Hamilton inches closer to sixth title

MEXICOCITY:LEWIS Hamilton won the Mexican Grand Prix for Mercedes after a first lap scare on Sunday but the Briton will have to wait another week to wrap up his sixth Formula One world championship.

Hamilton’s 10th win of the season, and 83rd of his career, was also a 100th for Mercedes as a constructor. The victory stretched his lead over third placed Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas to 74 points—making the title a mere formality that will surely be secured in Texas next weekend.

“We came here thinking we were on the back foot, knowing it was a difficult race for us, but we pulled through,” said Hamilton, who had not finished on the podium in Mexico for the past two years despite taking his 2017 and 2018 titles there.

“I had quite a bit of damage on my car so the race was quite a bit of a struggle,” said Hamilton, referring to the consequences of an opening lap clash with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen that he described as ‘hair-raising’.

“I don’t mind (not taking the title in Mexico).

Bottas now has to win in Austin with a fastest lap to stay in the mathematical reckoning while Hamilton need score only four points—an eighth place—to be sure of the title whatever his teammate does.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was a close second with teammate Charles Leclerc, who started from pole and set the fastest lap but was undone by a two-stop strategy and a problem pit stop, fourth.

Hamilton made his car’s hard tyres last for 48 laps to the finish on a one-stop strategy despite questioning the wisdom of that approach. Without regular race engineer Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington for the first time in seven years, Hamilton suggested he had pitted too early—with chief strategist James Vowles having to reassure him over the radio that the win was possible.

Bottas, who crashed heavily in qualifying and started sixth after a lengthy car rebuild, said he could not have done much more on a slow-burning afternoon that was all about tyre management.