Mexico Grand Prix: Norris claims dominant win to lead drivers’ standings – as it happened

10.04pm GMT Giles Richards has filed his report on a hugely important race – and result – in the battle for the drivers’ championship: Related: Lando Norris hits the front in title race with emphatic F1 Mexico City GP win 10.00pm GMT Max Verstappen also speaks to TV: “It was very hectic at the beginning of the race for me. I almost crashed. Everyone around me was on soft tyres and we were on medium, so it was a bit of a struggle. It was about surviving the first stint. Once we bolted on the softs I think we were a little bit more competitive and happier. “It was a difficult weekend for us, but to be fighting for P2 with everything that happened in the first few laps was a very strong result.” 9.58pm GMT Charles Leclerc is much more popular with the supporters as he speaks to TV: “Very happy with this weekend. Austin was very positive but to end up on the podium again is a great surprise. Very happy to be on this amazing podium again. “I was quite happy about the VSC at the end! My tyres were completely gone. I could see Max was coming back on the softs. “It was tough, but the VSC saved me at the end.” 9.55pm GMT Lando Norris, who is booed by some sections of the Mexican crowd for reasons nobody is really sure of, speaks to TV: “I love it. What a race. I could just keep my eyes focused and forward and focus on what I was doing. “A pretty straightforward race for me which is just what I was after. A good start, a good launch, a good first lap and I could go from there. “I got a much better launch than the guys around. It’s my first win in Mexico and a beautiful one to get.” 9.53pm GMT Drivers’ standings after that: 1 – Lando Norris 357pts2 – Oscar Piastri 3563 – Max Verstappen 3214 – George Russell 2585 – Charles Leclerc 2106 – Lewis Hamilton 1467 – Kimi Antonelli 978 – Alex Albon 739 – Nico Hülkenberg 4110 – Isack Hadjar 3911 – Carlos Sainz 3812 – Fernando Alonso 3713 – Ollie Bearman 3214 – Lance Stroll 3215 – Liam Lawson 3016 – Esteban Ocon 3017 – Yuki Tsunoda 2818 – Pierre Gasly 2019 – Gabriel Bortoleto 1920 – Franco Colapinto 0 9.47pm GMT Mexico Grand Prix result (top 10) 1 – Lando Norris2 – Charles Leclerc3 – Max Verstappen4 – Ollie Bearman5 – Oscar Piastri6 – Kimi Antonelli7 – George Russell8 – Lewis Hamilton9 – Esteban Ocon10 – Gabriel Bortoleto 9.44pm GMT Bearman finishes a career-best 4th after holding off the challenge of Piastri. 9.43pm GMT Leclerc holds on to second place ahead of Verstappen! The virtual safety car had ended with half a lap to go but the Red Bull ran out of track in the end. 9.42pm GMT Norris win Mexico Grand Prix There’s no doubt about who has won this. Norris claims a statement win in the title race – his 7th of this season. He takes the lead in the drivers’ standings for the first time since April and is just one point ahead of Piastri. Updated at 9.45pm GMT 9.41pm GMT Lap 71/71: That virtual safety car could put an end to any racing. Leclerc could well hold on to 2nd after all. Bearman remains in front of Piastri too. 9.40pm GMT Lap 70/71: Double yellow flag with Sainz stranded in the stadium section. Verstappen closes in on Leclerc … but there’s a virtual safety car. Updated at 9.40pm GMT 9.39pm GMT Lap 69/71: Piastri gets ever closer to Bearman with DRS in the battle for 4th but the Haas driver continues to hold on. 9.37pm GMT Lap 68/71: Verstappen is in striking distance now. The same is the case between Piastri and Bearman. 9.36pm GMT Lap 67/71: Norris is cruising along out in front, 29 seconds ahead of Leclerc. Verstappen, Piastri and Russell could all gain points before the race is over. 9.35pm GMT Lap 66/71: Verstappen is coming. Leclerc could well be a sitting duck when the Red Bull gets in DRS range. The Ferrari is going to run out of laps. 2 seconds the gap. 9.33pm GMT Lap 65/71: Verstappen has closed the gap to Leclerc in 2nd to 3 seconds. Piastri is gaining on Bearman in 4th. 9.31pm GMT Lap 64/71: Tsunoda goes past on Hadjar’s inside and sets his sights on Bortoleto and some points. 9.30pm GMT Lap 63/71: Antonelli does indeed regain his place from Russell and is into 6th. Bortoleto is into the points after moving past Hadjar. 9.28pm GMT Lap 62/71: Antonelli wants his place back off Russell and makes that clear over the radio. He’s 1.5s behind his teammate. 9.27pm GMT Piastri moves past Russell into 5th Lap 61/71: Piastri finally gets past the Mercedes to gain some valuable points in the overall standings. 