The 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Heineken Gran Premio de la Ciudad de México 2021 due to sponsorship reasons) was a Formula One motor race, held on 7 November 2021 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City. The race was the 18th round of the 2021 Formula One World Championship and marked the 21st edition of the Mexican Grand Prix, which was run under the name Mexico City Grand Prix for the first time, acknowledging the sponsorship support of the government of Mexico City.
The race was won by Max Verstappen followed by Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Pérez. Kimi Räikkönen scored his final F1 career points in this race when he finished in 8th place whilst driving for Alfa Romeo.
Background
The race marked its debut in the Formula One Championship calendar under the name Mexico City Grand Prix. On 8 August 2019, it was announced that the Mexican Grand Prix would remain on the calendar until , though it would be renamed to Mexico City Grand Prix starting in , in order to emphasize the support from the government of Mexico City. The edition was called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The race was originally to take place on 31 October, but was moved a week later due to the reduction of the overall number of Grands Prix in the calendar, from 23 to 22. This was the twenty-first World Championship Grand Prix held in Mexico.
Championship standings before the race After winning in the preceding United States Grand Prix, Max Verstappen led the Drivers' Championship by 12 points: Verstappen with 287.5 and Lewis Hamilton with 275.5. Behind them, Valtteri Bottas was in third place with 185 points. Sergio Pérez trailed him by 35 points, and Lando Norris trailed Pérez by 1 point. In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes led Red Bull Racing by 23 points. Behind them, third-placed McLaren led fourth-placed Ferrari by 4.5 points with 254 points, with Alpine a distant fifth with 104 points.
Entrants
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.
Tyre choices Sole tyre supplier Pirelli allocated the C2, C3, and C4 compounds of tyre to be used in the race.
Practice The weekend featured three practice sessions, each lasting one hour. The first practice session started at 11:30 local time (UTC−06:00) on 5 November, and ended with Valtteri Bottas fastest for Mercedes, ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen. The second practice session started at 15:00 local time, also on 5 November, and ended with Verstappen fastest ahead of Bottas and Hamilton. The third and final practice session started at 11:00 on 6 November with the Red Bulls of Sergio Pérez and Verstappen fastest, followed by the two Mercedes.
Qualifying Qualifying started at 14:00 local time on 6 November.
Qualifying classification DriverConstructor177 Valtteri BottasMercedes1:16.7271:16.8641:15.8751244 Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:17.2071:16.4741:16.0202333 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda1:16.7881:16.4831:16.2253411 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-Honda1:17.0031:17.0551:16.3434510 Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda1:16.9081:16.9551:16.4565655 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari1:17.5171:17.2481:16.761673 Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes1:17.7191:17.0921:16.7637816 Charles LeclercFerrari1:16.7481:17.0341:16.8378922 Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Honda1:17.3301:16.7011:17.15817104 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1:17.5691:17.4731:36.83018115 Sebastian VettelAston Martin-Mercedes1:17.5021:17.746N/A9127 Kimi RäikkönenAlfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari1:17.6061:17.958N/A101363 George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1:17.9581:18.172N/A1614991:17.8971:18.290N/A111531 Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1:18.1261:18.405N/A191614 Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault1:18.452N/AN/A12176 Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1:18.756N/AN/A131847 Mick SchumacherHaas-Ferrari1:18.858N/AN/A14199Nikita MazepinHaas-Ferrari1:19.303N/AN/A152018 Lance StrollAston Martin-Mercedes1:20.873N/AN/A20107% time: 1:22.097Source: Notes – Yuki Tsunoda was required to start the race from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements. – Lando Norris was required to start the race from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements. – George Russell received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. – Esteban Ocon was required to start the race from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements. – Lance Stroll was required to start the race from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements. He also received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. The penalty made no difference as he was already due to start from the last position.
Race The race started at 13:00 local time on 7 November. Valtteri Bottas started the race from pole position but was overtaken at the first corner by Max Verstappen. Bottas was then hit by Daniel Ricciardo from behind at the next corner with the stewards deciding neither driver was to blame for the incident. This put both drivers at the back of the field with neither scoring any points at this race.
Max Verstappen was leading for most of the race with Sergio Perez taking the lead for a short while, during the period that Verstappen had pitted and he had not. Perez became the first Mexican driver to lead his home Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton was in second with Verstappen having a clear lead over him. Hamilton and Perez were close towards the end with Perez not far from trying to get past him. Hamilton managed to keep second place and Perez came home to finish third. By finishing 3rd, Pérez became the first Mexican driver to get a podium at home.
Valtteri Bottas took the fastest lap of the race, but did not receive the point for it as he finished outside the top ten. In line with the regulations, the fastest lap point was not redistributed.
Race classification DriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredPoints133 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda711:38:39.086325244 Lewis HamiltonMercedes71 +16.555218311 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-Honda71 +17.752415410 Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda71 +1:03.845512516 Charles LeclercFerrari71 +1:21.037810655 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari70 +1 lap6875 Sebastian VettelAston Martin-Mercedes70 +1 lap9687 Kimi Räikkönen70 +1 lap104914 Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault70 +1 lap122104 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes70 +1 lap181119970 +1 lap11123 Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes70 +1 lap7 1331 Esteban OconAlpine-Renault70 +1 lap191418 Lance StrollAston Martin-Mercedes69 +2 laps201577 Valtteri BottasMercedes69 +2 laps11663 George RussellWilliams-Mercedes69 +2 laps16176 Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes69 +2 laps13189Nikita MazepinHaas-Ferrari68 +3 laps15 47 Mick SchumacherHaas-Ferrari0Collision14 22 Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Honda0Collision17 Fastest lap: Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) – 1:17.774 (lap 69)Source:
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Driver Points1 Max Verstappen*312.52 Lewis Hamilton*293.53 Valtteri Bottas1854 Sergio Pérez1655 Lando Norris150Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points1 Mercedes*478.52 Red Bull Racing-Honda*477.5 13 Ferrari268.5 14 McLaren-Mercedes2555 Alpine-Renault106Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Bold text and an asterisk indicates competitors who still had a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.
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