It was a great weekend of racing from the new Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico. The Mexican fans were very much pleased to have the sport of Formula One make the return to their country following a 23 year absence.
Friday morning was the first time that the drivers were able to drive the newly designed Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez outside of the simulator. The day began in damp conditions, with teams running the intermediate tyres. However, teams were able to run the slick tyres in dry conditions by the end of the first free practice session. Max Verstappen topped the time charts for the first time in his career, setting the fastest time in free practice one. Nico Rosberg claimed the top in free practice two, ending the day with the fastest time.
Mercedes continued their domination of the time charts on Saturday, with Rosberg topping Hamilton in the free practice and the qualifying sessions. Jenson Button had a rough day, suffering from various power unit issues that prevented him from participating in qualifying and seriously hindered his time in the free practice session. Meanwhile, the Red Bull cars continued to lap in the top five and Kimi Räikkönen suffered from some failures all day. At the end of the day, Rosberg took pole, with Hamilton and Vettel directly behind.
On Sunday, Mercedes took the lead off of the grid and managed to pull away and form a massive gap to the third place car. Ferrari had an unfortunate day. Sebastian Vettel and Danial Ricciardo made contact in the first corner, giving Vettel a puncture and leaving him very frustrated. This frustration led to many driving errors, as he attempted to over drive the car to make up ground. He eventually put the car into the barriers. The other Ferrari was sent to the garage prematurely, after Kimi Räikkönen and Valtteri Bottas clashed again. Fernando Alonso also had a poor day of running, retiring of a known issue from Saturday on the first lap of the race. As with the other sessions earlier in the weekend, there was a lack of grip on the new surface. Teams that started with the soft tyre pitted quite early for the medium tyre. A safety car for Vettel’s accident allowed many teams to swap for the soft tyres again. Hamilton was making up ground throughout the race, but wasn’t able to make it past his teammate. Rosberg led the Mercedes 1-2 finish with Valtteri Bottas taking the bottom step of the podium.
Formula One moves to the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo, Brazil on the weekend of November 15 for the penultimate round of the 2015 Formula One season.