10 laps to go 9.26pm GMT Lap 59/71: Verstappen will catch Leclerc at this pace by the end of the race. The gap is under 6 seconds now. 9.24pm GMT Lap 58/71: Hadjar is holding on to the last point available in 10th with Bortoleto close behind him. Russell is still holding off Piastri. 9.22pm GMT Lap 57/71: Piastri has DRS and is gaining on Russell, about half a second between them. 9.21pm GMT Lap 56/71: After chasing Bearman for a couple of laps, Russell is now looking over his shoulder as Piastri in 6th comes into sight in his rearview mirror. 9.20pm GMT Lap 55/71: Verstappen in 3rd is edging closer to Leclerc, with 8.4 seconds the gap there. Norris is 26s clear in first. 9.19pm GMT Lap 54/71: No sign of a safety car. Bearman is widening the gap a touch back to Russell with some fine driving. 9.18pm GMT Lap 53/71: Bearman and Russell are having a bit of a duel. Debris on the track may require a safety car to come out. 9.16pm GMT Lap 52/71: Bearman is struggling to hold off Russell’s pace as they battle for 4th. Russell now holds the fastest lap. 9.14pm GMT Lap 51/71: Norris is 23 seconds clear out in front, with big gaps between each driver in the top 4. Top 81 – Norris2 – Leclerc3 – Verstappen4 – Bearman5 – Russell6 – Piastri7 – Antonelli8 – Hamilton 9.12pm GMT Lap 50/71: Russell comes out behind Piastri but is almost overtaken by the other Haas, Ocon. Piastri and Antonelli both then come past Ocon. 9.11pm GMT Lap 49/71: Bearman and Russell both pit, leaving Verstappen to move into third. He’s 13 seconds behind Leclerc. Updated at 9.11pm GMT 9.10pm GMT Lap 48/71: Antonelli and Piastri both come into the pits. Hamilton follows them. Piastri has gone ahead of Antonelli in the pit lane. Superb stop from McLaren. 9.09pm GMT Lap 47/71: McLaren expect Piastri to come in but he still fancies his chances on Antonelli, leaving the engineers to walk back into the garage. Verstappen has come past Hamilton into 7th. 9.08pm GMT Lap 46/71: Russell is very slowly gaining on Bearman, who is still on course for his first podium finish. 9.07pm GMT Lap 45/71: Verstappen will be on Hamilton’s heels in no time. 9.05pm GMT Lap 44/71: Piastri is still stuck behind the two Mercedes in 6th. Albon goes past Colapinto into 14th and sets the fastest lap. 9.04pm GMT Lap 43/71: Verstappen is closing the gap on Hamilton in 7th, getting it down to 3.1 seconds. 9.02pm GMT Lap 42/71: It’s Antonelli’s turn to hold off Piastri. Bortoleto moves ahead of Tsunoda into 13th. 9.01pm GMT Lap 41/71: Russell is at odds with the Mercedes pit wall as Piastri hunts him down. Antonelli lets his teammate go past into 4th. 8.59pm GMT Lap 40/71: Norris leads Leclerc by 18 seconds. Bearman, Antonelli, Russell and Piastri are all bunched in behind. 8.58pm GMT Lap 39/71: Verstappen has pitted and comes back in at 8th on soft tyres. Russell is fighting to hold off Piastri in a battle for 5th. 8.57pm GMT Lap 38/71: Russell is worried about Piastri “up his arse”, asking Antonelli to quicken up a bit ahead of him. 8.55pm GMT Lap 37/71: The brakes on the Mercedes are overheating. The pit wall urge caution but the drivers want to push on. Top 61) Norris2) Verstappen3) Leclerc4) Bearman5) Antonelli6) Russell Updated at 8.55pm GMT 8.53pm GMT Lap 36/71: Alonso retires, joining Hülkenberg and Lawson back inside. 8.52pm GMT Lap 35/71: No drama in the pits for Norris, who comes out some 7 seconds ahead of Verstappen, still in the lead. Tsunoda is tumbling down and loses 8th place to Hamilton. 8.51pm GMT Lap 34/71: Piastri goes past Tsunoda as well. Norris signals that he’s going to pit. 8.49pm GMT Lap 33/71: Bearman is 4th, ahead of Antonelli and Russell as the two Mercedes drivers ease past Tsunoda. 8.48pm GMT Lap 32/71: With Leclerc out of the picture for now, Norris is almost 29 seconds ahead of Verstappen in second. He could pit-stop and still be in the lead. 8.47pm GMT Lap 31/71: Hamilton moves past Hadjar into 9th. Norris’s lead at the top is 18 seconds as Leclerc pits. 8.45pm GMT Lap 30/71: Sainz gets a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. He says his car was being affected by vibrations. Hamilton moves past Bortoleto into 10th. 8.44pm GMT Lap 29/71: Piastri makes light work of Bortoleto and is in 9th, as Russell heads past Hadjar for 7th in front of them. 8.43pm GMT Lap 28/71: Hülkenberg comes into the pits and has to retire, presumably because of those power issues he had on the formation lap. Bearman zooms past Hadjar to move into 5th, with Antonelli also moving past the Racing Bulls driver. Piastri (11th) is behind Bortoleto. 