@LewisHamilton wins #MexicanGP as @MercedesAMGF1 outfoxes @ScuderiaFerrari. #F1 #F1ESTA

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton recovered from an opening lap off to win the Mexican Grand Prix, but the Briton will have to wait for next weekend’s United States Grand Prix to wrap up his sixth world driver’s title.

 

 

Hamilton took an excursion across the grass at the start of the race and dropped to fifth but executed a one-stop strategy to perfection as he overhauled both Ferrari’s to take his 10^th victory of the season and the 100^th Grand Prix win for Mercedes.

 

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was unable to charge at Hamilton after losing track position through strategy as the German came home in second with the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas completing the top three.

 

Pole-sitter and early race leader Charles Leclerc fell to fourth as his two-stopped strategy crumbled.

 

Ferrari were controlling the early stages of the Grand Prix despite Leclerc being slightly touched by Vettel’s front wing after the former ran wide under-braking at the turn four left-hander and slowing right down through the following right-hand corner.

 

Behind them, Hamilton had suffered an early set-back after tangling with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen as the Dutchman challenged the former on the inside into turn one.

 

Hamilton had already been covered by Vettel on the rundown into the first corner, a move he described as ‘dangerous’ but the stewards took no action on the noted investigation.

 

At turn one, Hamilton ran wide and suffered a snap of oversteer on the outside kerb, which sent his F1 W10 EQ Power+ racer to the right and put him and Verstappen onto the grass between the turns two and three sequence.

 

The incident relegated Hamilton to fifth behind Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, while Verstappen dropped to eighth, behind Lando Norris and Bottas.

 

Hamilton passed Albon on the fourth lap into turn one then remained in fourth place for his opening stint, which the championship leader extended to lap 23 – eight more than race leader Leclerc and nine-more than Albon, as both drivers committed to a two-stop strategy.

 

However, Vettel – who claimed the race lead as team-mate Leclerc pitted, and Bottas extended their initial stints 13 and 14 laps longer than Hamilton respectively.

 

Hamilton’s early stop allowed the Briton to jump Vettel to take track position, although the major tyre age difference meant the Mercedes driver was concerned that he would be unable to defend once Vettel stopped for fresher rubber.

 

However, by the time Leclerc and Albon made their final stops, and left Hamilton leading the Grand Prix from Vettel, Hamilton kept his chasing rival more than two seconds behind for the next 20 laps.

 

In that period, Bottas got right up to the rear of Vettel, while Leclerc used his fresher rubber tyres after his final stop to cut into the gap of the one-stop running trio in-front.

 

With 12 laps remaining, Leclerc almost got within DRS range of Bottas but suffered a front-left lock up and ran wide into the right-hand turn four, which hurt his deficit to the Finn.

 

In-front, Vettel got almost within two seconds of Hamilton for the first time with eight laps remaining, but the latter struck back immediately to keep the Ferrari at bay.

 

Hamilton’s victory, with Bottas third, extended the Briton’s championship lead by ten points but he needed another four more over his Mercedes team-mate to claim his sixth title.

 

This means Hamilton, who now has a 74 point-lead with 78 still available for the remaining three Grands Prix.

 

Behind the top four, Albon settled for fifth in his best result for Red Bull, with team-mate Verstappen charging back to sixth after an extremely long 66-lap stint on the hard compounds, which earned the Dutchman ‘Driver of the Day”.

 

Verstappen’s race was hampered early on, when after being forced off track by race-winner Hamilton, he suffered a right-rear puncture moments later after lunging at the other Silver Arrows of Bottas into the stadium section.

 

The Dutchman squirmed his way to the pits with the tyre ripped from the rim of his Honda-powered RB15 racer, before gradually climbing through the pack with no more pit-stops and extreme tyre management.

 

Home Grand Prix favourite and Racing Point’s Sergio Perez withstood intense pressure from Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo to take best-of-the-rest honours in seventh place.

 

The other Renault R.S.19 of Nico Hulkenberg was on course to finish ninth but was hit from behind and sent into a spin by Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat on the last lap and the German’s rear-end smacked the barriers.

