A tense afternoon in Mexico saw
Mercedes Lewis Hamilton secure a fourth drivers title and Red Bull’s Max
Verstappen a crushing third Grand Prix victory. Hamilton and championship rival
Sebastian Vettel came together at the start, dropping both men to the back, and
though the Ferrari driver recovered to fourth, the Briton’s ninth was enough to
wrap things up with two rounds to go.
Joining the fast-starting
Verstappen on the podium were Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari’s Kimi
Raikkonen. Behind Vettel, Esteban Ocon was fifth, split from Force India team
mate by Williams’ Lance Stroll. Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, Hamilton and McLaren’s
Fernando Alonso completed the top ten. Verstappen dominated the race to score a
resounding win, but all eyes were inevitably on the two title protagonists
after they touched on the opening lap and the story of how Hamilton recovered
from last place to win his fourth world championship overshadowed the
Dutchman’s greatest drive.
It all began well, with polesitter
Vettel, Verstappen and Hamilton running side by side down to Turn 1 after the
start. Vettel was on the inside and kept his pole advantage, but only just from
Verstappen, as Bottas braked just enough on the inside to let Hamilton through
from the outside line. Hamilton, meanwhile, got a very clean run at the
delayed Vettel and had snatched second by the exit to Turn 3, when the German
brushed his right-rear tyre, puncturing it.
On top of that, Hamilton climbed to
an eventual ninth after a huge fight with Alonso, and with 333 points to
Vettel’s 277, the title war was finally over no matter what happens in Brazil
and Abu Dhabi. It was a bad day for most of the Renault runners: Sainz
flat-spotted a tyre early on to prompt a pit stop and retired with handling
issues; Nico Hulkenberg lost seventh place (having at one stage run fourth)
with electrical problems; Brendon Hartley’s Toro Rosso succumbed to power loss;
and Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull ate another turbocharger. And Marcus Ericsson,
who’d had a great run in ninth place early in the race in his Ferrari-powered
Sauber, fell prey to cooling troubles to become the other retirement.
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