But it was when he tried to pass Verstappen on the 68th lap, and the Dutchman ran wide, stayed ahead and refused to surrender the place, that he really ignited.įirst he abused Verstappen over the radio to his crew. He had been complaining about traffic and blue flags all race - and at several others this year - and now he started doing it all over again. Okay, he then dropped to sixth, but soon he was pushing hard again with Verstappen in third place as his target. Then he began making progress and took the lead for an impressive 15 laps after the leading Mercedes and Verstappen’s Red Bull had all changed their tyres much sooner - in Mercedes’ case, similar soft-compound Pirellis. It’s a question everyone’s asking: what is going on with Sebastian Vettel?įirst he made a bad start, and got stuck behind Felipe Massa. It dropped him from third to fifth.īoth Red Bull drivers - Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo - were vocal in their belief that Hamilton, too, should have been penalised.īut if a five-second penalty had been added to the world champion’s race time, he would still have won by 3.5s. That was put into focus when a five-second penalty was added to Max Verstappen’s race time for a similar offence on the 68th lap when he was under very heavy pressure from Sebastian Vettel. He actually stretched it, though he backed off slightly thereafter to enable Rosberg to close back in. Many felt he could count it as a victory, however, not to have been penalised at the start for locking a brake, running off-course on the entry to Turn 1, and heading all the way down on the grass to Turn 3 as he missed out Turn 2.įor a start, he didn’t lose the lead. Yet curiously, such were the machinations elsewhere in the race, he drew little of the attention as he went about doing the job he’d gone to do. Victory in Mexico City brought Lewis Hamilton another seven crucial points closer to Nico Rosberg, and drew him level with Alain Post’s tally of 51 wins in the all-time league.
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