Hamilton World Champion, Verstappen wins Mexican GP
Max Verstappen drove a faultless race from the front row of the grid to the chequered flag and won the race by 17 seconds from Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari. The other Ferrari driven by Kimi Raikkonen was also on the podium in 3rd spot but, the spotlight this weekend had moved from the Ferraris to the Red Bulls who dominated practice. Of course everyone’s eyes were also on Lewis Hamilton who only needed to finish 7th to be crowned World Champion, which he did with consummate ease by finishing 4th behind Raikkonen. Lewis is a worthy 5th time World Champion with only Fangio equalling this and Michael Schumacher bettering this by another two Championships!
It was a good race with Max Verstappen been given the Driver of the day award, just a pity that his team mate Daniel Ricciardo should go out yet again with engine trouble. The Red Bulls really showed their potential on this tricky track which is high up in the atmosphere at 6000 ft above sea level. Adrian Newey really does design a fantastic car which just needs a little more power to be the quickest everywhere. Ferrari for example were considerably quicker than Red Bull down the long main straight. We really can only hope that Honda deliver the goods next year and make Red Bull one of the top three cars
at all the circuits. Behind Hamilton came team mate Valtteri Bottas in the other Merc followed by a quick on the day Renault of Nico Hulkenberg in 5th and 6th positions. Again it is a shame that Carlos Sainz should have to fall out in the 2nd works Renault after also going very quickly. Next up was Charles Leclerc 7th in his well driven Sauber Ferrari while Stoffel Vandoorne, Marcus Ericsson, and Pierre Gasly were 8th,9th and 10th in their McLaren, Sauber and Toro Rosso Honda respectively. Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez (The local yokel) were also unlucky not to finish.
The next race follows in 14 days time in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Rod Kinsey
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