 

Kvyat was handed a 10-second post-race time penalty for his last lap tangle with Hulkenberg and relegates the Russian from ninth to 11^th with Toro Rosso team-mate Pierre Gasly and Hulkenberg promoted to the final points-places.

 

Racing Point’s Lance Stroll crossed the line in 12^th place and ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz – who was on course for another early best-of-the-rest finish, but the latter’s race faded badly after putting on harder rubber, which left the Spaniard no choice but to pit again for mediums and ended up 13^th.

 

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi finished 14^th and in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who took 15^th and ROKiT Williams Racing’s George Russell who was 16^th.

 

The other Haas and Williams of Romain Grosjean and Robert Kubica brought up the rear respectively.

 

The two retirements of the Grand Prix were Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen who was forced to retire on lap 58 and McLaren’s Lando Norris who’s race was ruined by the Woking-based outfit releasing him with wheel improperly attached and parked it in the garage on lap 48.

 

The Top Three

 

Winner – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “Firstly, we’ve got to applaud this incredible crowd! Today’s an incredible result, I have to say a huge thanks to our team. We came here thinking we were on the back foot – but we pulled through.”

 

2^nd – Sebastian Vettel, #5, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90: “I think surprisingly the hard tyres worked really well. It was a long race with no break, but I think Lewis was just cruising for most of the second stint. I’m happy because it was a good race, but with strategy we could have been a bit sharper.”

 

3^rd – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “I enjoyed it, considering yesterday it was a good result. The start was quite tricky and lost a place, so had to come back a little bit, but I don’t think we could have done much more.”

 

Formula 1 Gran Premio De Mexico 2019 Race Results Classification (71 Laps)

POS	DRIVER	CAR	GAP
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	1h36m48.904s
2	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	1.766s
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	3.553s
4	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari	6.368s
5	Alexander Albon	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	21.399s
6	Max Verstappen	Aston Red Bull Racing-Honda	1m08.807s
7	Sergio Perez	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	1m13.819s
8	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team	1m14.924s
9	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	1 Lap
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault F1 Team	1 Lap
11	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	1 Lap
12	Lance Stroll	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	1 Lap
13	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	1 Lap
14	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing	1 Lap
15	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	2 Laps
16	George Russell	ROKiT Williams Racing	2 Laps
17	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	2 Laps
18	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing	2 Laps
–	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo Racing	Retirement
–	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	Withdrew

 

Formula 1 2019 World Driver’s Championship Standings – Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton – 363 Points.
2. Valtteri Bottas – 289 Points.
3. Charles Leclerc – 236 Points.
4. Sebastian Vettel – 230 Points.
5. Max Verstappen – 220 Points.
6. Pierre Gasly – 77 Points.
7. Carlos Sainz – 76 Points.
8. Alexander Albon – 74 Points.
9. Sergio Perez – 43 Points.
10. Daniel Ricciardo – 38 Points.

You can see the full Driver’s Championship standings at the following link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/drivers.html

 

Formula 1 2019 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 652 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 466 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda – 341 Points.
4. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 111 Points.
5. Renault F1 Team – 72 Points.
6. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 65 Points.
7. SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team – 64 Points.
8. Alfa Romeo Racing – 35 Points.
9. Rich Energy Haas F1 Team – 28 Points.
10. ROKiT Williams Racing – 1 Point.

 

Round 19 of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship heads straight to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix 2019 from Friday November 1-Sunday November 3.

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You can catch up on everything that happened during the Mexican Grand Prix race weekend at the following links:

 

@Max33Verstappen stripped of #MexicanGP pole for ignoring yellow flag. #F1 #F1ESTA

 

@Max33Verstappen takes #MexicanGP pole as @ValtteriBottas crashes. #F1 #F1ESTA

 

@ScuderiaFerrari’s #Vettel quickest in #MexicanGP Free Practice 2. #F1 #F1ESTA

 

@LewisHamilton edges @Charles_Leclerc in #MexicanGP FP1. #F1 #F1ESTA

 

#F1 Newsbites – News making the #MexicanGP weekend. #F1ESTA