Mexican Grand Prix LIVE: Result and reaction as Max Verstappen beats Lewis Hamilton
Will Lewis Hamilton close the gap to championship leader Max Verstappen? Follow all the action from Mexico
Lewis Hamilton’s dreams of a record-breaking eighth world championship are hanging by a thread after Max Verstappen outgunned his rival to win the Mexican Grand Prix.
Verstappen delivered the start of starts to blast away from third, and beat both Hamilton and pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas on the 220mph stampede to the opening corner.
Mexico City’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez sits a breathless 2,285 metres above sea level, and Verstappen’s breathtaking getaway puts him in the driving seat to claim his maiden title and deny Hamilton further history.
Follow all the reaction from the Mexican Grand Prix below.
Lap 53/71: And Hamilton is getting a bit tetchy: “Are you guys still there?” he says on the team radio. If his Mercedes team were talking to him, they’d be saying that Perez is now within five seconds of him and his title rival currently holds the fastest lap bonus point.
Lap 51/71: Perez cuts the gap further to 5.3 seconds. But Verstappen suddenly pops up with the fastest lap of the race!
Lap 49/71: It’s safe to say, barring a disaster, that Verstappen has the Mexican Grand Prix all but wrapped up.
The huge focus now is on whether Perez will catch Hamilton - the home driver just lapped 1.2 seconds faster on that lap! He’s now only six seconds behind him!
Lap 46/71: Perez continues to close on Hamilton - he just lapped 0.7s faster than the Mercedes. Red Bull also inform Verstappen that his tyres are fine, so no drama there.
Meanwhile, Bottas has worked his way back behind Ricciardo.
Lap 44/71: Verstappen voices some concern about his front left tyre, but I don’t think there any immediate problem for the race leader. Norris got up to seventh after starting 18th but had yet to pit. He finally does and comes back out in 10th place, once again behind Alonso. Every driver has now stopped at least once, and here’s how we stand.
1. Verstappen
2. Hamilton +11.1s
3. Perez +7.1s
4. Gasly +22.7s
5. Leclerc +4.9s
Lap 43/71: Fastest lap for Perez! That’s significant for two reasons as one, he is looking to cut the gap to Hamilton and two, it takes the fastest lap point away from Hamilton.
Lap 42/71: Disaster for Bottas, his afternoon goes from bad to worse. HIs front tyre gets jammed due to a tight nut and it costs him several places. He’s back down in 15th, three places behind Ricciardo now.
Lap 41/71: And here comes the race leader! Perez comes into the pits, and it’s another flying stop from Red Bull! He emerges about nine seconds behind Hamilton. He’s lost several seconds on Hamilton but his tyres will be much fresher when we get to the closing stages of the race.
Lap 40/71: Oh, but there you go. Ricciardo pits and finally releases Bottas - but it’s surely too late for him to climb the standings and have any real impact on the podium places.
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