Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico

Driver Quotes - Sunday 26 October

Oscar Piastri "A difficult race. It felt like we had very good pace; it was just incredibly difficult to use it with the DRS train and getting stuck in dirty air, which was a shame. We did make some progress, and I learned a lot as well. We'll take those positives into Brazil."

Lando Norris "What a race! It's awesome to win here! Good start, good first lap, and I could go from there. Eyes forward, focused on what I was doing. The launch was really the key thing. Thanks to the team for giving me a great race car - and a big thanks to all the fans. Lifting the trophy here in the stadium was really special. The focus doesn't change now, I'll just keep pushing to deliver results like this and keep doing my best every weekend."

Max Verstappen: "I didn't expect to be on the podium today, it was quite eventful at the beginning and I had a good start. However, I went into the kerb, started bottoming out, avoided the wall by going on the grass and got back on to the track. It was quite hectic and the grip wasn't there on the Medium tyre, we quickly realised it wasn't a great tyre and tried to extend on it as much as we could. As soon as I was on the Soft tyre it felt better and we were more competitive. We did the perfect strategy, really optimised the final stint and I was enjoying it. At the end with the virtual safety car, it was unfortunate timing but sometimes it works for you and sometimes it doesn't and that is just racing, but it would have been an exciting finish. I have said before that we need everything to go perfectly for the rest of the season and it wasn't perfect this weekend, so we will just need to continue optimising our performance as much as we can. However, even with a difficult weekend, to still be on the podium is a great result. We need to analyse everything and see what we can do better to come back stronger: it will be tough but we will give it everything that we can."

Yuki Tsunoda: "Unfortunately, today ended in frustration for me. There was a real opportunity to score good points for the Team but we were unfortunate with the long pit stop which disrupted a promising strategy for us, but that's racing and it happens. It's frustrating to have missed out on the points as we still have positions to play for in the Constructors', but I'll take the positives away. I was able to maximise my start again and make up a couple of positions before settling into the Medium run. In the first stint I wasn't too far off from Max, I was lapping consistently close to him and felt that I showed some of the best long run pace I have in my time with the Team. This afternoon just didn't go my way, but I'll keep pushing as I have done throughout the year."

Charles Leclerc: It's been a very positive weekend. We didn't come here with the expectation of replicating what we did in Austin, and in the end we executed a second great weekend, this time one step higher on the podium. I'm proud of the job our team has done.

I was tempted to stop a second time earlier on during the race, but decided to stick with my Medium tyres and make it work. We did have some luck too when the Virtual Safety Car came out in the closing laps, as with Max closing in quickly it would have been more difficult to keep him behind me while losing grip on those tyres.

We have to focus on each race as it comes and the standard we have set over the past two weekends has to be our target.

It was amazing to feel all the support from our fans here in Mexico City this weekend, the passion in the stadium was just incredible and made us feel at home.

Lewis Hamilton: Today didn't go the way I hoped. I had a strong start, but things changed with a few decisions that were beyond my control and it just wasn't possible to recover the race after that. The stint on the Medium tyre was challenging as it just didn't suit the track today, and the final phase lacked the pace we needed. Overall though, the car has felt good all weekend and I'm grateful for the progress we've made as a team. I'm looking forward to Brazil - it's one of my favourite places to race and I can't wait to be there in red for the first time.

George Russell: That was a frustrating afternoon. At the start, three drivers cut over the grass at turn one and either kept or gained positions without penalty. I stayed on the track but lost out, unfortunately. That also happened when Lewis (Hamilton) and Max (Verstappen) were battling; when the Red Bull came back on the track, I had to take avoiding action, go off track, and lost several positions myself. Those two moments were ultimately the undoing of our race.

From there, it was difficult being stuck in a train of cars and in particular, with the dirty air. We inverted the cars to try and maximise the team result but ultimately we just didn't have the pace to fight our way forward. We've got four races to go and need to regain some momentum if we are to emerge ahead in the battle for second in the Constructors' Championship. We're relishing that fight and looking forward to Brazil.

