That’s all, folks!
Thanks for joining our live race coverage of today’s gripping Mexico GP.
Make sure to check out our race report and driver ratings on the Vavel website.
We’ll see you next week as F1 heads to Austin for the US Grand Prix.
Adiós!
Trophy time
Hamilton laps up the energy of the Mexican crowd as he collects his first-place trophy.
The Brit is now within a whisker of his sixth World Championship.
Well that’s, er, new.
Race organisers gone a bit OTT here with the podium celebrations as Hamilton stands on top of his car and is elevated up.
Adds to the spectacle mind.
Time penalty
Kvyat receives a 10 second time penalty for his Hulkenberg shunt.
That sees Gasly promoted to 9th, as Hulkenberg claims the final points spot.
Hard tyre surprise
“The hard tyres worked a lot better than we were expecting,” admitted Vettel.
P2 for the German, although at one stage it looked as though everything had aligned for a Sebastian victory.
Finishers
1 Hamilton (Mercedes)
2 Vettel (Ferrari)
3 Bottas (Mercedes)
4 Leclerc (Ferrari)
5 Albon (Red Bull)
6 Verstappen (Red Bull)
7 Perez (Racing Point)
8 Ricciardo (Renault)
Party crowd
“This is the best crowd I’ve ever seen.”
But what about Silverstone, Lewis?
Ye of little faith
“Thank you so much for all your hard work,” says Hamilton. “That was a tough race, thanks so much for all your support as always.”
Fizzled out
What a strange race that was. Great at the start, interesting through the middle with a belting finish on the card, then exhibition stuff at the end.
Checkered Flag
Drama at the end in the battle for the remaining points as Kvyat puts Hulkenberg in the wall.
A penalty will be delivered to the Russian, it seems.
Checkered Flag
A drive of a World Champion as Hamilton drives with class and elegance to claim the race win.
Sebastian Vettel is second, and Valtteri Bottas third, meaning the battle for the driver championship goes onto Texas in two weeks’ time. Hamilton must finish with four points more than Bottas to secure his sixth title!
Lap 71/71
Lewis Hamilton wins the Mexico Grand Prix!
Lap 71/71
Hamilton crosses the line for his final lap.
There’s no stopping him.
Lap 70/71
Hamilton will make it his 100th podium for Mercedes - only Michael Schumacher, with 116 for Ferrari, has more for one team.
Lap 69/71
No signs of Vettel closing in as Ricciardo looks to make a late assault on Perez.
Lap 68/71
Gap between Hamilton and Vettel is up to 2.4 seconds.
Lap 68/71
Verstappen, meanwhile, is sixth - a pretty decent shift from last. He’ll have done 67 laps on these tyres by the end.
Lap 67/71
5 laps remaining as personal best sector times are being punched in.
Proper expertise from Hamilton, who has managed his tyres excellently so far.
Lap 66/71
Hamilton flies through the middle sector and sets the board alight with a purple.
2.3 seconds separates himself and Vettel.
Lap 65/71
Is anybody going to make a move here, or?
Lap 63/71
The top four all currently fitting into one camera shot.
The slipstream overheating issue may just play into Hamilton’s hands.
Lap 62/71
HUGE lock-up from Ricciardo as he looks to pass Perez at T1.
The Renault flies across the grass and prompts cheers from the home crowd as Perez retains his place.
Lap 61/71
Hamilton preserving his lead and his tyres relatively well.
Is Ferrari’s prediction about Hamilton’s tyre drop-off ill-advised?
Lap 60/71
Raikkonen retires from the race from P16.
The Finn’s second retirement in the last four Grand Prix’s.
Lap 59/71
Leclerc goes deep at T4, locking his left front.
The Ferrari’s dropped over a second in his pursuit of the leading three.
Lap 58/71
Bottas warned to stay out of Vettel’s slipstream as the leading quartet navigate their way through traffic.
Leclerc continues to close in on Bottas.
Lap 56/71
Bottas within DRS range of Vettel now.
This is going to get tasty, baby.
Lap 55/71
Grosjean goes for walkies with a little escapade in the middle sector.
A summary of Haas’ weekend.
Lap 52/71
Lando Norris retires.
Rotten bit of luck for the young Brit, and another DNF.
It’s amazing to think how many points McLaren have squandered on Lando’s behalf this year.
