Hamilton wins in Mexico to move another step closer to World title

Lewis Hamilton claimed a stunning victory in the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday to inch closer to securing his sixth Formula 1 Drivers’ World title.

After a rough start that included a first lap incident with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Hamilton won thanks largely to his one-stop strategy, which needed a long second stint. He then did masterfully to hold off Sebastian Vettel in the end, despite the Ferrari’s fresher tyres.

With the result, Hamilton claimed his 83rd victory in Formula 1 – his tenth of the 2019 season and second at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

Valtteri Bottas in the other Mercedes finished third after starting sixth on the grid, which was just enough to extend the championship fight.

Hamilton’s triumph marked the 100th victory for Mercedes-Benz in Formula One – nine for the historic works team in 1954 and 1955 and 91 for the modern-day works team. It was also the 100th podium for Hamilton since joining Mercedes in 2013.

Hamilton completed the race in a total time of one hour 36 minutes 48.904 seconds. Vettel finished just 1.766 seconds behind, while Bottas was 3.553s back.

Charles Leclerc for Ferrari was fourth. Leclerc could not capitalise on inheriting pole position for the race, after original pole-sitter Verstappen was given a three-place grid penalty.

Alexander Albon and Verstappen were classified fifth and sixth for the Bulls, while rounding out the top 10 were Sergio Perez of Racing Point, Daniel Ricciardo of Renault, Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso and Nico Hulkenberg in the second Renault car.

Following the Mexican Grand Prix, Hamilton improved to 363 points to lead the Drivers’ Championship by 74 points from Bottas, who has 289 points. Mercedes (652 points) leads Ferrari (466 points) by 186 points in the already-decided Constructors’ Championship.

Hamilton commented: “Today was a surprise, we’ve really struggled here for quite some time and we came into this weekend expecting it to be very difficult. We really thought we would be on the back foot, but we kept our heads down, we kept working hard and it all came together in the end.

“I had a crazy first couple of corners today, I was pushed on the grass at the start and then Max hit me. It was not easy to recover from that afterwards – I had a massive chunk of my floor missing, so the rear end was moving a lot and I had to really change the dynamic of how I was driving. I don’t know how I managed to keep it going, but I did.

“The guys also did a fantastic job with the strategy – we stopped pretty early, and honestly I thought it might have been too early, but it all worked out in the end.

“I really wanted to deliver for the fans today; they were all out there during the drivers’ parade supporting me, so I really wanted to give them a good performance and I’m so grateful we won.”

The Formula 1 season now heads to Texas for the United States Grand Prix this upcoming weekend.