Kimi Antonelli: It was not an easy race today. I lost position at turn one and we were battling from there, stuck in a train of cars that we were not quite fast enough to pass. That was a shame as I think if we had managed to gain a few places on the first lap then we could have had a much more positive result than P6. It is so difficult to follow in the dirty air and, when in clean air, our pace was decent.

We opted to invert the cars in our second stint; we were in a train behind Bearman, and the tyre degradation was getting worse due to that. We will review whether that was the best decision or not but ultimately, we didn't have the pace today to battle forward and both George and I lost out to Piastri who seemed to have better speed. Our focus is now on Brazil and, with four races to go, getting back ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship.

Lance Stroll: "We always had realistic expectations coming to Mexico and historically this has been a track where we have struggled in the past so starting from P19 today was never going to be easy. I had a spin during the first lap as the track was dirty on the outside. A strong first stint on the Softs and some good moves by the team, but P14 was the maximum that was in it for us today."

Fernando Alonso: "It was a difficult race for me, and we've struggled for pace all weekend. We had a good start but then there was some contact which caused minor damage to the front wing. I was also surprised to see a few cars cutting the corner at the start, jumping ahead of us and not getting penalties. Unfortunately, about halfway through the race we had to retire the car as a precaution. Hopefully we can have more luck in the future."

Pierre Gasly: "That was a very difficult race for us as a team and we have a lot to review. After a decent start, we fell back to where we started and began managing the Medium tyre. We decided to stop quite early for Soft and had a lot of degradation, which meant a very long and challenging second stint. We will review everything but, fundamentally, we lacked performance here in Mexico City. It is a unique track but I am sure there are a few things we can do better. Hopefully we can improve for São Paulo even if the recent trend for us has been difficult. I am still motivated, we're all doing our best and pushing one another and we just need to try and maximise everything we have in our hands for the remainder of the season."

Franco Colapinto: "Other than the promising pace we showed in the last stint on the Soft tyres with lower fuel, it was a long and lonely afternoon for us. We went long on the Hards to start, aiming to capitalise on any potential opportunities, and we lacked a bit of pace to really stay in the mix. There's not much else to elaborate on or takeaway from this weekend, which has been a difficult one for the team. We will keep learning, keep fighting and hope to be more competitive in Brazil. I'm excited to be going back to São Paulo to race in front of the South American fans. Last year there were a lot of emotions that weekend for various reasons and this year I want to go and enjoy it and look forward to seeing the fans supporting me, even if the results are not there at the moment."

Esteban Ocon: "It's been a very solid race, and we're very happy with our weekend overall. We didn't get all the luck on our side, in terms of being in the wrong place at the wrong time in both quali and the race with the same car. Well done to Ollie and well done to the entire team, we're moving one place up in the Constructors' Championship with a whole lot of points and we should be pleased with that."

Oliver Bearman : "It was a crazy race out there. I'm so happy to get so many good points for the team, we did a really fantastic job getting the car in the right window, it felt great underneath me - it was the perfect job. It's a feelgood moment also, to go side by side with Max Verstappen is a very cool feeling, he's someone I've grown up watching in Formula 1. I'm so proud of this team - we finished P4 on merit - we may have got some luck to get there, but it was our speed that kept us there."

Alex Albon: A bit of a slow race for me. I was one of two drivers on the hard tyre at the beginning of the race which we just didn't have the pace. We committed to the one-stop strategy early on which turned out to be the slower option and didn't work for us, so we missed out on an opportunity to be dynamic and be more competitive in the midfield. It's been a couple races where we've been struggling and we need to figure out where it's coming from. We can see it in the data, we can see the issues I'm having with the car, so we need to regroup, reassess, and have a good catchup before Brazil so we can get back into rhythm and back into the top ten.

Carlos Sainz: A frustrating race as we had excellent pace today. Turn 1 was a melee of cars and I had contact with a VCARB which damaged the rim of my tyre, causing big vibrations on the first stint, and also damaged all the front tyre sensors, meaning the pit limiter didn't work. That caused the two penalties in the pit lane, compromising my entire race. It was basically a snowball effect that cost us a clear chance of getting points today, as the pace was really strong and I was very fast with both soft tyres. Disappointing end to the race, but we'll regroup and go again in Brazil.