Max verstappen and Lando Norris are having an intense battle for the championship lead. The battle has led to Max verstappen getting a 10-second penalty for pushing Lando Norris out of the track during racing each other. On the opening lap of the race, Max got the advantage during the start and went to the lead ahead of Carlos sainz.
Due to the crash of Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon safety car was brought in and after the restart Max Verstappen used all his energy in the battery to defend Carlos Sainz. So in the next lap, Sainz went all out on Max verstappen at the straights and got the lost position back from Max Verstappen.
After that, Lando Norris also charged at max verstappen and he started defending hard against his title rival. In turn 1 and turn 2 Verstappen was very hard in defending as he pushed Lando Norris out of the track where Norris regained his position ahead of Max Verstappen whom he thought was ahead of the chicane.
20-second Penalty for Max
Amazing battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris on lap 10!#F1 #Formula1 #MexcioGPpic.twitter.com/27Jo2x7Czs
— Extreme Cars (@extremecars__) October 27, 2024
But the Red Bull driver came back aggressively to take back his lost position from Lando Norris and in doing it he touched Lando Norris and pushed him off the track. The stewards were quick to look into it and they investigated the incident and gave a 10-second penalty to Max Verstappen. Lando Norris complained to his team over the radio about verstappen being dangerous in pushing him off the track.
The penalty didn't end there for max verstappen he crossed the track limits many times which brought him another 10-second penalty totalling 20 seconds in the race which was a disaster for the Dutchman at this stage of the season. He served the penalty on the pits and now again is pushing hard to get past the point-scoring position.
Charles Leclerc was the smartest man during the Max-Norris battle as he saw the opportunity to pass both the drivers just like he did during the United States Grand Prix where he saw both of them go wide of the track and surpassed the two title contenders.