Hakkinen says 'McLaren and Ferrari will fight for the win', not Red Bull

Mika Hakkinen suspects that it will be McLaren and Ferrari "fighting for the win" at the Mexican Grand Prix this weekend. After dominating at the United States Grand Prix last time out, the two-time world champion believes that Ferrari will back that up with another solid performance at the Autodromo Hermano Rodriquez, while also suspecting that McLaren will bounce back after a podiumless weekend at the Circuit of The Americas.

The upgrades that Ferrari brought came alive in Austin, Texas, as Charles Leclerc stormed to victory ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz, giving the Prancing Horse their first 1-2 finish in F1 for the first time since 2006. Behind them was the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who seemed quite a way off of Ferrari's race pace despite new upgrades on his RB20.

However, the Dutchman is the most successful driver around the Mexican circuit, winning in 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, and he will be hoping to find his first win since the Spanish Grand Prix all the way back in June. However, Hakkinen does not believe he or Red Bull will be able to have the pace to keep up with Ferrari or McLaren this weekend.

Writing in his column for Unibet, the Finn said: "Max Verstappen has won 5 of the last 6 Mexican Grands Prix. The World Champion will be feeling positive after finishing 2nd in Singapore and 3rd in Austin with the kind of consistent performances which are protecting his World Championship lead. "

The Finn instead sees the race win being played out by Leclefc and Lando Norris, with the McLaren driver looking to close the gap to Verstappen in the drivers' championship: "My tip, however, is that Mexico should see McLaren and Ferrari fighting for the win, with Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc providing the focus."

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