The behaviour of the fans during the Mexican Grand Prix post-race interviews summed up the entire race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez: poor.
Sunday’s race was perhaps the worst of the year so far, with very little action having taken place.
Max Verstappen claimed yet another lights-to-flag victory, to win his 14th race of the 2022 season, meaning he’s now eclipsed Sebastian Vettel’s and Michael Schumacher’s joint record for most wins in a year.
The Dutchman made an excellent start, whilst George Russell dropped from second to fourth following the opening sequence of corners.
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This meant Lewis Hamilton rose to second, whilst Sergio Pérez moved into third, and everything remained until the end.
That really was it in terms of excitement at the front, with Red Bull’s and Mercedes’ differing strategies having no actual effect on the race at all, which was basically stabilised by the end of Lap One.
Pérez arguably would’ve claimed second had it not been for a poor pit-stop, which occurred due a tyre not wanting to come off his RB18.
The Mexican could never quite get within striking distance of the seven-time World Champion, due to following another car being seemingly impossible.
So, Verstappen claimed victory number 14 of the year, from Hamilton and Pérez, with the Mexican’s rostrum going down brilliantly with the home crowd.
However, Hamilton’s second place certainly didn’t, as the 37-year-old was booed by the home fans as he approached his post-race interview.
It made for an unwelcomed atmosphere for the Brit, who revealed that he had been receiving “boos all day”, in what he labelled as an “awkward” Grand Prix from that perspective.
“First, this has been an amazing crowd,” Hamilton started by saying during his post-race interview.
“Definitely a bit awkward this time around, boos all day… Nonetheless I have so much love for Mexico and for the people here. What a great race and event they put on here.”
After mentioning the boos he’d received in Mexico City, Hamilton went on to explain that he felt that the Austrians were “clearly too fast” during the race, which they did appear to be.
“I was so close I think in that first stint,” added Hamilton.
“But I think the Red Bull’s just clearly too fast today, and ultimately maybe they had the better tyre strategy.”
Mercedes went for a more conservative tyre strategy for the race, after starting on the Mediums before switching to the Hards.
Red Bull, on the other hand, started on three lap old Softs before switching to their Mediums, which they then managed to the end of the race.
Whilst graining appeared to be an issue during the first stint of the race, tyre wear on the whole appeared to be very low, making a Soft-Medium strategy possible.
The 103-time Grand Prix winner thinks his team chose the wrong strategy for the race, after revealing he wanted to start on the softest compound.
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“I’m not sure it was the right tyre at the end,” Hamilton reiterated.
“I thought we should have started on the soft, but obviously we had the opposite tyre.
“It was okay in the first stint, but that hard tyre was just at offset, so congratulations to Max.