First day
In "Formula 1" began an American tour, which will cover three races in the Western Hemisphere. The first stop for the pilots was the Mexican Grand Prix and its Rodriguez brothers circuit, famous for its paradox. The profile of the track should be suitable for cars with powerful engines and high downforce, but Max Verstappen won the Red Bull for the last two years.
This circumstance could not but worry before the arrival in Mexico of Lewis Hamilton, who won here only once back in 2016. After the Japanese Grand Prix, he was in a situation where the next race could make him the world champion. For this to happen, the Mercedes pilot, after finishing in Mexico City, must be ahead of the closest pursuer Valtteri Bottas by 78 points, that is, to accumulate a gap of another 14 points. You can do this in case of your own victory and the Finn finish below fifth place.
Such a necessary scenario for Hamilton began to be embodied in the first training session in Mexico. The British pilot led the protocol, and Bottas just turned out to be the fifth. However, these results were not indicative - the session was spoiled a little by night rain, because of which the racers spent the first laps in the intermediate tires, and the light accident of Lance Stroll from Racing Point, which caused a ten-minute delay.
In the evening, the weather no longer interfered with the pilots, but incidents could not be avoided. This time, Alexander Albon was unlucky at Red Bull. He crashed the car and stopped free practice for several minutes. After it, the leaders of the protocol were other people. The best lap drove Sebastian Vettel on a Ferrari. Verstappen lost to him a little more than one tenth of a second. Charles Lecler at one point lost control of the car, but in the end showed the third time. And in the camp of Mercedes there were permutations - Bottas turned out to be faster at that time, while Hamilton was content with the fifth result.
The scandal during the race in Japan, when Renault pilots were disqualified due to an automatic brake balance adjustment system, the use of which was recognized as an aid to aerobatics, exacerbated the struggle for fifth place in the Cup of designers. Most of the points from the French manufacturer went to Toro Rosso. And this unexpected gift of fate, which happened a few days after the finish, inspired the pilots of the Italian team. In Mexico, Daniil Quat and Pierre Gasley started from a very good position - in both Friday's training sessions they climbed into the top ten, and in general they took sixth and seventh places with a fan. The backlog of their team from Renault was only six points, which could well be played for the remaining four races, especially since neither Nico Hulkenberg nor Daniel Riccardo on the first day of the Mexican Grand Prix shone.
Second day
The Saturday Grand Prix of Mexico was at risk. A few hours before the training races, about 150 team members complained of stomach problems. According to media reports, McLaren, Renault and Toro Rosso suffered the most losses, and the partner Kvyata was among the victims in the Italian stable. The situation with Gasley ironically commented on Red Bull motor racing adviser Helmut Marko, who said that during the training the Frenchman may need diapers.
But in the end, the pilot's condition returned to normal, and he managed to show the seventh result during the third free practice. Quat, on the other hand, noticeably slowed down in comparison with his previous results and became only 11th. His lag behind Gasley was 0.439 seconds.
As on the eve, the last night rain seriously affected the performance of the riders. At first, they experienced serious discomfort during the course, but subsequently were able to show decent results. Representatives of Ferrari - Leclair and Vettel again finished at the head, and their rivals from Mercedes in the person of Bottas and Hamilton settled down after them.
The main events unfolded during the qualification. The first came Ferstappen from Red Bull, ahead of the duo from Ferrari and Hamilton. It is noteworthy that the Dutchman showed the best time before the last lap, during which he improved his results and guaranteed himself a pole position at the start of the race. True, by this moment double yellow flags were posted on the track due to the Bottas accident, which Max safely ignored.
It is noteworthy that the organizers did not notice a violation of the regulations by Verstappen. They concluded that he slowed down the Finn accident site and left the qualification results in force. But during the press conference, the pilot himself inadvertently admitted that he did not really slow down in this sector. As a result, Max was called to the stewards, and subsequently deprived of three positions on the grid. Thus, Leclair became the first, and Vettel and Hamilton were behind him.
Quat won the duel against Gasley and showed the ninth time in qualifying. At the same time, the Russian also became a participant in the controversial situation and could well be fined. The incident occurred at the exit of the boxes, where he almost crashed into the car of Daniel Riccardo. The Australian managed to escape from the collision, and the organizers decided not to punish the driver Toro Rosso.
Race
The failures of the Red Bull leader continued at the start. In the debut, Verstappen collided with Hamilton, as a result of which both pilots flew out onto the grass and rolled into the middle of the peloton. During the incident, the race cars of the athletes touched the wheels several times, but did not receive serious damage.
However, overtaking Bottas turned into a real nightmare for Verstappen. At the stadium, Max confidently walked through Valtteri and chased the leaders, but after a few seconds he found a puncture in the rear right tire. The Dutchman on three wheels was forced to get to the boxes and lost not only a huge amount of time, but also the chances to compete for high places. He nevertheless broke through to the sixth line, but for the victor of the last two races in Mexico, this was a little comfort.
Failure also befell Lando Norris from McLaren. The Briton completed the qualification on the eighth line and was ready to fight for points, but was a victim of his own technicians. They forgot to spin the wheel for him and prematurely sent him to a distance, and after a few seconds they were forced to manually roll the car back into the boxes. This failure threw him to the last line and crossed out the chances of success. As a result, he lasted 51 laps, and then came down.
Alfa Romeo mechanics made a similar mistake, and Antonio Giovinazzi acted as the victim. He was also released, having forgotten to fasten the wheel, but caught on in time and corrected the situation. The Italian reached the finish line, but Kimi Raikonen was forced to prematurely go to the pits and did not score points in six races in a row.
The fight for victory was expectedly unfolded between athletes from Ferrari and Mercedes. For a long time, Leclair was the leader in the race, but in the end he finished only fourth. The reason for this was the tactical miscalculations of the headquarters and untimely pit stops that threw him outside the three. The German stable again worked more competently and clearly showed why it was she who won the Design Cup over the past six years.
As a result, Vettel rose to second place, and Hamilton for the second time in his career became the first at the Mexican Grand Prix. The Briton won his tenth stage of the year and helped Mercedes win the 100th race in Formula 1, but failed to prematurely guarantee himself the title of world champion. This was prevented by Bottas, who finished third and delayed the triumph of his partner at least until the competition in the United States.
For Quata, the race in Mexico ended extremely unsuccessfully. Before the last lap he was tenth and could finish in the points in the second stage in a row, but made a mistake. The Russian lost control and crashed into a Hulkenberg car. The German flew off the track, and the Russian broke on the ninth line. This episode was immediately interested in the stewards, who found Daniel guilty of an accident and deprived of ten seconds. Thus, the driver Toro Rosso moved to 11th position and did not score a single point.