Lap 51/71
And Ricciardo now pits; kudos to the Aussie.
Meanwhile out front, 10 seconds separates the top four.
Lap 50/71
Daniel Ricciardo providing a stellar, albeit quiet, performance.
Been sat in 6th for the majority of the race and has kept the hard compound tyres ticking well beyond their predicted life expectancy.
Lap 49/71
Albon punches in the fastest lap of the race to subtly remind the four ahead of him that he’s in it to win it.
Bottas and Vettel both edging closer to Hamilton.
Lap 47/71
So as it stands, Hamilton will not win the title today and the fight will roll into Austin next week.
Still a long way to go though, mind you.
Lap 46/71
Leclerc responds to his pit-stop hinderance with an almighty out lap.
His race isn’t over just yet.
Lap 45/71
Corrr, 1.9 seconds pit-stop time for Red Bull with Alex Albon - scintillating stuff.
Meanwhile, Hamilton leads Vettel by 3.2 seconds, with Bottas a further 2 seconds adrift.
Lap 44/71
Drama in Leclerc’s pit-stop!
The right-rear looked to have not been put on correctly and it’s cost him a couple of seconds.
Lap 43/71
“Fronts are dead” complains Leclerc.
Ferrari pit the Monegasque in response.
Lap 43/71
Despair in the crowds as Perez is passed by a charging Verstappen for P7.
A day of what could have been for Max.
Lap 42/71
Personally, I don’t see how anyone can beat Vettel here.
Hamilton’s tyres look pretty ropey - someone has misread the conditions.
Lap 38/71
Hard compound tyres for Vettel and returns in P4, ahead of Bottas.
It looks to be a healthy position for Sebastian.
Lap 37/71
Bottas pits and comes out in 5th. Vettel receives the call to box.
Lap 36/71
On the edge of your seat back marker stuff!
Gasly and Sainz enjoy a great battle but it comes at the expense of race leader Vettel behind who has to weave his way through them.
Lap 33/71
“It’s going to be a job when he comes out.”
Hamilton not exactly fond of this strategy, but Mercedes are insistent that he is on for the race win.
Lap 32/71
Sainz is now swallowed up by the Renault of Hulkenberg.
Proving to be a difficult day at the office for the McLaren boys, so far.
Lap 31/71
Verstappen and Sainz squabbling in the first sector and the Red Bull prevails, moving into the points.
Have Vettel and Bottas stopped yet? No, they still haven’t.
Lap 29/71
Have Vettel and Bottas come in yet?
No.
Lap 27/71
Leclerc knows that if he wants to finish above Hamilton he’ll have to overtake him on the track - Mercedes’ strategy, allied to Hamilton’s driving is better.
Lap 26/71
Hamilton punches in a fastest lap. The race seems to have suddenly switched into the championship leader’s hands.
Lap 25/71
“That Ferrari is understeering like a cross-channel ferry.”
That’s one way of putting it, Martin.
Lap 24/71
The Williams duo going hammer and tongue at one another, Kubica remaining ahead for the time being.
Lap 23/71
Hamilton pits and rejoins in open space.
Nicely done by Mercedes.
Lap 22/71
Problems in the Alfa Romeo garage as Giovinazzi’s prop collapses.
Pit-stop deficiencies everywhere.
Lap 22/71
That is a lovely graphic.
Tyre temperatures, tyre conditions and all that jazz.
Beautiful stuff.
Lap 21/71
Vettel, who has also yet to pit, leads Hamilton by 1.9s. By the looks of things, if he’s to win the title tonight, Hamilton needs to win and needs Bottas to come third or lower.
Lap 17/71
Battle of the strategies sees Vettel opting to stay on a longer run than his team-mate.
Oooft, you couldn’t call this one.
Lap 16/71
Excellent stop from the Red Bull team for Albon, however he comes out just behind the McLaren of Sainz.
The rookie negotiates the Spaniard with ease however, and doesn’t seem to have lost too much time.
Lap 15/71
Heartbreaking for Norris!
McLaren make a mistake in the pits and fail to put on his front left correctly, and the young Brit is now stone dead last.
Lap 13/71
Brake temperature concerns arising from the Mercedes garage.
Hamilton coasting in P4, following behind the leading trio.
Lap 11/71
Albon holding his own in third. Hamilton’s struggling to close in and the Red Bull driver is inching nearer to Vettel in front.
