Verstappen extends championship lead over Hamilton after cruising to Mexico GP triumph

Max Verstappen cruised to a record third career Mexico City Grand Prix victory ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez on Sunday to extend his championship lead to 19 points.

The joy of Valtteri Bottas's shock pole position was short-lived as Verstappen swept around the outside of the two Mercedes into the first corner on the opening lap. From then on, Verstappen's pace was superior and he won by over 16 seconds.

Bottas was tipped into a spin by McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo into Turn 2 of lap one to leave Verstappen leading Hamilton then Perez behind the Safety Car, which was called back for a Lap 5 race restart, as Bottas dropped to the back of the field.

Perez ended up third - just 1.1s behind Hamilton as he became the first Mexican driver to take a Formula 1 podium at their home race. Bottas snatched away the fastest lap from the Red Bull championship leader, before finishing 15th overall.

Pierre Gasly qualified P5 but finished a comfortable fourth after Bottas's spin, while Carlos Sainz took sixth behind Charles Leclerc (P5) in the race, the Spaniard losing out to his Ferrari teammate at the start.

Sebastian Vettel took seventh for Aston Martin, ahead of Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen in P8. Fernando Alonso took ninth for Alpine having started 12th but was hampered by a slow Lap 40 pit stop. That left Lando Norris 10th from 18th.

( With inputs from ANI )

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