8.41pm GMT Lap 27/71: Norris, Leclerc and Verstappen are still out there. There’s a 13-second gap between the top two and another 13 back to Verstappen. Tsunoda, Ocon and Hadjar are 4th-6th, having not stopped either. 8.40pm GMT Lap 26/71: Russell pits and comes out in front of Piastri, who takes Albon but is stuck behind the 11th-place Mercedes. 8.38pm GMT Lap 25/71: The Red Bull pit wall discuss whether to be on a one or two-stop strategy … while linked into Verstappen’s radio. Not reassuring, I guess. Bearman and Piastri pit. 8.37pm GMT Lap 24/71: Hamilton comes into the pits, taking his 10-second penalty, which will feel like an age for him. Bearman moves up to a podium position. 8.36pm GMT Lap 23/71: Antonelli pits, leaving Russell to move up to 6th and Piastri is back where he started in 7th. Antonelli returns in 13th. 8.34pm GMT Lap 22/71: Sainz is past Colapinto into 17th, with Alonso bringing up the rear after pitting. Hamilton isn’t pleased with his 10-second penalty over the team radio, complaining about the grip on the corner where he was penalised. 8.32pm GMT Lap 21/71: Nine seconds now separate Norris and the rest of the field. Russell continues to hold off Piastri for 7th. The gap between Norris and Piastri is 25 seconds – a whole pit stop. 8.30pm GMT Lap 20/71: Sainz pits to pick up some soft tyres but immediately comes off the track and is now trundling along at the back. 8.30pm GMT Lap 19/71: Piastri is still on the tail of Russell. Verstappen and Tsunoda are struggling on medium tyres, with everyone else at the sharp end on softs. 8.28pm GMT Lap 18/71: Norris is scampering away here, moving more than 7 seconds clear of Leclerc. Piastri is gaining on Russell in a battle for 7th place. Updated at 8.47pm GMT 8.27pm GMT Lap 17/71: That Hamilton penalty is very good news for Bearman (4th), who is 4.5s behind Hamilton. He’s moved away from Verstappen to open up a gap of 2s. 8.26pm GMT Hamilton gets 10-second penalty Lap 16/71: Hamilton is handed a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage after tussling with Verstappen on lap 6. 8.25pm GMT Lap 15/71: Hamilton is cleared for one infringement on lap 6 but is under investigation for leaving the track to gain an advantage. 8.23pm GMT Lap 14/71: There’s nearly 10 seconds between Norris and Hamilton in 3rd already. Verstappen is edging closer to Bearman but remains 1.4s off. 8.22pm GMT Lap 13/71: Antonelli is making Verstappen sweat a bit for 5th place and is within DRS range. Russell isn’t far behind the pair. 8.20pm GMT Lap 12/71: Norris has opened up a 3.6s gap on Leclerc out in front. The McLaren pit wall urge him to widen the gap. 8.19pm GMT Lap 11/71: Piastri finally takes Tsunoda to go 8th but he’s already lost a lot of ground on his rivals. 8.16pm GMT Lap 9/71: Hamilton is under a steward’s investigation for leaving the track on turn 4 of that 6th lap when Verstappen tried to take him. Their skirmish on turn 1 has also been noted by the stewards. Updated at 8.17pm GMT 8.15pm GMT Lap 8/71: Russell (7th) is now behind his Mercedes teammate Antonelli (6th). Tsunoda continues to hold off Piastri for 8th. Lawson has had to retire. 8.15pm GMT Lap 7/71: Bearman is in fourth, having never completed a lap in the top 6. 8.14pm GMT Verstappen tried to take Hamilton on the inside at the start of lap 6 but didn’t have enough room and had to bail out. Hamilton then locked up at turn 4 and rejoined the track ahead of Bearman and Verstappen. 8.12pm GMT Lap 6/71: Verstappen comes off again and goes on the grass! Hamilton also locks up and goes off but recovers his 3rd place. Bearman has edged in ahead of Verstappen to leave the Dutchman in 5th. 8.11pm GMT Lap 5/71: Bearman was a big winner of that first lap, squeezing through on the inside of the first couple of corners to move from 9th to 6th, where he remains. 8.09pm GMT Lap 4/71: Piastri tries to make a move on Tsunoda to take 8th but the Red Bull driver was expecting it and blocks him off. 8.09pm GMT Lap 3/71: Lawson damaged his front wing in the opening skirmishes and has pitted. There’s a double yellow flag for a moment because of some track debris but not for long. 8.08pm GMT Lap 2/71: Verstappen’s movements on the the first corner have been noted by the race stewards. He went past Russell on the straight and tried to go round both Ferraris on the first corner but went off the track, over the grass and retook his spot in 4th. 8.06pm GMT Piastri had a poor start and dropped as low as 11th but has recovered to 9th by the end of the first lap. Leclerc and Hamilton remain 2nd and 3rd, with Verstappen 4th and Russell 5th. 8.05pm GMT Lights out! Verstappen makes a bold start, going wide on the first corner and coming off the track! He recovers to move into fourth place. Norris survives the first few corners and is clear out in front. 