Red Bull came agonisingly close to yet another one-two finish last weekend at the Mexican Grand Prix, as a poor pit-stop cost home hero Sergio Pérez the chance to jump Lewis Hamilton for second at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
It was by far one of the most uneventful races of the season, with the opening few corners proving to be the only pivotal part of the race in regard to the podium places.
Max Verstappen made an excellent start from pole and led out of Turn Three, where he then comfortably went on to claim a 14th and record-breaking win of the season.
Behind the double World Champion, George Russell went wide at the opening corner which allowed both Hamilton and Pérez through at the next two corners, dropping the Mercedes driver to fourth.
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Due to the thin air, the drivers were unable to run close together, meaning it was pit-stops that presented the final opportunity for Pérez to jump Hamilton.
Red Bull tried to undercut the seven-time World Champion, but failed to do so after a lengthy stop, due to a tyre not wanting to come off the car.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner revealed that the team will “investigate” the issue, after Verstappen suffered a similar issue at the United States Grand Prix.
“I think without the issue of the pitstop, I think Checo [Perez] would have got the jump on Lewis,” Horner told reporters.
“We need to investigate what caused that. It looks like the nut actually stuck, or it wouldn’t undo cleanly
“But it was a great recovery from him. Again, very strong pace, but just not quite enough to be able to make the pass on Lewis.
“Unfortunately, he was 0.03 of a second off [Hamilton] when he wanted to get the DRS, and so he just wasn’t quite within range.”
Mercedes conservative tyre strategy also somewhat neutralised the race, with the Germans opting for a Medium-Hard strategy, unlike the Austrians who went for an aggressive Soft-Medium approach.
It meant that the Silver Arrows could only match the lap-times being set by Verstappen and Pérez even while pushing, whereas the two Red Bulls were managing their Medium compound during their second stint.
Horner thinks Mercedes could’ve won either in Mexico or in the United States if it weren’t for being “as conservative” as they were, with Hamilton having also been on older rubber late on at Circuit of the Americas.
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“We were quite surprised Mercedes went as conservative as they did with the medium/hard strategy,” he said after the Mexican GP.
“I think we still had the edge but they would have been a lot closer. If you hear their drivers, they’re not very happy about the hard tyre.
“That’s the second weekend in a row they’ve put that tyre on and it’s cost them a victory. I was quite surprised at that.”