After qualifying on pole and locking the front row yet again for Mercedes with team mate Lewis Hamilton next to him, Nico Rosberg took victory of the first Mexican Grand Prix in 23 years at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. This race was also the first double DNF for Ferrari in nearly 10 years as neither driver, Vettel nor Raikkonen managed to finish the race.
Out of 10 poles under his belt, and 4th consecutive pole Rosberg managed to outshine the 2015 world champion Lewis Hamilton from the start all the way to the finish. It was all down to the first corner and as the lights went out, drama pour in with immediacy. Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari was right behind the two Mercedes car in 3rd on the grid next to the Redbull of Daniel Ricciardo.
Fighting into the first corner, Rosberg maintained his advantage and turned in ahead of Hamilton, Vettel on the other hand slightly struggled and made contact with Ricciardo and suffered a puncture that ruined his race and led the German to pit after the very first lap. Vettel then rejoined the race at the back after exiting the pit lane.
The other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen started from the back of the grid ahead of the penalty plagued McLarens of Alonso and Button. With the different tyre strategy Raikkonen made great progress through the field making it into the top 10 in the first few laps. Unfortunately trying to defend his position on lap 22, from fellow Finn, Valterri Bottas, the Ferrari’s rear wheel made contact with the William’s front tyre which broke the suspension of the Ferrari leaving a disappointed Raikkonen to walk back to the paddock to end his race.
Sebastian Vettel after having a terrible start to his day was eager to perform and went slightly overzealous into some corners trying to make up places after flat spotting his tyres. 4 time former world champion spun his car on lap 17 trying to overtake the McLaren of Jenson Button. Then Vettlel crashed his Ferrari on lap 52 making it the first full Scuderia Ferrari DNF since 2nd April 2006 at the Australian Grand Prix. Vettel’sincident brought out the safety car.
At the restart Rosberg controlled things perfectly, and Hamilton was never able to exploit the incident and get a look in, though he kept his team mate honest as he finished just under two seonds adrift. The success, Rosberg’s fourth of the season, went some way to making up for his recent disappointments in Russia and the United States, and boosts him back to second in the drivers’ championship, 21 points clear of Vettel.
With Rosberg claiming victory and Hamilton settling for 2nd, Bottas took the final podium spot to clinch 3rd. The Redbull boys of Kvyat and Ricciardo finished 4th and 5th respectively ahead of Massa in 6th and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg in 7th.
“Checo” Perez finished a commendable 8th place in front of his home crown screaming from the massive grand stands over the loud V6 engines. Verstappen and Grosjean took the final points positions of the race in that order.
Though the championships have been concluded, the season isn’t over yet as the penultimate Grand Prix will be held at Interlagos, Sao Paolo, for the Brazillian Grand Prix on November 15.
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