8.04pm GMT Nico Hülkenberg is having power issues on his formation lap. Everything else seems to be in order. Those red lights start to tick up … 8.00pm GMT Here’s the top of the starting grid again: 1) Lando Norris (McLaren)2) Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 3) Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)4) George Russell (Mercedes) 5) Max Verstappen (Red Bull)6) Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 7) Oscar Piastri (McLaren)8) Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) 9) Ollie Bearman (Haas)10) Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) 7.56pm GMT A reminder of the race for the title: Overall standingsOscar Piastri (McLaren) 346pts – 7th on gridLando Norris (McLaren) 332 – 1stMax Verstappen (Red Bull) 306 – 5th 7.53pm GMT The drivers are on the grid, with the finishing touches being made to their cars. Pepas by Farruko is blasting out from the speakers, making it feel like any nightclub in a Spanish-speaking country. There are under 10 minutes to go until we go racing. 7.46pm GMT Located 2,240 metres above sea level, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is the highest track on the F1 calendar by some distance. The altitude has a significant impact on aerodynamics and downforce, of course. Don’t ask me to go into it. Williams explain it quite well … I think. 7.40pm GMT It’s expected to be 26ºC in Mexico City during the race, with track temperatures currently at 53ºC. Not quite as hot as Singapore or Austin but still pretty toasty for those drivers – and the cars. Ferrari have got bags of dry ice to feed through the vents to cool the engine. 7.30pm GMT Mexico is a happy hunting ground for Max Verstappen, starting 5th on the grid. He’s won five of the last seven grands prix at the Hermanos Rodríguez. No McLaren driver has won in Mexico since Ayrton Senna in 1989 (albeit there wasn’t a race there from 1993 to 2014). Lewis Hamilton (in 2016 and 2019) is the only driver on the front two rows of the grid who has won in Mexico. He starts 3rd, just as he did in 2019. 7.20pm GMT Just as Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen are locked in a three-horse race for the drivers’ title this year, so were Graham Hill, John Surtees and Jim Clark at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in the final race of the 1964 F1 season. Giles Richards takes a trip down memory lane in his new book: Related: The epic three-way F1 title tussle at the Mexico Grand Prix … in 1964 7.10pm GMT Starting grid 1) Lando Norris (McLaren)2) Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 3) Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)4) George Russell (Mercedes) 5) Max Verstappen (Red Bull)6) Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) 7) Oscar Piastri (McLaren)8) Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) 9) Oliver Bearman (Haas)10) Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)11) Esteban Ocon (Haas)12) Carlos Sainz (Williams)* 13) Nico Hülkenberg (Sauber)14) Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) 15) Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)16) Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) 17) Alexander Albon (Williams)18) Pierre Gasly (Alpine) 19) Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)20) Franco Colapinto (Alpine) *Qualified in seventh; five-place grid penalty 7.00pm GMT Preamble Well, what an opportunity for Lando Norris in Mexico City. His performance in qualifying yesterday has given him a significant advantage over his title rivals in a race that gets under way in an hour’s time. The McLaren driver starts on pole, with his teammate and overall leader Oscar Piastri only 7th and Max Verstappen in 5th. Completing the front row is Charles Leclerc, with Lewis Hamilton in 3rd and George Russell 4th. I’ll be bringing you lap-by-lap updates when the grand prix gets started at 8pm (GMT). With only five races of the season remaining and just 40 points between the top three drivers in the standings, it’s sure to be pivotal in the destination of the title. If you’ve got any thoughts on the action or the season as a whole, feel free to get in touch with me via email. ¡Vamos!