It has been one week since the Formula One cars lapped around the Circuit of the Americas in the United States and the drivers returned again this weekend for a race, but this time it was just south of the American border, in Mexico. This is the second Mexican Grand Prix since the event returned to the calendar last season.
The weekend started with Lewis Hamilton on the top of the leaderboard in the first free practice session. He was closely followed by Ferrari and Force India. The track grip was lower than expected, due to a dirty racing surface and low track temperatures. Max Verstappen had a rough session, as he suffered with brake issues throughout the session. There was only a brief stoppage when Felipe Nasr’s front wing exploded on impact with the kerb. Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton swapped positions for the second free practice session. The gap was extremely narrow: only 0.004 seconds. Grip had not improved for the afternoon, making the racing surface slightly more slippery than normal.
Red Bull was able to improve enough to split the Mercedes drivers in the final free practice session and allowed Max Verstappen to take the lead. The top four drivers were all within half of a second of the leading pace set by Verstappen. The grip levels improved, as the sun finally started to heat things up. Ferrari didn’t get the performance that they had wanted, as Vettel hit traffic on his hot lap, while Kimi Räikkönen ran wide on his. Hamilton claimed the pole position, with his teammate locking out the front row of the grid for Mercedes. Red Bull managed to lock out the second row of the grid, while Nico Hülkenberg prevented the Ferrari drivers from locking up the third row. The Williams drivers would start behind Ferrari, with Carlos Sainz wrapping up the top ten.
On the race day, Hamilton got a start good enough to remain in front of his teammate, but he locked up and ran wide in the first corner. Nico Rosberg also ran a little wide after contact with Max Verstappen. Further back in the second corner, Pascal Wehrlein, Esteban Gutiérrez and Marcus Ericsson collided, bringing out the safety car. Wehrlein was unable to continue the race, while the others carried on. Carlos Sainz was handed a five second penalty for forcing Fernando Alonso off of the track on the opening lap. Vettel was stuck behind the faster Williams of Felipe Massa for many laps. Vettel was able to stay out and take the lead of the race. He managed to stretch out his first stint longer than expected, allowing him to make only a single stop race strategy. After the pit stop, Hamilton was able to retake the lead with Rosberg behind him. Verstappen was able to force Rosberg to push. On lap 50, Rosberg locked up and lost a lot of time when he was trying to overtake a backmarker. Verstappen attempted to use that opportunity to get past Rosberg, but dove into the corner a little too fast and was unable to make the position stick. Verstappen lost time to Rosberg and dropped back into the clutches of Vettel. Verstappen blew it in the first corner, as he locked up. He needed to give the place to Vettel because he had gained an advantage, but Verstappen did not get out of the way, allowing Daniel Ricciardo to get within DRS range of the Ferrari. Understandably, Ferrari were extremely angry with the Red Bull driver and the stewards vowed to investigate the issue after the race, meaning that Verstappen had the right to maintain his position. Ricciardo nearly collided with Vettel, as the duo locked up into the corner. Lewis Hamilton took the race victory, with Rosberg taking the second position on the podium. The stewards immediately dropped Verstappen down to P5, meaning that Vettel got the bottom step on the podium.
Nico Rosberg had the chance to win the World Drivers’ Championship title in Mexico, but he was unable to do so. There are now only two rounds remaining in the 2016 season. The teams will be in Brazil for the penultimate round of the championship in two weeks’ time.
