Lewis Hamilton secured his fourth World Drivers’ Championship title in front of the Mexican crowd in a grand prix that started with a dramatic collision between the two championship contenders. Max Verstappen took a comfortable race victory after a stunning performance and escaping the reliability issues that infected the most of the other Renault powered cars.
Having failed to secure his World Drivers’ Championship title victory in the United States, Hamilton had his second chance to do so today in Mexico. Finishing in the top five would make Hamilton the 2017 World Champion, regardless of Sebastian Vettel’s finishing position. If Hamilton finished outside of the top five, Sebastian Vettel needed to win the race, unless Hamilton finished in P10 or outside of the points, in which case Vettel would only need to finish in P2 to keep his championship hopes alive. Anything lower than first or second would mean that Hamilton can be confirmed as the World Drivers’ Championship of 2017.
It was a dramatic start to the Mexican Grand Prix, as the two World Drivers’ Championship competitors make contact. Max Verstappen had a slightly better start than Sebastian Vettel off the grid. With the longest run up to the first corner on the calendar, the circuit presented an opportunity for Verstappen to battle with Vettel. Entering the first corner, Verstappen, Vettel and Hamilton were three wide.
Verstappen got through in the middle and Vettel suffered minor damage to his front wing in turn two after hitting the right rear tyre of Verstappen when turning in. With Verstappen already through and in the lead, Vettel made major contact with Hamilton’s right rear tyres as the duo exited the third corner. Vettel needed to pit for a new front wing, while Hamilton limped around the track with a puncture and pitted for a new set of tyres. Both drivers fitted the soft compound tyre, presumably trying to make it to the end of the race on that single set of tyres.
Carlos Sainz pitted the following lap for the soft compound tyres, presumably because of a slow puncture from the debris caused by Vettel and Hamilton in the opening sequence of corners. Felipe Massa followed suit because of a slow puncture, also pitting for the soft compound tyres. A few laps later, Daniel Ricciardo also made his way into the pits, but not for tyres. The Australian was retiring his car for the second consecutive weekend, disappointing since he was making up serious ground after his poor grid position.
Vettel tangled with Massa on lap 13 when attempting to get by. Vettel was trying to pass on the outside of the corner. Massa suffered some oversteer and made contact with Vettel, forcing him off of the track. Neither driver suffered any serious damage.
Nico Hülkenberg suffered his third consecutive retirement after just 25 laps. The team instructed him to climb onto the nose of the car and jump clear of the car in an effort to prevent him from suffering an electric shock, suggesting that there was a KERS issue and that the car was retired for safety purposes. A little more than five laps later, Brenden Hartley’s day went up in flames, with smoke pouring from the rear of his Toro Rosso. This prompted a virtual safety car and triggered a chain reaction of pit stops. Hamilton pitted for the supersoft tyre compound, but Vettel pitted for the ultrasoft tyres, both under the virtual safety car period.
By the halfway point in the race, Vettel had made his way comfortably into the top ten, while Hamilton was still struggling to pass the cars at the very rear of the field. Even worse for Hamilton is that he had been lapped by the race leader.
With ten laps remaining in the race, Vettel had worked his way up to P4, albeit over a minute behind the leading Red Bull. However, Kimi Räikkönen was in P3, meaning that the team would yield him to allow Vettel past if there was a chance for Vettel to finish in the require P2. The only hope that Ferrari had was that Verstappen would get caught out by the reliability issues that had ended the day of most other Renault powered cars in the race.
However, it never happened and getting to P2 proved to be too big a hill to climb for Vettel. Verstappen earned the race victory, with Bottas and Räikkönen concluding the podium. With a P9 finish, Hamilton finished a bit lower than he had hoped, but it doesn’t matter. Hamilton officially secured his fourth World Drivers’ Championship and made him the most successful British Formula One driver, surpassing Sir Jackie Stewart.
Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
