Mexico (AFP)

It will not be this time: Lewis Hamilton, Sunday winner of the F1 Grand Prix of Mexico, will have to wait to be crowned world champion for a sixth time, his teammate and last rival in the standings, Valtteri Bottas, having finished 3rd.

With 74 points ahead of the Bottas riders and 78 units still to be awarded in the last 3 races of the season, he still has all his chances of being crowned in the United States next Sunday.

This 6th title, which is reaching out to him, would make him the second most awarded driver in the history of F1, behind the German icon Michael Schumacher and his 7 titles.

"It's an unbelievable result," responded Lewis Hamilton who decided to pass very early (23rd lap) in the race for hard tires, which forced him to make a very long second stint to try to beat the Ferrari , first line games on the starting grid.

"It was a difficult race but we managed to come back," he added, as the Mercedes did not go away in front of the Ferrari and the Red Bull who could not do better than 5th with Alexander Albon and 6th with Max Verstappen.

The latter, left 4th, caught on the first corner with Hamilton which forced him to a getaway in the grass, then suffered a puncture after a touch with Bottas.

The next Grand Prix is ​​the United States next Sunday. Hamilton will have to score four points more than Bottas to be crowned world champion.

The Mexican GP "is a race that I wanted to win," said the British champion under the ovations of a delirious crowd in the huge "circus" of the Brothers Rodriguez circuit, which used to be a baseball stadium . He had already registered his name in the winners of the event in 2016 and had been crowned world champion in the last two years but without winning the event.

- Hot behind -

Despite his attempts, Sebastian Vettel, who had opted for a two-tire strategy during the race as well as Leclerc, could not catch Hamilton in the final laps while he was fighting with gums out of breath .

The German was himself under the threat of Bottas, who was under that of Leclerc who got the extra point of the lap record after losing time during one of his pit stops.

"We were starting 1st, unfortunately we had to stop, the two stops were difficult, it's true, we had overheating in the engine and the tires, so it was complicated. think that even without this bad pit stop, it would have been difficult to return to the Mercedes, "commented Leclerc after the race at the microphone Canal +.

The last laps were also marked by hot duels further in the peloton between the local hero Sergio Perez (Racing Point) and the Australian Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) and also between the German Nico Hulkenberg, also on Renault, and the Russian Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso).

Hülkenberg finished the 71st and final lap in Kvyat's safety wall, but he was given a 10-second penalty that took him down to 11th place while allowing Hülkenberg to score the final point. 10th place.

Despite the fears of rain before the start, the race was held in dry weather.

Mercedes had already secured the crown of the world champion constructors at the previous Grand Prix of Japan.

© 2019 AFP