Lewis Hamilton secured the 2018 Formula 1 championship with a fourth place finish in Mexico.
The Mercedes driver made a strong start to challenge Max Verstappen for the lead at the first corner, but struggled with tyre wear throughout the race.
He was the first of the front runners to come in for fresh tyres, but it wasn’t long before he felt the new rubber wasn’t giving him the grip he needed.
Behind him, title rival Sebastian Vettel was battling with Daniel Ricciardo, who had dropped back after a slow start. The pair were fighting for position as they came up to lap Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez, who were themselves battling for P8
Vettel managed to make the move stick as the two battles overlapped, and was soon on Hamitlon’s tail. Struggling with tyre wear and knowing he didn’t need to be ahead of Vettel to secure the title, Hamilton didn’t put up much of a fight, and the Ferrari swept past to take second.
Hamilton put up more of a fight against Ricciardo, who tried to follow Vettel past. As they entered the stadium section of the circuit, Ricciardo lined up to make a move. Hamiton attempted to defend but locked up and ran wide over the grass.
He was able to recover but came into the pits for his third set of tyres at the end of the lap.
Behind, Kimi Raikkonen was challenging Valtteri Bottas for what would be P4. In an almost identical incident, Bottas locked up in the same place as Hamilton had, also running over the grass and relinquishing the position. He too came into the pits.
Verstappen led Ricciardo in the closing stages of the race, with Vettel having pitted from second to cover off the Mercedes’ move. Vettel was all over the back of Ricciardo’s Red Bull, but the Australian put up a strong defence, before smoke began to pour out the back of his car.
Ricciardo was forced to park his car at the side of the track, his second retirement in just over a week.
Fearing a similar failure, Verstappen began to cruise, but had already built enough of a lead to Vettel in second to finish more than 16s ahead of the Ferrari.
Raikkonen took third, ahead of Hamilton. It was enough for the Brit to secure his fifth world championship, putting him level with Juan Manuel Fangio.
Valtteri Bottas came in for a third pit stop during the Virtual Safety Car that was brought out to clear Riccardo’s car. He fiished a lap down in P5, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, who took the best of the rest position.
Fernando Alonso retired from the race on lap five. The McLaren had managed to avoid drama on the opening lap while Esteban Ocon and Brendon Hartley made contact ahead of him. But debris from the incident – part of Ocon’s front wing – became lodged behind Alonso’s front wing, bringing his race to an early end.
Carlos Sainz came to a stop on track midway through the race, becoming the second retirement, before home hero Sergio Perez suffered a brake problem and came into the pits to retire.
Charles Leclerc held off pressure from Stoffel Vandoorne to finish seventh, with Marcus Ericsson and Pierre Gasly rounding out the top 10.
Ocon was forced to pit for a new front wing early in the race but recovered to finish P11, ahead of Hartley and Lance Stroll.
Sergey Sirotkin, Kevin Magnussen, and Romain Grosjean were the last of the finishers.
