A TALE OF TWO VERY DIFFERENT VICTORIES
Verstappen wins the battle, but Lewis Hamilton wins the war and becomes Brtain’s first four-time champ
Max Verstappen took a third career victory in the Mexican Grand Prix, while Lewis Hamilton joined the select club of four-time world champions – but not in quite the way he would have wanted. After a dramatic opening-lap clash, both Hamilton and his title rival Sebastian Vettel had to battle their way through from the back of the pack, and while Vettel was at his very best, he fell two positions short of the second place he needed to stay in contention for the championship.
QUALIFYING
Mercedes have been on pole at every Mexican Grand Prix since the race returned to the Formula 1 calendar in 2015. But in 2017 the Mercedes W08 didn’t quite have the ammunition to enable Hamilton to start from the front row. Vettel and Verstappen provided the fireworks in the closing moments of the session, but it was Vettel, desperate to keep his flickering championship hopes alive, who delivered the goods.
While Verstappen described himself as “super annoyed” at missing out on a first career pole, team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was “frustrated, annoyed, helpless” after slumping to seventh as Bottas, Kimi Räikkönen and Esteban Ocon leapfrogged him in their second runs.
Post-qualifying, Red Bull chose to fit a new engine to Ricciardo’s car, dropping him to 16th, just behind Romain Grosjean – the driver who set the slowest timed lap in qualifying, now starting 15th, but at the head of a five-car train of drivers who had collected engine-related grid penalties. Between them, Ricciardo, Brendon Hartley, Fernando Alonso, Stoffel Vandoorne and Pierre Gasly had accrued a drop of 115 places; perhaps they should have started the race in Acapulco.
RACE
The 2017 drivers’ championship was all but settled within seconds of the start as Hamilton surged forwards so he was almost alongside Verstappen and Vettel as they bore down on the first corner. He wisely hung back as the front-row duo got stuck into each other, and waited for an opportunity to present itself – which it immediately did.
Vettel tried to run Verstappen wide at Turn 1, but Verstappen hung on to take the inside line for Turn 2. Vettel lost momentum – and a portion of front-wing endplate – then found Hamilton trying to follow Verstappen through. Hamilton got ahead around the outside of the right-hander at Turn 3, but at the exit Vettel’s already wounded front wing sliced into his right-rear tyre, puncturing it.
This set up a fascinating battle for the final podium spot, while the displaced Vettel and Hamilton tried to race through from the back of the field. Pace-wise, the winner didn’t seem in doubt as Verstappen pulled away from Bottas at 0.2-0.3s per lap, but Ricciardo’s retirement with engine failure on lap 4 – having got as high as P7 – will have preyed on minds in the Red Bull garage.
Ocon held P3 for Force India, ahead of Nico Hülkenberg, Sergio Pérez, Felipe Massa, Räikkönen (who had bogged down off the start after a clean
“HAMILTON CHARGED THROUGH TO THE TOP TEN ON LAP 56, BEFORE ENCOUNTERING FERNANDO ALONSO IN P9. FOR 11 LAPS THEY SQUABBLED OVER A PLACE THAT BY RIGHTS SHOULD MEAN NOTHING TO RACERS OF THEIR PEDIGREE
initial clutch engagement) and Lance Stroll. Carlos Sainz spun out on lap 2, along with Massa, who had a puncture, leaving a five-car tussle for third.
Räikkönen was quick enough to worry Force India into bringing in Pérez and Ocon for soft tyres on laps 18 and 20, but only Hülkenberg responded and he dropped out shortly afterwards with an ERS failure. Räikkönen and Stroll moved into P3 and P4 and eked out their ultrasofts until a Virtual Safety Car on lap 32, prompted by Brendon Hartley’s Toro Rosso expiring, played into their hands.
The VSC enabled Räikkönen to consolidate his hold on third place, not just emerging with a greater margin over Ocon but also running on faster (supersoft) rubber than the Force Indias. Stroll, too, secured an advantage, leapfrogging Pérez to run in a net fifth place.
Vettel and Hamilton also pitted under the VSC. Both had swapped to soft tyres on their early stops, but while Vettel had made P7 by lap 32, Hamilton struggled. When he broke for the pits on lap 31 he was 15th out of 17 cars still running.
Thereafter they resumed efforts, Vettel on new ultrasofts, Hamilton on new supersofts. Vettel got back on it, passing Magnussen for P7 on lap 37, Pérez for P6 on lap 50, Stroll for P5 on lap 54, and Ocon for P4 on lap 57. By then, Räikkönen was over 20s up the road with 14 laps to go. Vettel had to finish P2 to stay in the title hunt.
“Mama mia,” was all he could say when the Ferrari pitwall apprised him of the gap.
Hamilton charged through to the top ten on lap 56, before encountering Fernando Alonso in P9. For 11 laps they squabbled over a place that by rights should mean nothing to racers of their pedigree, before Hamilton edged past. Verstappen set the fastest lap with six to go and finished 19.67s ahead of Bottas, Räikkönen was a further 34s down, 16s ahead of Vettel. The fight was over: 333 points to 277 with 50 left.
Hamilton described finishing P9 as a “horrible way to win” the title. He said of his fight: “I had to give it everything, so that when I crossed the line I could be proud of myself.”