Hamilton Clinches Formula 1 Drivers Title as Verstappen finishes first at the Mexico grand prix [+video]

Lewis wins the fourth title of his career and seals the fourth consecutive Drivers’ Championship for Mercedes as Verstappen wins the Mexico Grand Prix, his 3rd grand prix victory. Hamilton finished in 9th place and Vettel in 4th place due to an early accident between the two. But this was enough for Hamilton to clinch the title with only 2 races to go.

Together with Verstappen on the podium at Mexico were Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen. Valtteri finished today’s Mexico Grand Prix in second place, his best ever result at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and his 20^th podium place in Formula One. Behind Vettel, Esteban Ocon was fifth, split from Force India team mate by Williams’ Lance Stroll. Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, Hamilton and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso completed the top ten.

The race started well with Vettel who was at pole position, Verstappen slow catching up and Hamilton running side by side with them after turn 1. Vettel was on the inside and Hamilton tried to manoeuvre his way through. Moving up to turn 2, both Verstappen and Vettel were next to each other and they briefly touched each other before Verstappen surged forward.

Hamilton, seeing the tussle, quickly moved in and went to the second place before Vettel’s front wing brushed against Hamilton’s rear tyre, puncturing it. This caused both of them to pit which led to their loss in position after emerging from the pits.

Sebastian Vettel just needed 16 points in order to maintain his title hopes, and that meant he needed to finish in second place. Bottas wasn’t ready to let it go so easily. Although the Finn himself couldn’t match Verstappen’s pace but kept the pressure on the race leader.

On top of that, Hamilton climbed to an eventual ninth after a huge fight with Alonso, and with 333 points to Vettel’s 280, the title war was finally over no matter what happens in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

Lewis (333 points) leads the Drivers’ Championship by 56 points from Sebastian Vettel (277 points). After having secured the Constructors’ World Championship last week in Austin, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (595 points) now lead Ferrari (455 points) by 140 points in the Constructors’ Championship.