While it was victory for Lewis
Hamilton of Mercedes and a second spot for teammate Nico Rosberg at the Formula
1 Gran Premio de Mexico 2016 on October 30, 2016, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was given a ten-second time penalty for
driving ‘dangerously or erratically’ while defending fourth place from Red
Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo in the closing stages of the race. Ricciardo was
awarded the third position.
Vettel was therefore dropped from
third to fifth in the final classification, with Ricciardo moving up to third
and Red Bull team mate Max Verstappen - who earlier had five seconds added to
his race time for going off track and gaining an advantage whilst battling the
four-time champion - to fourth.
Thus the Mexican race ended
with a lot of podium changes. In addition to a 10-second penalty, Vettel was
also handed two penalty points on his license, bringing his total to six points
in the last 12 months.
Meanwhile, victory in Mexico meant
Lewis Hamilton was very much in the fight for the 2016 championship crown. He
now moves to within 19 points of team mate Nico Rosberg in the title fight -
and also level with four-time world champion Alain Prost on 51 F1 victories. The
only person ahead of Hamilton now is Michael Schumacher at 91.
According to Formula One news,
this was also the 23rd different circuit at which Hamilton has prevailed - a
record only Schumacher can match. Of the current venues, there are just two at
which Hamilton has never triumphed - Baku (where he has only raced once), and Sao
Paulo, where his best finish is second.
For Mercedes meanwhile, this was a 17th triumph in 19 races - breaking
their own record of 16 wins in a single season, set in both 2014 and '15. And
they still have two races, one in Brazil and the other in Abu Dhabi, to add to
the tally.
After the two drivers crossed
one saw Max Verstappen finishing third. But taking into account the penalties,
the third position finally went to the Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo. With
this Ricciardo is now assured of third place in the drivers' standings. He now
has 242 points to Vettel's 187 - an unassailable advantage.
Force India’s two drivers Nico
Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez came seventh and tenth respectively, thus scoring
points for the Vijay Mallya controlled company.
For the sixth time this
season, the top ten positions were filled by just five teams - and they also
happened to be the current top five in the constructors' standings - Mercedes,
Red Bull, Ferrari, Force India and Williams.
Final positions:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red
Bull Racing
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing
5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari
6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari
7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India Mercedes
8 Valtteri Bottas Williams
9 Felipe Massa Williams
10 Sergio Perez Force
India
11 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari
12 Jenson Button Mclaren
Honda
13 Fernando Alonso Mclaren Honda
14 Jolyon Palmer Renault
15 Felipe Nasr Sauber
Ferrari
16 Carlos Sainz Toro
Rosso
17 Kevin Magnussen Renault
18 Daniil Kvyat Toro
Rosso
19 Esteban Gutierrez Haas
20 Romain Grosjean Haas
21 Esteban Ocon MRT
NC Pascal Wehrlein MRT