Mexican Grand Prix: Hamilton wins his FIFTH title as Verstappen wins the race

Max Verstappen wins the 2018 Mexican Grand Prix, but the headline is a fourth place for Lewis Hamilton and his fifth world title.

Lewis Hamilton wanted to win the Mexican Grand Prix to seal his fifth world drivers title in style, but he didn’t manage it. But he did finish fourth, enough to seal the deal and move him up amongst the all-time greats with a fifth world championship title.

The race to the firts corner at the start saw Hamilton charge forward, helped by a poor start from pole-sitter Ricciardo, but it was Max Verstappen who took the lead at the first corner and continued in the same fashion to the end, winning the race and relegating the Mercedes and Ferraris to also-rans,

Vettel knew he had to win the race and hope Hamilton crashed out, and by half way he had overtaken Hamilton and was chasing after Verstappen, with Hamilton falling back as his tyres deteriorated, and having a pit stop for new tyres with 24 laps to go. 

Vettel failed to win, but he did put on a show which demonstrated what could have been had it not been for a series of errors in the summer, with a second place finish in clear air from team mate Raikkonen in third, with Hamilton and Bottas finishing for Mercedes in fourth and fifth, helped by Daniel Ricciardo’s retirement on lap 61.

Behind the front runners it was Hulkenberg’s Renault in sixth,  Leclerc’s Sauber in seventh, a surprise eighth for Vandoorne in the McLaren (Alonso retired near the start of the race), Ericsson in the second Sauber in ninth and Pierre Gasly in the Toro Rosso taking the final points place.

It’s off to Brazil in a fortnight, but the headline business for F1 in 2018 is now done and dusted.