Red Bull missed out on taking a podium at the Mexico City Grand Prix as Max Verstappen was involved in a controversial incident and Sergio Perez had a difficult home race.

Verstappen finished sixth having started second, with the Dutchman handed an accumulative 20-second time penalty for two incidents with championship rival Lando Norris.

Meanwhile, team-mate Perez was the last finisher at his home race, with the Mexican finishing in 17th position and a lap down on Verstappen after a race where he was unable to recover from difficult qualifying, was handed a time penalty and suffered damage following contact with RB driver Liam Lawson.

The race was a chaotic afternoon in Mexico for Red Bull, who see Verstappen retain the lead in the Driver’s Championship but see his lead cut while Red Bull fell to third in the Constructor’s Championship.

For the driver’s standings, Verstappen is on 362 points and holds a 47 point lead on Norris, and a 71 point lead on Ferrari star Charles Leclerc.

With no points scored in Mexico, Perez remains 8th in the championship. He is on 150 points, sitting 27 behind George Russell and 88 clear of Fernando Alonso in 9th.

In the constructor’s side, a sequence that had seen Ferrari take a 1-2 and a 1-3 in the last two full grand prix races means that Red Bull drop below the Italian-based team in the Constructor’s Championship standings and into third position.

Red Bull have 512 points with 4 races of the season to go, with the Milton Keynes-based team now 25 points behind Ferrari and 54 points off leaders McLaren.

The race had begun brightly enough for Red Bull, with Verstappen passing Carlos Sainz off the line and Perez gaining a few positions off the line.

Things, however, quickly unravelled for Red Bull. Perez would be given a time penalty for not lining up properly at the start, while Verstappen would quickly be involved in incidents.

Verstappen was passed by Sainz a few laps after the restart following a first lap safety car brought out by a collision between Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda.

But things became more intense on lap ten. Norris made a move on Verstappen, and as the two duelled, Norris went off track and came back on ahead of Verstappen. A few corners later, Verstappen made an aggressive divebomb that took him and Norris off track, allowing Charles Leclerc to slip past both.

Verstappen was given two separate 10 second penalties for the two incidents, with the accumulated 20 second time penalty seeing Verstappen drop below the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton and finish adrift in sixth position.

Perez, meanwhile, was involved in a chaotic afternoon of his own. He suffered damage after contact with Lawson, had a further tangle with Lance Stroll, suffered a lack of pace on a two-stop strategy in a race where most drivers one-stopped, and had a failed attempt to get fastest lap as he finished last.

Red Bull face a further test of their credentials next time out when they travel to the next round in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, featuring a sprint race.