Hamilton Wins Mexican Grand Prix; Closes Gap On Rosberg By 19 Points

By car&bike Team

1 mins read

Published on October 31, 2016

Highlights

The fight between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg continues as we close in on the 2016 Formula 1 World Championship. Hamilton drove his way to victory at the Mexican Grand Prix and now has closed in the points gap with Rosberg to just 19 points. It was not just the Mercedes drivers going at it in this race. In fact the battle lines were drawn by even Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and even Daniel Ricciardo, so we saw a bunch of penalties levied in this race, surprisingly though not one of them was awarded to Hamilton. Starting from pole position, Hamilton out-braked himself into the first corner which saw him clipping some grass but also cut the curb. Because of this, he took the lead which thereafter was not challenged by any of the other drivers and kept on increasing the margin from team mate Rosberg, to emerge victorious. Hamilton outbrakes himself on Turn One Rosberg had his share of problems because he survived after making light contact with Max Verstappen and he too managed to run across the grass, and escaped punishment, before scampering home in second place. The race was a dull one, one must say with nothing changing on the grid till the last few laps. Sebastian Vettel, stopped later than most on lap 32, and Daniel Ricciardo, who came in for soft tyres with 20 laps would see them close up to Verstappen in the closing stages. Vettel started putting Verstappen under pressure and the latter locked up in turn one but retained position while Vettel made his fury evident on the radio. Verstappen was then instructed on the radio to cede the position to Vettel but that didn’t happen and this allowed Ricciardo to get up close with these two cars. Vettel was left defending Ricciardoin the final few laps but he did this under braking which is why though he crossed the line in third place, he had to concede his position to Ricciardo thanks to a 10-second penalty. Tempers were thrown and infact Vettel even launched into a tirade against Race Director Charlie Whiting – telling him to f**k off for not penalising Verstappen. The Ducthman was, however, slapped with a 5 second penalty placing him in fifth position. Kimi Raikkonen came in sixth in the second Ferrari while Nico Hulkenberg hung on to seventh place after defending his sixth place and finally failing to defend it against the Finn. Completing the points was Valtteri Bottas, Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez, the latter spending almost his entire race unable to get by the Brazilian.