Ratings | In Mexico, no one can match Verstappen and Red Bull Racing

For the fourth time in history, the Mexican Grand Prix was won by Max Verstappen. Nowhere else does the Dutchman manage to dominate as much as at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. The Red Bull Racing driver once again stood out head and shoulders above the rest this weekend, but how did the other drivers do? GPBlog gives marks to the drivers based on the entire race weekend.

Verstappen: 10

Max Verstappen dominated the weekend in Mexico. Despite the RB18 not being entirely suited to the Mexico City circuit, Verstappen still managed to take the pole and was the one who got the strategy from soft to medium working. The competition can only watch for now.

Hamilton: 8

Lewis Hamilton had a messy qualifying session with an unusual mistake in Q3, where Hamilton got a time deleted for track limits. As a result, the Brit started from P3, but in the first chicane, he briefly showed who is boss at Mercedes. Hamilton was able to keep pressure on Verstappen for a long time, but the Dutchman was simply too fast in the end.

Perez: 7

Sergio Perez was hoping for more in his home country, but the Mexican had to settle for a podium finish. Perez already lost a lot of ground on Saturday as he left two Mercedes drivers between him and Verstappen, which only made the task more difficult on Sunday. Though the Mexican did report electrical issues left him "blind". Behind Hamilton, he never managed to really mount an attack, just like in 2021.

Russell: 6

George Russell is keen to become the front-runner at Mercedes and showed he was very fast again on Saturday, but on Sunday the young Briton still proved no match for Hamilton in all situations. Russell lost the duel in the first chicane childishly after an inferior positioning and even lost a place to Perez as a result. In the race, Russell also ended up never proving to have the same pace as his teammate.

Sainz: 8

In a race weekend where Ferrari were totally out of it, Carlos Sainz was the better of the two drivers. On Saturday and Sunday, the Spaniard went faster around the track, but it did not yield more than a fifth place.

Leclerc: 6

Charles Leclerc had a difficult weekend in Mexico. There would be some engine problems on his side of the garage and that certainly won't have helped his weekend, but even then the gap to his teammate on Saturday was so big that even Valtteri Bottas was able to split the two.

Ricciardo: 8

Daniel Ricciardo finally scores points again but does so in an unusual fashion. His race could also have been over after his blunder in duel with Tsunoda, which normally only rookies make. That Ricciardo had so much pace that he could have had the 10-second penalty did show that he was very fast this weekend and made the strategy from medium to soft work nicely.

Ocon: 7

Esteban Ocon was again beaten by his teammate this weekend, but once again the Frenchman is 'helped' by technical problems on the other side of the garage. Thus, Ocon scores points again and Alonso does not.

Norris: 8

Lando Norris started the weekend well with a strong qualifying session and in the race, Norris also looked combative. He did have to get ahead of Ricciardo on a faster strategy, but together they put Alpine under a lot of pressure again.

Bottas: 8

Valtteri Bottas had a phenomenal qualifying session, but in the race, we saw the familiar Valtteri again. He gave up spot after spot and where most cars were actually slightly faster, the Finn did not show at all that he wanted to fight for his position. Racing remains strange to Bottas as a result.

Gasly: 5

Pierre Gasly was again slower than his teammate this weekend, eventually finishing just outside the points. It seems like the AlphaTauri driver can't wait until the end of the season. 

Albon: 7

Alexander Albon had a neat weekend in Mexico City. The British Thai did not score any points, but that simply does not seem possible with the FW44 in the closing stages of 2022 either.

Zhou: 5

Guanyu Zhou was beaten by seven-tenths in Q2 by Bottas and in the race, the Chinese driver also did not have the desired pace to get into the points.

Vettel: 7

Sebastian Vettel had a colourless weekend for Aston Martin who simply did not have the car to be competitive in Mexico this weekend.

Stroll: 6

Lance Stroll was slower than his teammate and had some notable duels with Gasly.

Schumacher: 6

Mick Schumacher finished behind his teammate in qualifying but ahead of him in the race. The pair came nowhere near points.

Magnussen: 6

Kevin Magnussen was still faster than Mick on Saturday, but on Sunday he could not get past his teammate after a grid penalty. A weekend to quickly forget for the American racing team.

Latifi: 4

Nicholas Latifi was the only driver two laps down and had a lousy race weekend. Two more to go.

Alonso: 8

Once again, Fernando Alonso saw a good result go up in smoke due to an engine problem. The frustration is understandable, as the Spaniard was on his way to good points and drove in front of his teammate again all weekend.

Tsunoda: 7

Yuki Tsunoda was bowled out of the race by Ricciardo. While the Australian was still able to bring in quite a few points for McLaren despite a penalty, the Japanese driver now missed out on a possible points finish for AlphaTauri.