2019 Mexican Grand Prix

The Formula One world came to America to the land of the Aztecs... and tacos. The Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez is the second shortest lap in F1, and the air is so thin that teams run Monaco wings but only get Monza downforce. This was the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix.

FP1

Track was a bit damped in places, nevertheless, most drivers came out almost immediately for their respective installation laps, many of them on inters (green). Since Mexico City sits 2285 meters (7496.7 feet) above sea level, air is much more restricted (thinner) than at any other track in the calendar.

It took about a third into the session to get the first lapped time, a 1:21.887 by Valtteri Bottas.

The session developed with lots of on-track action, although many drivers had problems at turn 1, locking up the front tires. With just 30 minutes left into the session Lance Stroll loses the rear and slides into the barriers at the exit of the stadium section. He was able to continue and got back to the pits. Session was red flagged to repair the barrier, and with 20 minutes left, session was restarted with everybody but Stroll coming out onto the track.

Racing Point mechanics did an amazing job repairing Stroll's RP19 and got him out for more practice laps. In the meantime, Hamilton did the fastest lap of the session, a 1:17.327, just 0.119 ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and 0.134 of Red Bull's Max Verstappen. Ferrari did their times on Mediums (Yellow) while mostly everybody else did it on Softs (reds).

FP2

Practice 2 started with a lot hotter temperature and only 20% chance of rain. Both Alfa Romeos went out immediately and did some timed laps, with Giovinazzi setting a 1:20.600 lap, first timed lap of the session.

The, Alex Albon on the exit of turn 7 went into the wall, destroying the right side of his RB15, and bringing out the second red flag of the day to recover the car and to repair the barrier.

After around 15 minutes and with a bit more than an hour to go, the track reopened and many drivers came out, most doing long runs. About 5 minutes after, Sebastian Vettel does a 1:17.960, a couple of minutes later, Max Verstappen did the exact same time, 1:17.960. Then came Leclerc with a 1:17.072, and Vettel responded with a blistering 1:16.607, and so did Verstappen, albeit 0.115 slower (1:16.722).

At half-session, it was Vettel the fastest, ahead of Verstappen, Leclerc, Gasly, and Hamilton, the top five.

After those qualifying runs, the rest of the session was very straightforward with all drivers doing long runs again.

At the end it was Sebastian Vettel the fastest of the day, followed by Verstappen, Leclerc, Bottas, and Hamilton the top five.

FP3

Practice 3 started with a very damped track as it rained all night in Mexico City. Those drivers that came out early on in the session did it with inters (greens). First timed lap was a 1:28.975 by Alex Albon.

With less than 20 minutes to go, it was Max Verstappen the fastest with a 1:26.118. Not much on track action as conditions were not ideal. Only 8 drivers had set timed laps by then.

By 13 minutes to go, many drivers came out on slick tires, at the end, it was Charles Leclerc who did the fastest lap, with a time of 1:16.145, it was only 0.027 faster than teammate Sebastian Vettel in second. Behind them were Bottas, Hamilton, and Renault's Carlos Sainz the top 5.

QUALIFYING

Q1

Q1 started with George Russell being the first to come out, he was followed by teammate Robert Kubica shortly afterwards, and mostly everybody else; all 20 drivers on Softs (reds). At the end, Stroll, Magnussen, Grosjean, Russell, and Kubica were unable to pass on to Q2.

Q2

After the expected tire battle, with the top five passing on to Q3 using Medium tires (Yellow). Remember that the tire with which they set fastest lap in Q2 is the tire they must start the race with. Out were Perez, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, and Giovinazzi.

Q3

Everybody came out early on to set times, with Verstappen setting a really fast 1:14.910. All 10 drivers head to their respective boxes for one last tweak. Then, with only two minutes on the clock, they all came out but Bottas, who was ahead of most all, crashed hard at the peraltada, he was ok, although limping a bit. In any case, his crash ruined the drivers behind so Max Verstappen got Pole Position, followed by Leclerc, Vettel, Hamilton, Albon, Bottas, Sainz, Norris, Kvyat and Gasly.

Later on, Max Verstappen was penalized for ignoring yellow flags after Bottas' crash with a three-place grid penalty. Charles Leclerc inherited the pole with teammate Vettel attracting alongside.

RACE

As it happened on Friday night it rained all night, so the track was "greener" than desired, temperatures did not help as it was a lot hotter than previous days, so brake temperature and their respective cooling was a determinant factor throughout the race. Brakes get really hot, around 1200 ℃ or as hot as volcanic lava.

The race started with the front four drivers battling it out for the lead, but at turn one Verstappen squeezed

Hamilton and they touched, both going out into the grass. Then, VSC was deployed as there were lots of debris on track in sector 1. By lap three the VSC ended and racing resumed with Leclerc ahead of Vettel, with Albon and Sainz behind them.

Hamilton passed Sainz for fourth and Verstappen battled it out with Bottas for 7th but got a puncture and it took lots of time to get to the pits, coming out dead last.

On lap 13, Lando Norris came in for Hard (whites) but the front left was not properly fastened and had to stop at the end of the pits, because of it, the McLaren mechanics were able to push him back to his box and tighten the nut, literally... he came back but last, a lap down.

On lap 15, third place Alex Albon went into the pits for mediums (yellow), coming out in 5th, but Sainz was coming really fast and passed him at the end of the straight. A lap later Leclerc came in for a new set of mediums (yellow), coming out in fourth. The order was Vettel, Hamilton, Bottas, Leclerc, and Albon the top five.

On lap 24, Hamilton came into the pits for hard (whites), coming out in fourth, ahead of Albon, and behind Leclerc in third. On lap 26, he did the fastest lap of the race at the time.

On lap 36, Bottas pitted for hard (whites), coming out behind Albon, a lap later, Vettel pitted for hard (whites), coming out in fourth behind Hamilton and Albon.

On lap 44, Leclerc came in for hard (whites) but a problem with his right rear costing a very lengthy stop (6.2 seconds). He came 5th, behind Albon, who stopped a lap later losing his 4th place to Leclerc.

On lap 51, Ricciardo came (at last) for new rubber, mediums (yellow) coming out in 8th, losing places to Verstappen and Perez. That same lap, Lando Norris retired his McLaren.

On lap 60, Alfa Romeo decided to retired Kimi Raikkonen from the race. Two laps later, Ricciardo tried a pass on Perez at turn one, but locked his front tires and went long, losing some time, but still coming out in front of Perez, he let him by, and started the hunt again.

The top four were fighting lap after lap but could not do anything to each other, at the end it was Lewis Hamilton managing his tires beautifully who won the Mexican Grand Prix, ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas, with Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon rounding up the top five. Fastest lap went to Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, and Max Verstappen was voted driver of the race.

This was the 100th podium for Mercedes as a constructor.
Attendance: 345.694 over the three-day weekend.
Hamilton needs to outscore Bottas by 4 points to become six times world champion.