F1 Mexican Grand Prix race results: Lewis Hamilton wins but fails to clinch title

Lewis Hamilton had not won since the summer break.

Lewis Hamilton moved to the brink of world title number six Sunday, taking Mercedes’ 100th win as a constructor in Formula 1 while Ferrari stumbled yet again stumble and threw away what should have been a comfortable victory in Mexico.

Hamilton had enjoyed his crowning moments in 2017 and 2018 on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, but after Sunday he will have to wait for at least one more week as his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas took third place.

The race got off to a typically frenetic start and a lot of the action as it had on Saturday centered around Red Bull driver Max Verstappen. Eager to make amends for his error of judgement from qualifying which had seen him slapped with a three-place grid penalty, Verstappen went side-by-side with Hamilton into the first few corners, but contact between the two caused both to take a short trip across the grass and drop positions.

A brief virtual safety car period should have given the Dutchman some time to calm down, but he instead seemed to get himself fired up even more. In a rush to get past Bottas for seventh place, Verstappen’s right-rear tire was clipped by the Mercedes’ front wing and a puncture became evident half a lap later.

Verstappen was forced to pit and fitted hard tires in the hope that he could make a one-stop strategy work, but now circulating dead last his chances of a third straight Mexican Grand Prix victory were gone.

Ferrari, promoted into a one-two starting position after the demotion of Verstappen Saturday, were busy making their escape at the front. However, Alex Albon was keeping the pair very honest and an early stop from the second Red Bull driver forced Ferrari into employing a split strategy.

With Charles Leclerc leading he was left on the favored pre-race strategy of a stopping twice. Sebastian Vettel was left out to switch to “plan-c” – a one stop strategy – but Mercedes blinked first and it seemed as though advantage had been handed squarely to Mercedes.

In another twist, Hamilton quickly began to light up the radio to question whether they had pitted too early. His hard compound tires he felt were dropping off at an alarming rate. However, it was unclear whether he was more concerned about Leclerc’s two-stop play, or the one-stop option of Vettel.

In amongst all of the confusion at the front Verstappen was quickly slicing his way back through the pack and by lap-31 of the 71, was back in tenth and into the points.

On lap-36, Mercedes pulled the trigger on Bottas and the following lap, Ferrari called time on Vettel’s opening stint. Leclerc and Albon, who both had to stop again, went past, as did Hamilton, but with Hamilton suffering with rear tire wear, he too looked like another stop would be needed before the end of the race.

Ferrari realized that they had made a mistake with Leclerc and pitted him for a second time on lap-45. Having hoped that they would be able to fit the soft tires for a last gasp dash to the line but stopping just under 30-laps from the end, the only option for Leclerc was the hard tire compound.

Mistake or no mistake, Leclerc was lighting up the timesheets as he set about closing the 16-second gap to Hamilton in the lead, and the race again looked as though it could go any of four ways with both Mercedes and Ferrari drivers with a chance of the win.

Sadly, after such a tense build up, the closing stages of the race were an anti-climax. The gaps had come down nicely, but tire management again came into the equation and prevented the top four from bunching up properly and making a real race of it.

As a result, Hamilton comfortably took the flag to extend his championship points lead to 74-points, just four short of claiming world title number six.

Sights from the action at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez ahead of the F1 Mexican Grand Prix,Sunday Oct. 27, 2019

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