Hartley’s hopes up in smoke as Hamilton lifts driver’s crown
Oil in the exhaust of Brendon Hartley’s Toro Rosso car was the cause of the engine failure that saw the Kiwi’s second Formula One race come to a premature end with smoke billowing from the back of the car.
Hartley had made a promising start at the Mexican Grand Prix as he moved into 11th, six places up from his starting position.
But his car engine began to smoke on the 32nd lap of the 71-lap race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City yesterday.
The 27-year-old was heard on his radio telling his team ‘‘I’m losing a lot of power’’ as he pulled over to the side of the track and hurriedly climbed out of the car. Course marshals ran to the vehicle and doused the smoke with fire extinguishers.
Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost confirmed the smoke was due to an oil fire.
‘‘Regarding Brendon’s retirement, we spotted a very high oil consumption and, actually, some oil went into the exhaust, causing its failure,’’ he said.
Hartley was trying to take some positives out of the weekend.
‘‘It’s always disappointing not to finish a race, so I’m not the happiest man today but I’m still smiling because I’ve made progress compared to last week in Austin,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s just a shame that the race was cut short and it’s been quite a tough weekend: issues on Friday, I then couldn’t make progress in yesterday’s Q2 once the engine went and in today’s race I lost power at the end of the straight line, then saw the white smoke and was asked to stop.’’
The race was the second time Hartley was victim of engine issues in Mexico.
He qualified for the race in 13th but his car lost power in the second stage of qualifying which forced his team to replace their power unit. It meant Hartley copped another 20-place grid penalty, his second in two races, and saw him slip to 17th on the grid.
Hartley made a positive start as he stayed out of trouble and worked his way up the field to be on the brink of the top-10 before his car started smoking.
It was a horror day for Renault, who provide engines for their own team along with Red Bull and Toro Rosso. There were six Renault engines on the track and just two finished - including winner Verstappen. Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Saniz and Nico Hulkenberg were the others in Renaultpowered cars forced to retire.
A positive for Hartley should he be retained by Toro Rosso in 2018, is that his team have confirmed a shift to Honda for next season.
Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen won the race after featuring in a first-corner tangle with Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.
Verstappen cruised to the checkered flag by more than 20 seconds over Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen. But the day’s honours went to Briton Lewis Hamilton who did enough to secure the drivers’ championship world title.
Hamilton had to overcome the first-lap chaos when his Mercedes was bumped by title rival Vettel. Hamilton got a rear tyre puncture and Vettel had front wing damage. Both had to stop immediately for repairs. That left both in a furious bid to catch up as Verstappen sped away to victory. Vettel finished fourth but had to win or finish second to push the title chase to the last two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.
Hamilton’s championship makes him the most decorated British driver in F1 history, passing Sir Jackie Stewart. He is one of only five drivers in F1 history with four or more.
Hartley now returns to the World Endurance Championship where he will compete in the Six Hours of Shanghai in China before returning to Toro Rosso for the Brazilian Grand Prix in two weeks.