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Max Verstappen won the Mexican Grand Prix finishing ahead of Valtteri Bottas in second and Kimi Raikkonen in third. This was only the second time when a driver won on this circuit starting from second on the grid position.
However, all the attention was on Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel and whether Seb could stop Hamilton from winning the championship. As it turned out, Hamilton fought hard despite falling from 3rd to 20th position right after the first lap, and managed to take away his fourth world championship title.
Vettel and Hamilton had contact coming out of the second turn on the very first lap, which forced them to go down to the 19th and 20th position respectively. Vettel finished fourth and Hamilton finished ninth, which was enough to crown the latter the 2017 champion.
Esteban Ocon got his career best finish with fifth place while Lance Stroll secured sixth position, earning important points for Williams as they continue to fight for fifth place in the Constructors championship. Sergio Perez ended at seventh, Kevin Magnussen at eight, Hamilton at ninth and Fernando Alonso at 10th.
The race didn't go well for the other Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo as he had to retire. The other retirees were Carlos Sainz, Marcus Ericsson, Brendon Hartley and Nico Hulkenberg.
The cars of Sainz, Hartley, Hulkenberg and Ricciardo had Renault engines, which must have been a frightening sight for the race leader Verstappen running on the same engine during the race. The Dutchman successfully kept his cool and managed to see the chequered flag at the end, but this race raises quite a few questions of the Renault engine which will also be a part of Mclaren's car from next year.
The focus now shifts to the penultimate race of the year in Brazil in two weeks' time. The interesting thing now to be seen is whether Vettel can finish second in the driver's championship, as Bottas is now just fifteen points behind the German. What seemed to be a fight for the championship for Vettel before the Mexican Grand Prix has now resulted in a fight to not fall down to third place in the driver's championship.
Only the remaining two races will tell us his fate.
Here are the final standings of the Mexican Grand Prix 2017:
- Max Verstappen (25 points)
- Valtteri Bottas (18 points)
- Kimi Raikkonen (15 points)
- Sebastian Vettel (12 points)
- Esteban Ocon (10 points)
- Lance Stroll (8 points)
- Sergio Perez (6 points)
- Kevin Magnussen (4 points)
- Lewis Hamilton (2 points)
- Fernando Alonso (1 point)
- Felipe Massa
- Stoffel Vandoorne
- Pierre Gasly
- Pascal Wehrlein
- Romain Grosjean
DNF(Did Not Finish): Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz, Marcus Ericsson, Brendon Hartley and Nico Hulkenberg.
