Verstappen cruises to victory as Hamilton secures fourth title

Max Verstappen took a dominant victory at the Mexican Grand Prix after a chaotic first few corners as Lewis Hamilton came home ninth and clinched his fourth World Championship crown as he became the most successful British driver in Formula 1.

The Briton and title-rival Vettel tangled on the opening lap, as Verstappen made an aggressive pass to take the lead and control the entire race.

Vettel who needed to finish in the top-two to keep the title-battle alive, took fourth place while Hamilton settled for ninth place.

Vettel, Verstappen and Hamilton were almost three abreast on the run down into turn one as Verstappen stuck behind the Ferrari driver before putting a brave move on the outside.

Verstappen kept the inside line into turn 2 and touched wheels with Vettel as both drivers went deep, which brought Hamilton to take the outside line for the turn three right hand corner.

Hamilton pulled ahead of Vettel but having touched Verstappen was clipped by Vettel as the duo exited turn three.

Hamilton suffered a right-rear puncture, while Vettel’s front wing was damaged.

Both title-contenders pitted at the end of lap one as they emerged at the back of the field with Hamilton massively behind the pack due to his slow return to the pits.

Race stewards ‘noted’ the incidents and were put under investigation, but no further action was warranted, with Hamilton asking Mercedes over the radio whether Vettel made contact on purpose.

Verstappen who escaped from the drama unscathed, moved away from Valtteri Bottas, who jumped into second place through the first few corners.

The front three took advantage to take their only pit stop during the Virtual Safety Car, which was deployed when Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley suffered an engine failure and pulled off at turn six.

Verstappen came out with a 12-second gap and cruised to a dominant victory at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, as Bottas took a distant second for the Silver Arrows with a comfortable gap back to Kimi Räikkönen who came home third.

“Of course, the start was very crucial,” said Verstappen who took the third victory of his Formula 1 career. “I went around the outside, which worked out well, and from there on I was just basically looking after the tyres – the car performed brilliantly in the race. A big thanks to Red Bull, because without them this was not possible.”

“After last week, this is a perfect race.” Verstappen concluded.

Räikkönen fell at the start but stayed out longer than Force India’s Esteban Ocon and took advantage from the VSC deployment to decrease his pit-stop time, and came out in third place.

Vettel was making his way through the field through the early proceedings and kept seventh place, before pitting under the VSC for a fresh set of the faster Ultra Soft rubber.

Vettel flew past both Force India VJM10’s and Williams’ Lance Stroll to take fourth, but said “mamma mia” over the radio when told that the German was 25 seconds behind team-mate Räikkönen.

Ocon finished a lap down in fifth for Force India as he kept Williams’ Stroll at bay in sixth and Sergio Pérez took seventh place in his home race with the latter choosing to make a second stop for a new set of Ultra Softs.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen captured four points the American squad and in-front of Hamilton, who secured his title after a brilliant fight with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso from turn 1 to turn 6.

“Honestly, it doesn’t feel real,” explained Hamilton after securing his fourth world title. “It’s not the kind of race that I wanted, when you’re 40 seconds behind or something, but I never gave up, and that’s what’s important, what’s in my heart – I kept going right to the end. I’m grateful for today. I just want to lift it up to my family, to God, and thank my team,”

Hamilton said he did everything he could to recover as much as possible from the start.  “I had a good start,” Hamilton continued. “I don’t really know what happened at Turn 3, but I gave him [Vettel] plenty of room, and then I just tried hard to come back,”

“A big thank you to my family and to my team – Mercedes have been incredible for the last five years and I’m so proud to be a part of it.” Hamilton said.

Williams Martini Racing’s Felipe Massa was 11th and ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne who took 12^th, while Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly came home in 13^th.

Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein and Haas’ Romain Grosjean finished in 14th and 15^th respectively as both were the final drivers to complete the race.

Renault endured a disappointing day as both RS17’s retired, Nico Hülkenberg was running in fourth and on course for scoring great points until an ERS failure forced the German out while team-mate Carlos Sainz fell backwards on lap one.

Sainz was lapped at the back of the pack before retiring during the final stages of the race due to handling problems.

The other Sauber C6-racer of Marcus Ericsson kept in a points scoring position early on, however he gradually slipped as the Swede’s race came to an end with an engine failure.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who started from 16th after taking on penalties due to an engine change pushed into the top 10, despite the drama at the start, but a turbo failure ended the Australian’s day early.

Formula 1 Gran Premio De Mexico 2017 Full Race Results Classification (71 Laps)

2017 World Drivers Championship Standings – Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton – 333 Points
2. Sebastian Vettel – 277 Points
3. Valtteri Bottas – 262 Points
4. Daniel Ricciardo – 192 Points
5. Kimi Räikkönen – 178 Points
6. Max Verstappen – 148 Points
7. Sergio Pérez – 92 Points
8. Esteban Ocon – 83 Points
9. Carlos Sainz – 54 Points
10. Lance Stroll – 40 Points

2017 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG F1 – 595 Points
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 455 Points
3. Red Bull Racing – 340 Points
4. Force India F1 Team – 175 Points
5. Williams Martini Racing – 76 Points
6. Scuderia Toro Rosso – 53 Points
7. Renault Sport F1 – 48 Points
8. Haas F1 Team – 47 Points
9. McLaren-Honda F1 – 24 Points
10. Sauber F1 Team – 5 Points

Round 19 of the 2017 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 2017 from November 10-12.