F1 flashback: When Lewis Hamilton won a tight Mexican GP in 2019

Formula 1 will return to Mexico this weekend with the latest edition of the Mexican Grand Prix. The 2019 edition of the Mexican GP, it must be noted, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Indeed, the three races in the Americans – USA, Mexico and Brazil – were all called off due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions. But the races are back in this part of the world this year.

And while many expect this weekend to be Red Bull-dominated, Mercedes have had their moments in Mexico. Indeed, the last race at the Autodromos Hermanos Rodriguez was won by Lewis Hamilton.

It was a race that ebbed and flowed and could have gone either way. In the end, it was the British driver – aiming to seal his sixth world championship – who got the win.

With F1 returning to Mexico this year, let us now look back at the last time F1 went Mexican.

The background

The Mexican GP had, in the previous two seasons, become the coronation ground for Hamilton. On both occasions, he sealed the title at Mexico City – despite not winning the race.

He had the chance to do the same this year if he outscored teammate Valtteri Bottas by 14 points. By that point, Bottas was the only remaining title contender.

Qualifying, however, saw the Red Bull of Max Verstappen as well as the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel do better. Verstappen finished on pole, with Leclerc and Vettel second and third respectively.

Hamilton and Bottas were in fifth and sixth respectively, but there was a twist in the tale to come. On the final flying laps, Bottas suffered a massive crash on the outside wall of Turn 17.

The Finn was unharmed, but the crash brought out the yellow flags. However, Verstappen did not slow down when passing the flag and was thus subsequently handed a three-place grid penalty.

Therefore, it was Leclerc and Vettel who started on the front row. Verstappen was now in fourth, ahead of both Mercedes cars; this would play a part in the race start the next day.

Chaos at the start

When the five lights went off, there was plenty of jockeying for position given the long straight down into Turn 1. Bottas made a poor start and lost track position to the McLarens of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris, as well as to Red Bull’s Alexander Albon.

Hamilton and Verstappen, meanwhile, made light contact going into Turn 1 and ran onto the grass. Both emerged unscathed but lost position to the drivers who made the jump on Bottas.

The end of the lap saw a virtual safety car called on to clear up the debris from a collision between Kimi Raikkonen and Kevin Magnussen. Amazingly, things were to get more chaotic very soon.

Hamilton would pass Sainz without fuss to gain back fourth place, but it was Bottas who inadvertently caused trouble. Verstappen overtook him for seventh place but the Red Bull’s right rear tyre clipped the Mercedes.

To make matters worse, the puncture was not evident until Verstappen crossed the pit lane entry. The tyre soon disintegrated, and the Dutchman was left to hobble around on the lap.

He fell to last place before he was able to finally pit and get a new tyre put onto the car.

Hamilton wins Mexican GP – but not the title

Hamilton would pit on Lap 23 and, having taken the hard compounds, was expected to be on a one-stop strategy. The likes of Albon and Leclerc were fitted with mediums, therefore were expected to stop again.

But once Hamilton had the lead he did not come close to relenquishing it. This was despite the fact that, by the final few laps, all the top five cars were within seconds of each other.

Verstappen, who had to fight through the grid after his puncture, would end up in sixth towards the end of the race and that is where he would finish.

The biggest bit of drama towards the end came in a battle for points. Toro Rosso’s Danii Kvyat attempted to overtake Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault for ninth; however, the Russian ended up causing the Renault to spin.

Hulkenberg finished the race in 11th, just outside the points behind Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly. However, a post-race f-ten-second penalty from the stewards saw Kvyat demoted to 11th. As a result, Hulkenberg got the final point.

The race was won by Hamilton, but since Bottas finished third that meant the points gap between them for this race was 10. Hamilton needed to finish 14 points ahead of his teammate to clinch the title.

He would eventually seal the title in the next race at the United States, claiming second place behind Bottas to win his sixth title.

However, that did not stop him from celebrating what was a well-earned win at the Mexican GP. He would win one more race before the season finished – at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.