Valtteri Bottas‘ Mexican Grand Prix ended prematurely on Lap 45, bringing out the safety car eventually, followed by a red flag. The Finnish driver’s Cadillac seemed to have a front wheel axle failure while going down the main straight at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, causing him to crash into the barriers.

Bottas endured a scary moment in Mexico City midway through the race as the front left tire of his Cadillac MAC-26 seemingly popped out while the driver was at full speed down the main straight in Mexico. The drivers can be going upwards of 200 mph before reaching the braking point at what is one of the quickest tracks on the F1 calendar.

After his tire failure, Bottas went straight on at Turn 1, but luckily had a long run-off before meeting with the barriers. The 37-year-old still suffered a hefty crash as he crashed back-first into the barriers.

The red flag was soon deployed by the FIA, followed by the medical car. But Bottas thankfully walked away from the crash on his own feet, as he gave the medical staff attending to him in the moment a thumbs up. But the driver did seem to be walking gingerly as he made his way into the medical car, on his way to the medical center for further tests.

Bottas was running in P20 and last of the drivers remaining in the race at the time of his crash.

Valtteri Bottas Suffered With Illness Before the Mexican GP

Bottas has had a difficult Mexican GP weekend, as the former Mercedes driver was also suffering with illness before the start of the weekend. He missed media duties on Thursday after suffering from flu-like symptoms, but returned to the car on Friday.

On top of this, Bottas also received a 50-place grid penalty for the race in Mexico City as Cadillac fitted multiple new power unit elements to his car, including an internal combustion engine, turbocharger, energy store, control electronics and MGU-K.

After all this, Bottas has now suffered a scary crash during the race and has retired from the race, making it his ninth retirement in the 2026 F1 season.

Max Verstappen wins Chaotic Mexican GP

Max Verstappen was leading the Mexican GP when Bottas’ crash brought out the red flag on Lap 46 of 71. The Dutchman then went on to hold the lead at the restart, and secured a third win of the season in Mexico City amid chaos.

Verstappen moved from P5 to P3 at the first corner of the first lap on Sunday, and then also overtook Lewis Hamilton for P2, who had been involved in an incident with teammate Charles Leclerc ahead.

Verstappen then inherited the race lead in the pit lane as Leclerc served a five-second time penalty for the aforementioned incident.

As it was looking like smooth sailing for Verstappen, the red flag came out due to Bottas’ crash on Lap 46. On the restart, the 29-year-old had a close call with Hamilton again at Turn 1, but managed to stay ahead.

But things weren’t straightforward from there on in either, as the safety car came out on Lap 60 after an accident between Oscar Piastri and Arvid Lindblad.

But Verstappen managed to hold on at the restart as well to secure the win. to take a 74th career win, and sixth in Mexico City. The driver is now also second in the drivers’ standings thanks to his result.

Meanwhile, Kimi Antonelli secured the drivers’ title in Mexico, becoming the youngest F1 world champion ever.

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