F1: Hamilton wins Mexican Grand Prix, but waits for sixth title

MEXICO CITY -- Lewis Hamilton drove to a near-flawless victory, but not yet a sixth drivers' world championship on Sunday when he claimed his 10th win of the season for Mercedes at the Mexican Grand Prix.

The defending five-time title-winner produced the measured drive of a champion-elect to claim a well-judged triumph ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas who kept his own title bid alive for another week by finishing third.

Charles Leclerc, who started on pole position in the second Ferrari, finished fourth ahead of Red Bull's Alex Albon and Max Verstappen, who stormed through the field after an early pit stop, and local hero Sergio Perez of Racing Point.

Hamilton's victory was only his second since Formula One's European summer break in August, his second in Mexico and the 83rd of his career, but it was also Mercedes' 100th victory in F1 and extended his run points-scoring finishes to 30 races.

He now looks certain to clinch his sixth title at next weekend's United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, where he will need just four points.

"That was for Bono!" said Hamilton on his slow-down lap in reference to his absent race engineer Peter Bonnington. 

"Today's an incredible result and I have to say thank you to our team. We came here on the back foot, but we pulled through."

After winning his last two titles in Mexico without even finishing on the podium, it was ironic for Hamilton to win but know he has to wait for a sixth coronation.

Bottas, who survived a heavy crash in qualifying on Saturday, said: "Considering what happened yesterday, it's a good result… I don't think we could have done much more."

Hamilton added: "I don't mind not winning the title here. I can wait. I just love racing and I am happy to take each race as it comes."

Four-time champion Vettel said: "It was a long race with no break, but I think Lewis was just cruising for most of his second stint. I'm happy, but we could have had a sharper strategy."

The race began in warm and dry conditions, Leclerc making a clean getaway from his seventh pole, ahead of Vettel, as Ferrari enjoyed their 65th front row lockout, gifted by Verstappen’s qualifying penalty.

The Dutchman, angered by his Saturday demotion from pole for ignoring yellow flags when Bottas crashed, made an aggressive start and, as Hamilton recovered from being squeezed off-track by Vettel, banged wheels with him at Turn Two.

Both drivers had to regain control and, after another off-circuit excursion, re-joined down in fifth and eighth respectively. Their misfortune was a gain for Albon and Sainz who took third and fourth before Hamilton split them when he passed the Spaniard on lap four.

- 'Tyres are dead' -

By then, the first Virtual Safety Car (VSC) intervention, to clear debris, had been completed to be followed by another burst of ‘mad Max’ fury when he lunged into Bottas and picked up a puncture.

This led to his right rear tyre falling off the wheel -- and a pit-stop that left him to re-join 20th and last having switched from mediums to hards.

At the front, Leclerc pulled 2.3 seconds clear of Vettel by lap 15 before pitting, Ferrari responding to Red Bull’s decision one lap earlier to bring in Albon for new mediums. The Monegasque, thus committed to a two-stop strategy, re-joined fourth, behind Vettel, Hamilton and Bottas.

In a flux of varying strategies, Hamilton fought rear tyre-wear to stay close to Vettel, with Bottas 7.2 seconds adrift in third by lap 24 before the champion pitted for a set of hard compound tyres. 

Over 10 laps later Bottas pitted to be followed by Vettel, Leclerc regaining the lead ahead of Hamilton, but facing a second stop.

"My front tyres are dead," complained Leclerc, shortly before a slow second stop on lap 44 in 6.2 seconds. 

He came out fifth, rising to fourth when Albon pitted in 2.5 while Hamilton led the race, all the front-runners on hard tyres of varying ages as they approached the final laps.

Less than six seconds separated the top four with 14 laps to go with Vettel, Bottas and Leclerc in hot pursuit of Hamilton. A dramatic finish, governed by tyre wear, was in prospect.

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Hamilton takes fourth title despite collision

MEXICO CITY - An ecstatic Lewis Hamilton became Britain's first four-times Formula One world champion on Sunday after fighting back from last place following an opening-lap collision with arch-rival Sebastian Vettel at the Mexican Grand Prix.

In a race won by 20-year-old Dutch prodigy Max Verstappen, in a Red Bull, the 32-year-old Mercedes driver finished ninth to cement his place as his country's most successful driver of all time.

Vettel, the only man who could have delayed the seemingly inevitable, ended up fourth after starting on pole position and then dropping to 19th following a pitstop to replace a broken front wing.

Hamilton has an unassailable lead of 56 points with two races, worth a total of 50, remaining in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

"It doesn't feel real. That's not the kind of race that you want but I never gave up. I kept going right to the end," said a jubilant Hamilton, the British flag proudly draped over his shoulders.

He had raised both hands to his helmet as he took the chequered flag, with the crowd rising to applaud.

"Lewis has done a superb job all year and deserves to win the title," said Vettel. "Congratulations to him. It is his day."

Sunday's race was both the best and worst of afternoons for the sport's biggest star, who ended up sprinting down the pitlane chased by fans.

A winner nine times this season, including five of the six before Mexico, ninth was his lowest placing of the campaign and he did it despite having a badly damaged car at a track where overtaking is difficult enough anyway.

Hamilton's team mate Valtteri Bottas finished second at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen third.

   
AGGRESSIVE MOVE

Vettel had needed to be in the top two to have any chance of taking the title fight down to Brazil in two weeks' time but his already slim hopes seemed to have disappeared within seconds of the start.

