Hamilton dominates the Mexican grand prix, taking his 51st career victory to match Alain Prost and keeping his championship hopes alive. However, second place for Rosberg means that the gap is still 19 points. Behind, Verstappen and Vettel received penalties, promoting 5th placed Ricciardo to third.
Mercedes celebrate another 1-2 finish
Hamilton led the race from pole, despite running wide at turn one after a huge lock up. Rosberg was under pressure from Verstappen at the start, also running wide, but he just kept ahead. Later in the race, Rosberg again was under pressure from Verstappen, who was slowly catching him.
On lap 50, Rosberg locked up going into turn one whilst negotiating the lapped Sainz. Verstappen took advantage of this and attempted a pass at turn 4. However, he ran wide and slipped back behind the Mercedes. From there, he began slowly dropping further back from Rosberg and the chance to take second place.
Verstappen soon came under pressure from Vettel behind, with the Ferrari closing to within 1.2 seconds with just 6 laps to go. On lap 68, he ran wide going into turn one, but rejoined ahead of Vettel. The German was furious, believing that the Red Bull driver should have been handed a penalty. Verstappen was also advised by his team to give the place back, but he refused. Just before the podium, he was given a 5-second penalty for the incident by the stewards, promoting Vettel to third position.
However, an investigation took place after the race regarding Vettel’s defensive manouvers on Ricciardo, which went against the new ‘verstappen’ rule introduced last weeekend. He was later given a 10-second penalty for the incident. Therefore, the top 5 after the penalties were applied was: Hamitlon, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Vettel.