Hamilton in Mexico: If you do not become world champion

Scene of the race: Actually, the final phase would have had all the facilities to deliver the most exciting images of the race: Mercedes against Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton before Sebastian Vettel before Valtteri Bottas in front of Charles Leclerc - and all just a few seconds apart. However, it did not come to a racing showdown. With four laps to go, the lap times of the top three varied only by thousandths of a second, Vettel did not manage to approach significantly closer to Hamilton. His distance to the British was always about two seconds. And so the old and very likely new World Champion delivered the pictures of the day in which he turned after the finish line in front of the cheering spectators a "donut":

# MexicoGP # F1 pic.twitter.com/vHteeurKCj

The result: Hamilton celebrated his tenth season and 83rd career victory in Mexico, for Mercedes it was the 100th Formula 1 success as a factory team. Second was Vettel ahead of Hamilton's teammate Bottas. Read the race report here.

Patience is a virtue: And at least Hamilton seems to be fun. The Briton could have prematurely celebrated his sixth World Cup title in Mexico - as in the past two years. In addition he would have at least 14 points ahead of Bottas, who can be the only still dangerous, have to drive out. But the Finn was too good and thwarted his plans with his podium finish. "I do not care that I have to wait, I love racing, and I just take one race after another," said Hamilton after the finish, "I'm really happy." Optimistic he had not started, in Mexico City he was able to win only once, the track is not the Mercedes. In the past two years he succeeded despite the early title win no podium finish.

Ferrari forgives the double pole: It initially looked different for the Ferrari, who led the race from the start and could defend their seats first. In the tire changes, however, they lost their chances of victory. On lap 23, Hamilton came to the pits to change tires. Ferrari initially wanted to react with Vettel, but hesitated his stop until the 38th Round out. "It feels like we've changed the tires too early," Hamilton sparked in his box - but the tires stopped.

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The Scuderia at the pit stop

Leclerc was on the road with a two-stop strategy. In his second tire change in lap 44, the Monegasse also lost about four seconds, because there were problems with the attachment of the right rear wheel. He came in fifth behind Bottas back on the track. Leclerc was self-critical after the race: "Okay, the strategy was not good, but I should have said something on the radio, should have done better to help the team make the right decision, as Seb did So we have to learn and keep going. "

"A city that fascinates": At the Grand Prix in Mexico City, the superlatives surpass each other: the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is particularly high at 2285 meters above sea level, the air is particularly thin, the course leads through a baseball stadium, and the Social program is especially colorful. The Sky commentator advertised the special date in the race calendar with somewhat different arguments: "A city that fascinates, lots of traffic, a lot of smog, a lot of bad air." Well, maybe a very fitting way to announce a Formula 1 race. At the track that does not seem to bother anyone with the traffic and the air:

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The show before the race in Mexico is colorful

The elevator ride of Max Verstappen: The 21-year-old Dutchman, who has been able to win in Mexico in the past two years, was considered one of the favorites - and demonstrated his strong performance on the course in qualifying. The Red Bull driver lost his pole position, however, as he did not slow down as prescribed after a crash by Bottas and was subsequently moved to fourth place by the race commissioners. After a contact with Bottas Verstappen pulled on his car to a plate and had on the rim in the box. From the last place on the grid, he still worked his way up to sixth place in the course of the race.

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From the highs of Saturday ... the Dutchman drops to last place # MexicoGP # F1 pic.twitter.com/yyL4lb9Mwy

What's next: Hamilton can make his sixth title at the US Grand Prix next Sunday (20.10 CET, Liveticker SPIEGEL, TV: RTL, Sky) perfect. The British Mercedes driver is 74 points ahead of his Finnish team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the third-to-last race of the season in Austin / Texas.