Max Verstappen vowed to "go for more" after clinching a record 14th win of the Formula 1® season – as Red Bull's tactics earned plaudits from Lewis Hamilton.
Victory at the Mexican Grand Prix took Verstappen into the outright lead for the most single-season victories in F1® history, going past a mark previously jointly held by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.
Verstappen pitted to swap soft for medium tyres in the Red Bull on lap 26, and Hamilton came in soon after for Mercedes and went out on the hard compound after beginning on medium.
The British driver was not happy with that choice and openly questioned the strategy during the race, with Mercedes seemingly hopeful Red Bull was on a two-stop plan.
However, Verstappen made it to the finish, with the championship winner adding another garland in a staggering season, while Mexican teammate Sergio Perez finished third.
A strong start from pole by Verstappen allowed him to have command of the race throughout.
"Of course that helped me out a lot for the rest of the race, to stay in the lead after turn one," Verstappen said.
"We were also on a different strategy to the cars around us, but it's an incredible result. The pace of the car was again really nice. We had to look after our tyres because it was a very long stint on the medium, but we made it work."
When the 14th win was pointed out to him, Verstappen said: "It's been an incredible year so far. We are definitely enjoying it and we'll try to go for more."
Two races remain in 2022, in Brazil and Abu Dhabi, and Hamilton may struggle to prevent Verstappen further stretching his wins record.
Hamilton was booed by the Mexican crowd, despite describing them as "amazing". The negative reaction to Hamilton appeared to stem from fans favouring Red Bull, given home driver Perez races for the Austrian team.
"It has definitely been a bit awkward this time around with boos all day, but nonetheless I have so much love for Mexico and the people here. What a great race and event this weekend," said the seven-time champion.
"I was so close in the first stint, but the Red Bulls were clearly too fast today and also maybe they had the better tyre strategy."
He reiterated the point he made to his team that Mercedes may have gone this one wrong.
"I'm not sure it was the right tyre at the end," Hamilton said. "I thought we should have started on the soft, but obviously we had the opposite tyre. It was OK in the first stint, but the hard tyre was just the offset. So, congratulations to Max, and it's great to be up here and separate the two [Red Bull drivers]."
Perez, the darling of the Mexico City crowd, said: "I gave my best. Today at the start I really pushed hard."
He pointed to overtaking being "so difficult", and that was shown in a race where there was precious little drama.
"Unfortunately it didn't work out today but still it's a good podium in front of this crowd," Perez said. "I really wanted more today but fair play, this still is a good day."
Hamilton's Mercedes team-mate George Russell, resigned to missing out on a podium finish and complaining of worn tyres, pitted in the closing stages and produced the fastest lap of the race, a small consolation for the British driver.
A magnificent seventh double podium of the season 🏆🏆#MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/Th9NnDD9UB
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) October 30, 2022
