Max Verstappen has taken a comfortable victory at the Mexican Grand Prix while Lewis Hamilton finished fourth and clinched his fifth World Championship.

Polesitter Daniel Ricciardo was rounded by team-mate Verstappen and Hamilton at the start and Verstappen went wheel-to-wheel with Hamilton to take the lead.

Verstappen then went on to produce a faultless drive and claim the win ahead of the two Ferrari’s of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen as Hamilton settled for fourth but was enough to claim his fifth world title with two races to spare.

Hamilton went into the Mexican Grand Prix weekend knowing he needed to finish seventh to secure the championship and did not need to finish if Vettel could not take the victory.

Vettel started fourth on the grid and momentarily fell to fifth on the opening lap Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas passed him into the first corner, but the German charged back at turns four and five to take the place back from the Finn.

Hamilton tried to keep up with Verstappen over the first stint but slowly fell back and was threatened by Ricciardo but remained in second as the Briton pitted on the eleventh lap.

Ricciardo followed suit on the next lap whilst Verstappen did the same a lap later, and the undercut gave Hamilton a bit of a breather from Ricciardo but not enough to give the Briton a chance of challenging Verstappen.

With the Dutchman flying at the front, Hamilton started to get caught rapidly by Ricciardo and Vettel after the Ferrari’s who were running a long first stint finally pitted.

Hamilton moved clear again as the leaders had to make their way through heavy traffic, and the virtual safety car was deployed for Carlos Sainz’s stopped Renault – which was comfortable in the points but suffered an engine failure and put a temporary halt on the Ricciardo/Vettel battle behind.

The fight continued a few laps later and more heavy backmarkers allowed Vettel to tuck right behind his former Red Bull team-mate until the 34^th lap when the German put on an impressive move on the inside of Ricciardo under braking into the first corner.

Vettel was only four seconds behind Hamilton at this stage but was charging towards the Mercedes as the W09 EQ Power+ was struggling with tyre degradation.

Five laps after he passed Ricciardo, Vettel moved by Hamilton at the same place when Hamilton tried to defend, the Briton locked up and travelled along the grass.

Mercedes brought Hamilton in to the pits immediately with Bottas following suit after losing sixth place to Raikkonen in an almost identical moment at turn one like Hamilton.

With Hamilton out of the picture, the Mexican Grand Prix went down to a Red Bull vs Vettel battle, with Ferrari taking on an aggressive strategy by pitting Vettel who put on a fresh set of ultras.

This brought the German within ten seconds of Verstappen once Red Bull pitted the Dutchman for supersofts, but Ricciardo remained on track and attempted to keep Vettel at bay.

This halted Vettel’s chance to catch Verstappen and as Ricciardo’s slower pace held Vettel up in the closing stages, Vettel looked too far behind the Australian to launch an attack on the RB14.

However, disaster struck for Ricciardo with 10 laps remaining as a ploom of smoke emerged from the back of his RB14 and Ricciardo went straight off at turn one and retired for the eighth time this season.

Verstappen asked his team over the radio if they needed to be concerned and conserve the engine but had a problem-free run to the chequered flag to claim his fifth career victory.

“Amazing,” explained Verstappen as David Coulthard interviews him at parc ferme. “I didn’t sleep very well last night, I was very determined to win, and we’ve done that. We had the right tyres and the car was working very well.”

Vettel and Raikkonen rounded out the top three as Hamilton came home in fourth, annoyed by his Mercedes’ lack of pace compared to his rivals.

Hamilton’s mood changed as he celebrated his fifth World Championship crown that brought him level to the great Juan Manuel Fangio.

“It’s a very strange feeling right now,” said Hamilton. “I’ve been with Mercedes since I was 13, to complete this, when Fangio had done it with Mercedes, is an incredible feeling and very surreal at the moment.”

Bottas rounded out the top five in the other Silver Arrow and finished a lap down after pitting for hypersofts and posting the fastest lap at the end.

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg finished best of the rest in sixth place with a one stop strategy working to perfection and ahead of Sauber’s Charles Leclerc who was seventh.

McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne came home in eighth place ending a 14-race pointless run, which stretched back to April’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Marcus Ericsson gave Sauber a double-points finish after taking ninth place to bump the Hinwil-based squad above Toro Rosso in the Constructors Championship despite Pierre Gasly who started at the rear due to power-unit component changes rising back to secure the final points spot.

Force India’s Esteban Ocon finished the Mexican Grand Prix in 11^th and in-front of Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley who was 12^th and the two Williams of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin who came home in 13^th and 14^th respectively.

The two Haas VF-18’s of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were brought up the rear.

The other retirements of the race included McLaren’s Fernando Alonso who pulled off after a water pressure issue and home Grand Prix favourite Sergio Perez suffering a brakes failure on his Force India VJM11.

The Formula 1 Gran Premio De Mexico 2018 Race Results Classification (71 Laps)

2018 Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship Standings

1. Lewis Hamilton – 358 Points.
2. Sebastian Vettel – 294 Points.
3. Kimi Raikkonen – 236 Points.
4. Valtteri Bottas – 227 Points.
5. Max Verstappen – 216 Points.
6. Daniel Ricciardo – 146 Points.
7. Nico Hulkenberg – 69 Points.
8. Sergio Perez – 57 Points.
9. Kevin Magnussen – 53 Points.
10. Fernando Alonso – 50 Points.

2018 Formula 1 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 585 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 530 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 362 Points.
4. Renault Sport F1 Team – 114 Points.
5. Haas F1 Team – 84 Points.
6. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 62 Points.
7. Racing Point Force India F1 Team – 47 Points.
8. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 36 Points.
9. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 33 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 7 Points.

Round 20 of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the Formula 1 Grande Premio Heineken Do Brasil 2018 from November 8-11.