Verstappen, with nothing to lose and everything to gain from his front row position, seized the lead with an aggressive move through the opening right-left-right corners and the Red Bull bumping wheels with Vettel as he went through.

Hamilton, starting in third place, tried to follow Verstappen but the Ferrari's front wing sliced Hamilton's rear right tyre as they made contact at turn three.

"Did he hit me deliberately?" asked Hamilton over the radio, limping back to the pits and fully aware that Vettel's only real hope of getting back into the reckoning would be if the Briton went out.

"Not sure, Lewis," his race engineer Peter Bonnington said in reply. It looked far from deliberate and stewards swiftly decided that no further investigation of the incident was necessary.

Vettel pitted while Hamilton, who had started the day 66 points clear of his rival, had a longer stop while mechanics inspected his car for further damage.

The incident robbed the crowd of the prospect of a real duel between the two contenders, who will both be four-times champions when next season starts, but they still provided thrills as they fought back.

HIGH FIVE

Hamilton, who had a thrilling wheel-to-wheel tussle with former McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso in the latter stages that could have cost him dear, had hoped to celebrate by spraying the winner's champagne from the top of the podium.

Instead, there was the considerable consolation of being one of only five men -- Germany's Michael Schumacher, Argentina's Juan Manuel Fangio, France's Alain Prost and Vettel -- to win four titles or more since the championship started in 1950.

Prost and Vettel both have four, with the late Fangio on five and Schumacher seven.

Hamilton's tally of titles took him above fellow-Briton Jackie Stewart and also his late Brazilian idol Ayrton Senna in the all-time lists.

"An unusual way to be world champion but you are world champion very simple. Nobody cares how you do it," said Mercedes' non-executive chairman Niki Lauda, himself a triple champion.

"Who cares? It's about the result," said team boss Toto Wolff, when asked how it had felt to see Hamilton lapped by Verstappen. "He was lapped because he was crashed into."

The victory was the third of Verstappen's career and second of the season, cementing the youngster's position as the rising star of the sport.

France's Esteban Ocon was fifth for Force India, with his Mexican team mate Sergio Perez seventh and behind the Williams of Canadian rookie Lance Stroll.

Danish driver Kevin Magnussen was eighth for Haas with Alonso taking the final point.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

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Hamilton wins in Mexico but Rosberg is right behind

MEXICO CITY - Lewis Hamilton won the Mexican Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday, his landmark 51st career victory cutting Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg's overall lead to 19 points and keeping the German waiting for a first title.

The pole-to-flag victory was the triple world champion's eighth of the season and put him level with France's Alain Prost in the all-time lists of winners. Only Michael Schumacher (91) has more.

Rosberg, who would have clinched the title had he won and Hamilton finished 10th or lower, crossed the line 8.354 seconds behind to anchor champions Mercedes to a sixth one-two finish of the season.

The German can still clinch the title with a race in hand if he wins at Sao Paulo's Interlagos circuit in Brazil in two weeks' time.

"Lewis has been too fast this weekend," said Rosberg. "I just have to accept second place."

The race was largely processional until it exploded into controversy in the final laps with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel finishing fourth and then promoted to the podium before demotion back to fifth.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was third on the track but was then handed a five second penalty for gaining an advantage by going off, pushing him down to fifth before Vettel's penalty for dangerous driving lifted him back to fourth.

That left Australian Daniel Ricciardo in third place but without a podium appearance and the chance to pour the champagne into his boot for another trademark 'shoey' celebration.

The Vettel-Verstappen-Ricciardo controversy provided the major talking point of the day, with bad language flying and accusations going to and fro.

"He has to let me go, he has to let me go," Vettel, who had been trying to pass Verstappen on the 67th of the 71 laps, exclaimed furiously over the team radio as the Dutchman refused to concede the place.

Vettel also directed a foul-mouthed outburst at race director Charlie Whiting, which was heard on television and for which he apologised, and then swerved across to the Red Bull driver after the finish with a finger raised and wagging.

"I was using a lot of sign language. You have to understand the adrenaline," said the four-times champion.

Verstappen said Vettel should go back to school.

"I don't know how many times he is using very bad language," said the teenager. "I will speak to him because this is how ridiculous he is handling it, he is just a very frustrated guy at the moment."

TIME PENALTY

Verstappen joined the Mercedes drivers in the waiting room before the podium ceremony but was hauled out after his penalty was imposed, with Vettel running hastily down the pit lane.

The arguments and accusations continued afterwards, with Vettel and Ricciardo then summoned to stewards and the German accused of changing his line while braking as Ricciardo tried to pass him.

In a race that saw all but one of the 22 starters finish, the safety car was deployed on the second lap when Mexican Esteban Gutierrez tagged Pascal Wehrlein's Manor and pushed him into Marcus Ericsson's Sauber.

There was more drama at the front where Hamilton made a good getaway but then locked up and trekked across the grass, cutting the first corner.

That incident, which left him battling serious tyre vibrations until his first pitstop, was held up by Verstappen as inconsistent stewarding, with the Briton also gaining an advantage but escaping any sanction.

Verstappen and Rosberg also made contact at the start, with the Dutch driver trying to find a way through on the inside from third place on the grid, but stewards took no action.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was sixth, Nico Hulkenberg seventh for Force India and the Williams pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa eighth and ninth.

Mexican Sergio Perez, the crowd favourite, took the final point for Force India in 10th place after a long battle with Massa.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris and Ian Ransom)

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