do all those different things to keep myself young and fit. But I love what I do, and love is not gone.”

You can read the full report below:

And the top 10 on the grid are:

The top 10

1 Lewis Hamilton 🇬🇧 Ferrari 1:16.514
2 George Russell 🇬🇧 Mercedes +0.009
3 Charles Leclerc 🇲🇨 Ferrari +0.119
4 Max Verstappen 🇳🇱 Red Bull +0.178
5 Kimi Antonelli 🇮🇹 Mercedes +0.193
6 Lando Norris 🇬🇧 McLaren +0.310
7 Isack Hadjar 🇫🇷 Red Bull +0.386
8 Liam Lawson 🇳🇿 Racing Bulls +0.515
9 Arvid Lindblad 🇬🇧 Racing Bulls +0.603
10 Pierre Gasly 🇫🇷 Alpine +0.639