By Robert Haile

Max Verstappen’s record breaking season continued as he held off Lewis Hamilton for his sixteenth win of the season.

After an off pace qualifying, by this seasons high standards, Verstappen used the long run to take the lead from third and he didn’t look back.

The only blip almost came when Haas’ Kevin Magnussen crashed heavily bringing out the red flags but the three time world champion held on to the lead as Lewis Hamilton passed Charles Leclerc for second.

Verstappen said: “The pace of the car was very good today, we were planning to do a different strategy to everyone else but unfortunately we couldn’t show that with the red flag. Nevertheless, we were very strong on the hard tyres at the end.

“To win 16 races in a season is something I never thought would be possible, this season has been unbelievable. I understand from Checo’s side why he went for it at the beginning, it would have been incredible for him to be on the podium at his home race here in Mexico.

“Thankfully the crowd stayed, and they’ve been amazing all weekend, I’ve felt so welcome here as I always do. For now, my head is already on to the next race, let’s see what we can do in Brazil.”

Having both gone extended runs on medium tyres the Tifosi will see this as a podium lost with Carlos Sainz taking fourth as McLaren’s Lando Norris charged to fifth gaining twelve places in the process.

Mercedes George Russell lost out on fifth and had to battle AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo for sixth as the returning Aussie showed some of his best form in years.

Oscar Piastri continued to show why he was fought over by Alpine and McLaren as his eighth place finish takes him close to breaking Hamilton’s record as highest point scoring rookie as Williams’ Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon’s Alpine took the last two point scoring places.

It was almost a double points finish as Pierre Gasly followed his teammate home with Yuki Tsunoda recovering from an earlier clash to take twelfth for AlphaTauri.

Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg dropped back to thirteenth as Alfa Romeo’s good qualifying didn’t translate as Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were the last of the finishers.

Home favourite Sergio Perez’ race finished early after a collision with Leclerc while both of the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso joined him with Logan Sargeant’s Williams a late retirement.

In the battle for second Sergio Perez has increased his lead to 39 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso is 18 points behind in fourth.

With the Constructors Championship sealed the battle for second is heating up and Mercedes lead with a 22 point gap to Ferrari in third while McLaren have overtaken Aston Martin and now 6 points ahead of their British rivals.

Formula 1 crosses the border and heads to Mexico City for a straight forward Mexican Grand Prix on October 27-29 where Perez will hope for victory in front of his home crowd.