Posted on 31st October 2016
At the Mexican GP yesterday, Lewis Hamilton wins his 51st Grand Prix of his career ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo in order to keep the championship fight alive.
However, it was the controversy that happened in the closing laps of the race between Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and the FIA that took centre stage shortly after the race.
Hamilton’s win in Mexico yesterday cut the gap to Rosberg to 19 points in the standings.
But with just two races left, victory for Rosberg at the next round in Brazil would secure him the title. Hamilton’s victory only once looked under threat as he locked up at Turn 1 on the first lap. He later explained to the media that it was due to a low temperature on his right front brake and he escaped penalty for skipping Turn 2 entirely.
After that initial scare, Hamilton just led from the front comfortably and controlled the race at his own pace. But it was the battles behind him that were keeping people's attentions focused on the race. During the race, Nico Rosberg came under attack from Max Verstappen. The first time was on the first lap at Turn 2 and again at Turn 4 on lap 50.
But both times Rosberg resisted the attack from the Red Bull to retain second place. But let's not forget that the second time saw Verstappen momentarily ahead before locking up and running wide as Rosberg stuck to the racing line.
After Verstappen’s second move on Rosberg failed, Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari started to close in on Verstappen as a result of this. Vettel had led part of the race with a long first stint on the soft tyres and that meant his second set of tyres were 20 laps younger than Verstappen’s at the end of the race.
Vettel caught Verstappen with four laps of the race remaining; but as he attempted a move at Turn 1 the Red Bull locked up and continued straight over the run off area. By cutting Turn 2, Verstappen held the position ahead of Vettel, but even after being told by his team to move aside for Vettel, he continued at full racing pace.
Vettel had been irate about the situation in the closing laps of the race and screamed over his team radio to ask FIA race director Charlie Whiting to make Verstappen move over.
When his race engineer tried to tell him the incident would be investigated after the race by saying “Charlie said…”, he was cut off by Vettel yelling: “Yeah?! Here’s a message to Charlie! F—- off! F—- off!”
Vettel’s anger had intensified when Verstappen who was still in third place backed him into his Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo in fifth place and this allowed Ricciardo to attempt a pass at Turn 4 on the penultimate lap. Vettel was having none of it however and moved to block the inside; with both cars’ front wheels locked up as they arrived at the apex.
Vettel just managed to retain enough momentum to hold the position around the outside, which ultimately turned out to be enough to take third place when the Verstappen penalty was applied.
Behind the drama for the final podium place, Kimi Raikkonen snatched sixth place from Nico Hulkenberg in the closing stages. Raikkonen was on a two-stop strategy compared to the one-stop adopted by most of the top ten, which dropped him from fifth to seventh before he fought back to finish sixth. As Raikkonen passed Hulkenberg for position.
Hulkenburg spun through 180 degrees, but with Valtteri Bottas another six seconds down the road Hulkenberg was able to hold on to seventh place in the end.
Following the end of the race, Verstappen was immediately penalised five seconds, therefore promoting Vettel to third and dropping Verstappen to fifth place. But in a bizarre turn of events, Verstappen had already pulled into the podium area in the stadium section before the penalty was confirmed, but was told to leave the podium green room soon after as Vettel was brought back from the paddock to take his rightful place on the third step.
The story continued after the race, as Vettel was investigated for the Ricciardo incident. The stewards eventually handed Vettel a ten-second penalty, dropping him behind both Red Bull drivers, meaning that it was actually Ricciardo who finished on the final step of the podium.
It comes after the FIA issued a clampdown on drivers moving under braking ahead of the United States Grand Prix, a change that was referenced in the stewards’ statement as follows:-
'Notwithstanding the F1 Commission directive to “let the drivers race” we note the concern that has been expressed about manoeuvres involving a change of direction under braking as expressed at the drivers briefing at the US Grand Prix and in the race director’s notes from the US Grand Prix and this event.
'The telemetry and video evidence shows that the driver of car 5 did change direction under braking. Article 27.5 and the race director’s notes have essentially three criteria that determine a breach: driving in a manner potentially dangerous, an abnormal change of direction and another driver having to take evasive action.
'The video footage, including the close circuit footage, the broadcast vision, both drivers’ on board cameras plus the telemetry show that there was an abnormal change of direction by car 5 and this was considered to be potentially dangerous in view of the proximity of the wheels of each car.
'The video evidence clearly shows that car 3 had to take evasive action as a result. Accordingly as all three criteria have been met, the driver of car 5 is guilty of a breach of article 27.5.'
Vettel now has six points on his superlicence, with any driver who accrues 12 over a rolling 12-month period receiving a one-race ban.
The next round takes place in Brazil in two weeks’ time, with the title still very much in Rosberg’s hands.
But it was Lewis Hamilton won the Mexican GP, his 51st win of his career and keeps the title battle going into Brazil. He finished ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg who was second 8.354 seconds behind him. After a weekend of struggling behind the wheel of his Mercedes, Rosberg’s second place could prove to be a defining result in the tale of this year’s title if he takes his maiden championship. Rosberg then finished ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in third place who finished 20.858 seconds behind Hamilton.
Max Verstappen ended the race in fourth place ahead of Sebastian Vettel in fifth place, Kimi Raikkonen in sixth place, Nico Hulkenberg in seventh place, Valtteri Bottas in eighth place, Felipe Massa in ninth place and local boy Sergio Perez who rounded off the top ten finishers of the race.
Marcus Ericsson ended the race just out of the points in eleventh place 1 lap down on Hamilton. But he did finish ahead of Jenson Button in twelfth place, Fernando Alonso in thirteenth place, Jolyon Palmer in fourteenth place and Felipe Nasr in fifteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Carlos Sainz finished the race in sixteenth place ahead of Kevin Magnussen in seventeenth place, Daniil Kvyat in eighteenth place, Esteban Gutierrez in nineteenth place, Romain Grosjean in twentieth place and Esteban Ocon in twenty-first place. Pascal Wehrlein did not finish the race.
The classification for the Mexican GP is as follows:-
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.40:31.402s
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 8.354s
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 20.858s
4. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 21.323s
5. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 27.313s
6. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 49.376s
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 58.891s
8. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.05.612s
9. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.16.206s
10. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.16.798s
11. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1lap
12. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1lap
13. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1lap
14. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1 lap
15. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
16. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1lap
17. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1lap
18. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1 lap
19. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1lap
20. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1lap
21. Esteban Ocon, MRT Racing, 2 laps
22. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, Not Classified
Nico Rosberg still leads the Driver's Championship with 349 points, Lewis Hamilton is in second place with 330 points, Daniel Ricciardo is in third place with 242 points, Sebastian Vettel is in fourth place with 187 points, Kimi Raikkonen is in fifth place with 178 points, Max Verstappen is in sixth place with 177 points, Sergio Perez is in seventh place with 85 points, Valtteri Bottas is in eighth place with 85 points, Nico Hulkenberg is in ninth place with 60 points and Fernando Alonso is in tenth place with 52 points.
Mercedes are Constructors Championship with 679 points, Red Bull is in second place with 427 points, Ferrari is in third place with 365 points, Force India is in fourth place with 145 points, Williams is in fifth place with 136 points, McLaren is in sixth place with 74 points, Toro Rosso is in seventh place with 55 points, Haas is in eighth place with 29 points, Renault is in ninth place with 8 points and Manor are tenth with 1 point.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