Lap 10/71
A roar echoes around the circuit as the home favourite Sergio Perez passes Daniil Kvyat.
Blimey, that was special.
Lap 9/71
Verstappen is now a minute adrift of the leaders here.
We’ve seen him perform miracles before, but I don’t think we’ll see one today.
Lap 8/71
Sainz the latest victim of Bottas’ assault.
Soft tyres not exactly going the distance for the McLaren team.
Lap 6/71
Bottas performs a move on Norris that masks the one his team-mate made on Sainz.
He’s now in P6.
Lap 5/71
Thrilling tussle between Bottas and Verstappen ultimately ends in despair for the Red Bull driver as he picks up a puncture!
The Dutch star has been out of luck this weekend.
Lap 4/71
Hamilton makes easy work of Sainz heading down to T1 and is up to fourth.
Leclerc’s opened up the gap to Vettel by a couple of tenths.
Lap 3/71
And we’re racing again!
Lap 2/71
VSC is out. Replays show a mini bump between the two Ferrari’s, both look to be ok though.
Lap 2/71
Fast and the Furious: Mexico City drift (Hamilton and Verstappen edition)
Lap 1/71
Drama at the start! Hamilton and Verstappen have a tussle exiting T1 and the pair of them travel across the grass.
Albon and Sainz benefit, with the duo P3 and P4 respectively.
Lights out!
There’s a struggle with Hamilton and Verstappen!
Lining up...
Unsurprisingly, a massive applause for Sergio Perez as he weaves into the stadium section.
Formation lap
The top six are all on mediums.
Strategy is key here - but will teams go for a two-stop or three-stop?
The breakdown for Hamilton
So, for Lewis Hamilton to claim his sixth World Championship, he’ll need to outscore Valtteri Bottas by 14 points.
First corner chaos
Be warned for slipstream drama as drivers descend down to T1.
The Ferrari’s will be pleased to have that straight-line speed behind them...
Kvyat hoping to jump the McLaren’s
“We aim to jump them at the start” laughs Kvyat, who starts from P9 on the grid.
Should be an interesting midfield battle.
0.001 seconds...
Time difference between Daniel Ricciardo’s pole position lap for Red Bull last year and Max Verstappen’s lap for Red Bull this year. It’s a bit, er, close.
Qualifying Results
So, here’s the top ten line-up for today’s race:
1) Leclerc
2) Vettel
3) Hamilton
4) Verstappen
5) Albon
6) Bottas
7) Sainz
8) Norris
9) Kvyat
10) Gasly
It’s a team circuit
An obvious trend from qualifying yesterday was the pattern of classification.
Every team - with the exception of Red Bull, Mercedes and Racing Point - had their drivers qualifying next to each other, consolidating the point that this is a circuit where drivers heavily rely on their machinery.
Bottas shunt
Valtteri Bottas’ weekend took an unexpected twist during qualifying as his Mercedes snapped back at him on the entry into the final corner and the Finn took a heavy impact as he veered off into the wall.
Not ideal race preparation for somebody looking to halt Lewis Hamilton.
Anybody’s game
There is very little to split the leading trio of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.
Analysis of race runs and qualifying times leaves very little to separate the three, although Max Verstappen was at his scintillating best to break into the 1:14 barrier in qualifying yesterday.
Qualifying Review
Max Verstappen was stripped of his pole position in Saturday’s qualifying after stewards had judged that the Red Bull driver failed to oblige with the double yellow flags being waved in the final two corners.
As a result, Charles Leclerc has been promoted to pole, with Verstappen now starting fourth.
Breakdown: Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
First Grand Prix: 1963
Number of Laps: 71
Circuit Length: 4.304km
Race Distance: 305,354km
Lap Record: 1:18:741 (Valtteri Bottas, 2018)
Key features: It’s pretty high! The track sits 2km above sea level, making oxygen a more valuable commodity.
The Foro Sol Baseball stadium section in the final sector makes for a unique spectacle, and can host thousands of spectators.
Hitting it for six
Lewis Hamilton will be crowned World Champion IF he outscores his Mercedes team-mate Valterri Bottas by 14 points.
So if Hamilton was to win the race, Bottas would need to finish no lower than fourth to keep his slim title hopes alive.
Hello!
Welcome to Vavel’s live coverage of the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix!