Lewis Hamilton has closed the gap to his 6th World Championship title by clinching Mexico GP's win, now only needing 4 more points to secure the title till the next race at United States GP.
The race was a mix of on-race battle and pit-stop chaos, making the GP ever so intriguing by the end of the race.
The start was dominated by the Ferraris, as Max Verstappen of Red Bull was demoted to P4 for not obeying on Yellow Flags during qualifying as Valtteri Bottas crashed on his flying lap.
This meant Ferrari has consecutively taken poles since the season break and Mercedes hasn't gotten pole since. However it was crucial for the Finnish driver to keep his title hopes alive as his team mate Lewis Hamilton was starting in P3.
It was a rowdy start as Sebastian on the main straight swung across Lewis until Turn 1, where then the British driver made contact with Max at Turn 2. Following until Lap 3, Max once again made contact this time with Valtteri Bottas which caused him a puncture.
The Dutch driver had been furious ever since his denial from pole and race win was indeed taken away from him. During this time, the two McLarens of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris made a brilliant getaway, even overtaking one of the Mercedes during the first few laps as they were starting on the grippy, soft tires.
At the back of the grid, the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen was found between two cars of George Russel and Kevin Magnussen causing contacts which resulted in Virtual Safety Car.
Until Lap 15, the Red Bull driver Alex Albon was the first to enter the pit lane for tire changes, going from soft to medium with the intentions of 2 stops for the race.
Then a lap later, the race leader Charles Leclerc was brought in to change his tires, going with the same strategies as of the Thai driver. Then on Lap 24, Lewis was called to the pits for his tire changes, and putting on the hard tires to go till the end of the race.
However initially the British driver complained as to the tires not working properly and even questioned if the current strategy was the right call. But the German team gave motivation to Lewis and told to push and reassure that the strategy will pay till the end.
For a while it seemed Vettel and Bottas were going on for much longer stints as they stayed out. But Valtteri came in for tire changes till Lap 37 for a set of hard tires. Ferrari reacted and also called Sebastian a lap later for the same white stripped tires.
However things didn't go well for Charles as his rear left tire was not put on properly, causing a massive delay, the Monegasque had a huge task to do at that point, and that was to close the gap to the front runners as soon as possible.
Now it was at this point as who would win the race, behind the race leader Lewis Hamilton, Vettel, Valtteri, Albon and Charles were all on fresher tires and were gaining quickly.
Charles Leclerc was on the charge as he was gaining on the leader by couple tenths a lap until a lock up manifested to lost all the time again.
Meanwhile the misfortunes for judging Lewis's tire didn't play out for Ferrari as they were suspecting a loss of performance from the Briton's tires till the end of the race, which then ultimately gave Lewis a victory he believe wasn't on the table. Valterri Bottas completed the podium finishes and so the title fight will go on till Austin.
For the midfield battle, Renault flipped their unlucky qualifying results to double points finish with Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg both finishing P8 and P10 respectively. Max who was on charge from 20th at some point finished behind Albon in P6, a decent recovery from the Dutch driver.
The local hero Sergio Perez finished P7 in front of his adoring fans, while Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso finished P9 completes the top 10.
It was a day to forget for the McLarens however, as Lando had to retire due to pit-stop mishap and the strategy for Carlos not playing out correctly causing the Spaniard to finish P13.
As Lewis Hamilton clinched the victory in Mexico, he managed to extend his championship lead on his title rival, Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton will now only need to outscore Bottas by 4 points in Austin next weekend, in order to seal his 6th world title.
The end of the race was marked with Lewis celebrating his victory, as he performed donuts in the stadium section in front of a crowd of tens of thousands.
Final Classification:
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