Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton won the Mexican Grand Prix, 2019, but did not clinch the World drivers title, falling just four points short after title ‘rival’, Valtteri Bottas, I use rival lightly as Bottas has not been close to Hamilton since the first few races of the season, finished on the third step of the podium.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen qualified on pole position, but later was stripped of that pole because he was deemed to not have slowed under yellow flag conditions, after Bottas put his Mercedes in the wall. The young Dutchman started from fourth place after being demoted three places for his qualifying infraction.
Moving onto the start of the race, Charles Leclerc, who inherited pole after Verstappen’s penalty, got a solid start in the long run down to turn 1 to be clear of teammate Sebastian Vettel, who had Hamilton for company. The German, in my opinion, clearly ran the Briton off the road, but escaped a penalty, despite not leaving a car’s width. Because Hamilton had to get out of the throttle, this allowed Verstappen to get a run on Hamilton into turn 1, where the pair banged wheels, going off track, dropping Hamilton back to fifth place and Verstappen eighth, while Alex Albon slotted into third place, as a result of the incident.
Verstappen was in the thick of it again on lap 4 at the stadium hairpin, banging wheels with the second Mercedes of Bottas, which resulted in a right rear puncture, which became apparent after he passed the pits, meaning the Dutchman had a complete a lap before replacing his tires, dropping him back to last.
McLaren ruined what could have been a solid result for Lando Norris with his pit crew failing to secure all four wheels during his first pit stop on lap 13. The call to stop came soon enough for him to stop before the pitlane exit line, but by the time his car was wheeled back to his pit box and the wheel secured, the Briton was a lap down, eventually retiring from the race on lap 48, to save engine mileage. McLaren stablemate Carlos Sainz took the chequered flag in 13th place due to a lack of pace on the hard tire.
On lap 45, while Leclerc pitted for a second time, his stop was delayed by an issue with his right rear wheel, losing about four seconds, which put him behind Bottas who had stopped a lap earlier. Time for me to put on my tin-foil conspiracy theory hat, ever since Leclerc had his two wins in Spa and Monza, Leclerc has had ‘issues’ that benefited teammate Vettel. Did the German throw a tantrum because his young teammate was putting him in the shade? regular hat on, I hope it’s just bad luck and not sabotage.
Max Verstappen did recover to sixth place, managing to avoid any further wheel banging incidents. A solid overall drive from the Dutchman, running 66 laps on a set of hard tires, which he installed on lap 5, inheriting sixth place after Ricciardo pitted on lap 51 for his mandatory tire compound change.
Other than Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo last stint battle with Racing Point’s Sergio Perez for seventh place, which Perez won despite Ricciardo’s best efforts, and Danill Kvyat tipping Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault into a spin and into the wall, in a clumsy overtake attempt in the battle for ninth place on the final lap. There was nothing more of interest in the battle for the podium places. Vettel could make no impact on Hamilton, likewise, Bottas could make no impact on Vettel, and same goes for Leclerc in fourth place.
Mexican Grand Prix 2019 Results
| 1. 2. (Ferrari) +1.766s 3. (Mercedes) +3.553s 4. (Ferrari) +6.368s 5. |
6. 7. 8. 9. (Toro Rosso) +1 LAP 10. |
