F1 2022: What do the Driver Standings look like after the Mexican GP?

Red Bull secured the constructors' world championship title last weekend at the 2022 F1 US GP. The Austrian outfit now have both drivers in the top two of the drivers' standings once again after Sergio Perez took the second consecutive podium at his home GP this weekend. In doing so, the Mexican regained second position from Charles Leclerc in the championship.

Max Verstappen, who sealed the drivers' championship title at the Japanese GP, further extended his lead, taking his 14th win of the year in Mexico. In doing so, he broke the record for most wins in a year that was set by Michael Schumacher and matched by Sebastian Vettel.

Both Mercedes drivers finished in the top four with a P2 and P4 finish for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell respectively. The seven-time world champion gained a position over Carlos Sainz in the drivers' standings. The Spaniard was one of two Ferrari drivers to lose a position in the championship since both finished in fifth and sixth.

Further down, Daniel Ricciardo scored significant points in Mexico and now has a mere one-point deficit against Sebastian Vettel in the championship.

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Here are the 2022 F1 Driver Standings after the Mexican GP

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Car	PTS
1	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing RBPT	416
2	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing RBPT	280
3	Charles Leclerc	MON	Ferrari	275
4	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes	231
5	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes	216
6	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Ferrari	212
7	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren Mercedes	111
8	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine Renault	82
9	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Alpine Renault	71
10	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Alfa Romeo Ferrari	47
11	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	36
12	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren Mercedes	35
13	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas Ferrari	24
14	Pierre Gasly	FRA	AlphaTauri RBPT	23
15	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	13
16	Mick Schumacher	GER	Haas Ferrari	12
17	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	AlphaTauri RBPT	12
18	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	Alfa Romeo Ferrari	6
19	Alexander Albon	THA	Williams Mercedes	4
20	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Mercedes	2
21	Nyck De Vries	NED	Williams Mercedes	2
22	Nico Hulkenberg	GER	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	0

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Ferrari feel they "optimised" the resuls at 2022 F1 Mexican GP

Both Ferrari drivers missed out on the podium this weekend at the Mexican GP with a visible lack of pace as compared to the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull. The two drivers, however, insisted that they performed to the maximum level they could.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 in a post-race interaction at the Mexican GP, Leclerc admitted that there is a possibility of a similar difference in pace to Red Bull in the future. He said:

“A tricky one. Unfortunately, I wish I could say for sure [that it is a one off] but the thing that hurts is that I felt like we’ve maximised absolutely everything today and even though we’ve done that, we are one minute away from Max, which is a huge difference. So we need to look into that and make our bad days better because whenever we have a bad day, especially on the Sunday, it seems to be a really bad day. Today I felt like [there were] a bit of explanations [to their performance]. It’s a bit of a one-off here, different conditions so I hope we can come back to our performance in Brazil.”

His teammate Carlos Sainz was just happy to have had a smooth race, even if it meant lacking in pace to Red Bull and Mercedes after all the bad luck he has had recently. He said:

“For once I am fast [and] we are one minute off. At least, I haven’t had a race in a month, so to actually get back into it and do a good race with pace management. I’ll take it as a positive and make sure that we are back on the pace in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.”

40 points separate Ferrari from Mercedes in the F1 constructors' standings with two races to go this season.