These 16 wins have the triple champion beating his already-impressive record for wins in a single season when he took 15 victories last year. However, it was another day of partial celebration for Red Bull, with their second driver, Sergio Perez, crashing out at Turn 1 on the opening lap.
Charles Leclerc started from pole position for the second successive race, but his lead didn't last long. The long run to the first braking zone had the Ferrari sandwiched by each Red Bull, with Verstappen attacking Leclerc's inside line and Perez on his outside. Any three-wide run into the right-hander looks destined for contact, and Perez was the ultimate loser when he tried to turn too early and ran over Leclerc's front-left wheel.
A dramatic airborne Perez silenced the previously elated crowd, with Mexico hoping their hero would take his first home victory. Instead, his RB19 slammed to the ground and limped back to the track in last place. The heavy damage sustained by the impact meant Perez returned to the pits to retire, with the disappointment visible through his body language. With speculation about the Mexican's immediate F1 future, a Lap 1 crash was the worst way to silence the critics.
Aside from a broken front wing end plate, Leclerc was free to continue without worry and slotted into P2, albeit without the pace to worry Verstappen. Carlos Sainz sat behind in the second Ferrari, but it was Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton who created the early-race action.
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Ricciardo had qualified a shock P4 on Saturday, and his AlphaTauri looked fast in Mexico City's thin air. Hamilton was on a charge, though, and pushed past the Australian after multiple laps prying for an opening, then set off in pursuit of the Ferraris.
Further back, fellow Brit Lando Norris also made his mark on the race. The McLaren driver had a woeful qualifying session and started the race in P17 but used Pirelli's soft tyres to advance through the field. The Norris fightback became the Grand Prix's star attraction, and he marched forward with brave overtakes on the midfield runners. An early pit stop to switch to the white-walled hard rubber helped keep the fast lap times coming, and Norris reached the top 10 before the halfway mark.
Out front, Hamilton had reeled in Sainz, but Mercedes opted to pit the seven-time champion rather than race for an overtake. Cooling problems were affecting the power units, and the undercut would let Hamilton race in clear air to close in rather than behind the Spaniard. When Ferrari eventually brought Sainz in, Hamilton was comfortably clear and was already honing in on Leclerc for P2.
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All the progress paused on Lap 33 when a left-rear part of Kevin Magnussen's car failed, causing the Haas driver to slam into the barriers. A red flag soon followed to clear the debris and repair the damaged Tecpro. Magnussen was unharmed but out of the race, and a short delay gave the drivers a chance to swap tyres and make repairs in the pit lane before a second standing start.
Verstappen surged ahead unchallenged, with the upper positions remaining largely the same as Leclerc led Hamilton, with the second Ferrari and Mercedes slotting in behind. Hamilton soon resumed his Leclerc-hunting race and used the grip advantage of Pirelli's medium tyre to slip by a few laps later at Turn 1.
Field spread saw Verstappen stretching his lead over Hamilton, who, in turn, widened the gap to Leclerc and Sainz as the laps ticked down in a processional race out front. Further back, though, Norris continued his surge through the pack. A slow restart merely delayed his progress past his rivals, and some sublime overtaking moves had him take the 'Driver of the Day' award for reaching P5 as the chequered flag waved.
The second act of F1's triple-header wasn't a classic but served as a demonstration for the season as a whole: Verstappen remains in a league of one as Perez struggles to keep up, with Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren vying for the best-of-the-rest award. Formula 1 now flies down to Brazil for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday to round out a frenetic three weekends.
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