Lewis Hamilton overcomes a Sebastian Vettel-inflicted puncture to seal fourth title as Max Verstappen wins in Mexico

A collision on the first lap saw both drivers return to the pits

So Lewis Hamilton is the world champion for the fourth time, and it was no thanks to his arch-rival Sebastian Vettel.

After they made contact on the opening lap both pitted, Vettel for a replacement nose, Hamilton for a punctured right rear tyre which Vettel’s wing had cut. But where the German could race back to the pits, Hamilton was forced to limp.

And as Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas ran away and hid thereafter in the first two places, the Red Bull driver controlling everything brilliantly to keep the Finn well at bay and to win by 19.6s, the focus of the race was on which of the two title protagonists could recover better.

For a long time they were down in 16^th and 19^th places, but Hamilton was a long way behind Vettel after his slow opening lap and as struggling on a set of soft-compound tyres fitted at his stop. Vettel was on similar rubber, but had less damage on his car.

As unfamiliar figures occupied the high places behind the two leaders – with Esteban Ocon leading Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, local hero Sergio Perez and Kimi Raikkonen, the odds favoured Hamilton for Vettel needed to score at least 16 points assuming Hamilton scored none, to keep his hopes alive. That meant second place, of which he had zero chance unless there were retirements ahead.

But Vettel never gave up, though when his brush with Felipe Massa in Turn 3 on the 12^th lap triggered his angry tirade against the Brazilian, it was not met well in the press room.

“It’s fun to push the other car off the track?” he rated. I had my nose ahead.” His crew told him to stay focused, and soon he had pushed his way up to eighth place by the 31^st lap, when a virtual safety car intervention as rookie Brendon Hartley’s broken Toro Rosso was cleared away triggered multiple pit calls.

Lewis Hamilton celebrates winning the Formula One world championship for a fourth time (Getty)

These helped Raikkonen and Lance Stroll to respectively vault past the Force Indias of Ocon and Perez, which had already stopped for fresh tyres, and also enabled Vettel to switch to ultrasoft tyres and Hamilton to supersofts. Both felt their cars coming alive again.

Gradually Vettel picked his way by Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, then Perez, Stroll and Ocon, in short order. But this time Ferrari could not help him by ordering Raikkonen to switch places. Told that the Finn was 23.7s ahead, Vettel replied “Mama Mia! That’s a little too much!” Whether he meant it was too much for him to make up, or too obvious a move for Ferrari to make if they told Raikkonen to back off, debatable.

Hamilton, meanwhile, was making progress of his own, moving from 15^th to 10^th after passing Pascal Wehrlein, Pierre Gasly, Marcus Ericsson and Stoffel Vandoorne. Predictably, however, his old McLaren foe Fernando Alonso was in no mood to be kind, and after a few efforts from Hamilton came up short they ran side by side through Turns 1 to 4, millimetres apart, and rubbing wheels, before Hamilton finally got the job done and sped home in a ninth place that saw him double the Spaniard’s title tally and do enough to join Alain Prost and Vettel in the four-championships elite.

Hamilton celebrated with donuts in front of the Mexican crowd (Getty)

Barely able to speak during the slow-down lap, when he drew alongside Vettel, he paid tribute to his crew at Mercedes. “I just want to say thank you. What you’ve done in the last couple of years is just remarkable. God bless you!”

Climbing from the car in the stadium, where Channel Four’s David Coulthard awaited the top three and the new champion, he exclaimed “Via Mexico!”, and the record crowd roared. In an emotional moment many of them had accepted racer organiser Alejandro Soberon’s invitation to stand and raise their fists on the 19^th lap in support of those affected by the earthquakes on September 7th and 19th, and now they cheered Hamilton to the echo.

Hugging members of his crew, he was finally able to speak as Coulthard surveyed the battle scars on the Mercedes.

“I did everything I could,” he said. “I made a good start, and I don’t really know what happened in Turn 3 [with Vettel] but I gave him plenty of room.”

He said that it had yet to sink in that he had finally won his fourth title and joined a new elite. “It doesn’t feel real now, and it wasn’t the kind of race I wanted. I was 40s behind, but I never gave up. I kept pushing right to the end, and I’m just grateful to end it this way, thanks to family and God and my team.”

He then showed just how fit racing drivers are after 71 laps in brutal heat, by running from the stadium back to the pits, chased by an adoring flock of excited spectators.

Hamilton celebrates his success from the cockpit of his championship-winning Mercedes (Getty)

Last week’s US GP in Austin had its ‘Super Bowl’ moment when the drivers were introduced to the spectators. But this weekend’s Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) parade was a key part of the pre-race build up, celebrating the belief that deceased loved ones return from the dead to see life on earth again, to taste their favourite foods, and to rest before returning to the afterlife. And the enthusiasm of the Mexican crowd proved that not all things are bigger in Texas.

Poor Verstappen! His was a great victory, won the hard way from the front on the opening laps, and he never once relented. At one stage his team told him just to cover Bottas’ times, and in a dig at the Finn’s pace he remarked, “I’ll just take it easy, then?” When told he had just exactly repeated his previous lap time, he laughed and said, “I’m sorry!”

It was typical of the Dutch prodigy that in a race in which none of the other Renault-powered runners finished that he could not resist setting a fastest lap as late as the 65^th lap, which Vettel subsequently bettered.

“The start was crucial,” he admitted. “I went to the left and saw Lewis was there to my left, Seb was on the inside and braked for the corner but I got alongside and for the next one I was on the inside. We did touch, but it just a light brush. It was so close with Seb and it worked well, and it was good for me to see what happened behind me after that. Then it was just a matter of looking after my tyres after I had pulled away.”

Time was that Verstappen was the future of F1, but the truth is he is also the present with two wins in the last four races.

But the day belonged to Hamilton, even if it wasn’t quite what he’d had in mind.