Lewis Hamilton looks to wrap up his fifth Formula One Drivers’ world title in Mexico on Sunday.
Hamilton came up just short in Austin last week at the USA Grand Prix, with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen winning to deny him the title.
But this weekend Hamilton only need to finish seventh to take the title, and even victory for rival Sebastian Vettel would not be enough to deny him.
Indeed if Vettel fails to finish that will be enough for Hamilton to take the title.
“We’re still in a great position,” said Hamilton. “I want to win the title for the team.”
Vettel insists that he has not gifted the title to Hamilton despite a number of costly mistakes.
“You should always look at it as a championship won by the driver who scores more points than anybody else. I think it’s not fair [to say somebody ‘lost’ it],” said Vettel.
“Arriving here with the deficit in points that we have, surely we could have had more [points] but at the end of the day you need to ask yourself whether you have always been in the position to get the result that we need and that we wanted.”
Bring on the fight ? #KeepPunching #MexicoGP ?? pic.twitter.com/AWwDnDJvCk
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) October 25, 2018
Going into Mexico and the biggest threat to Hamilton winning his title in style with another win, looks to be Red Bull – who have been targeting a win here for weeks with Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo looking for victory.
“This is definitely the best chance for us,” said Verstappen – who won in Mexico 12-months ago.
“We’ll try to set up the car in the best way possible and we’ll find out how we’re going to perform. I don’t think in qualifying we have a chance but in the race we anyway seem to be working a lot better, so I expect this to be better than Austin.”
MEXICO GRAND PRIX – ROUND 19
Location: Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Track size: 2.6 miles with 17 turns
Number of laps: 56
2017 winner: Max Verstappen – Red Bull
Lap record holder: 1:18.785 Sebastian Vettel (2017)
Race winner driver odds from Unibet:
2018 Results
Australian Grand Prix – Winner: Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
Bahrain Grand Prix – Winner: Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
China Grand Prix – Winner: Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Winner: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
Spain Grand Prix – Winner: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
Monaco Grand Prix – Winner: Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
Canada Grand Prix – Winner: Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
France Grand Prix – Winner: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
Austria Grand Prix – Winner: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
British Grand Prix – Winner: Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
German Grand Prix – Winner: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
Hungary Grand Prix – Winner: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
Belgium Grand Prix – Winner: Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
Italy Grand Prix – Winner: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
Singapore Grand Prix – Winner: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
Russia Grand Prix – Winner: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
Japan Grand Prix – Winner: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
USA Grand Prix – Winner: Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
Drivers’ Championship:
1 Lewis Hamilton GBR MERCEDES 346
2 Sebastian Vettel GER FERRARI 276
3 Kimi Räikkönen FIN FERRARI 221
4 Valtteri Bottas FIN MERCEDES 217
5 Max Verstappen NED RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER 191
6 Daniel Ricciardo AUS RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER 146
7 Nico Hulkenberg GER RENAULT 61
8 Sergio Perez MEX FORCE INDIA MERCEDES 57
9 Kevin Magnussen DEN HAAS FERRARI 53
10 Fernando Alonso ESP MCLAREN RENAULT 50
11 Esteban Ocon FRA FORCE INDIA MERCEDES 49
12 Carlos Sainz ESP RENAULT 45
13 Romain Grosjean FRA HAAS FERRARI 31
14 Pierre Gasly FRA SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA 28
15 Charles Leclerc MON SAUBER FERRARI 21
16 Stoffel Vandoorne BEL MCLAREN RENAULT 8
17 Marcus Ericsson SWE SAUBER FERRARI 7
18 Lance Stroll CAN WILLIAMS MERCEDES 6
19 Brendon Hartley NZL SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA 4
20 Sergey Sirotkin RUS WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1
Constructors’ Championship:
1 MERCEDES 563
2 FERRARI 497
3 RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER 337
4 RENAULT 106
5 HAAS FERRARI 84
6 MCLAREN RENAULT 58
7 FORCE INDIA MERCEDES 47
8 SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA 32
9 SAUBER FERRARI 28
10 WILLIAMS MERCEDES 7
We also spoke with Alistair Gill of Unibet to get their views on the GP
With Kimi Raikkonen taking the win in Austin last week and Ferrari seemingly getting to the bottom of, and resolving, their recent performance issues, Sebastian Vettel is installed as the favourite for the Mexican GP at 5/4, ahead of Hamilton at 7/4.
In all honesty it is too little too late with Hamilton only needing a 7th place finish to clinch the title, for which he is already odds on favourite to retain next year at 7/10. However, being the showman he is, 7/4 could look a big price for Hamilton to take the win and clinch the title in style. He is also priced at 33/20 to claim pole, which for me is certainly value for a man with an unnerving ability to put together a single lap time, especially given that Mercedes look to have just about retained the single lap advantage over Ferrari