Lewis Hamilton has criticised his Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas for leaving the door open for his championship rival.

If nothing else, the 2021 Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico proved that, contrary to F1 folklore, a race can be won on the opening lap, indeed at the first corner.

For that is effectively what happened at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday when pole-man, Valtteri Bottas "opened up the sea" for Max Verstappen.

Not waiting for the Finn to utter a polite "after you", the Dutchman passed the Mercedes pair on the run to the first corner, subsequently out-braking them to take a lead he only relinquished at his pit stop.

"I had envisaged it differently, naturally" said Lewis Hamilton of those opening moments, "in the sense that Valtteri maybe would get a better start and I would have tried to get into his tow.

"But obviously I was alongside him, which was good, and then I was just covering my side of the track, trying to make sure no one could come up the inside, so I was trying to keep whichever Red Bull I could see in my mirror behind.

"I thought Valtteri would be doing the same," he added, "but obviously he left the door open for Max. And Max was on the racing line, so he did a mega job braking into Turn 1 and, because I'm on the inside on the dirt, there was no hope for me."

To compound Hamilton's misery, and that of his team, Bottas was then touched by Daniel Ricciardo, spinning the Finn's Mercedes and dropping him to the back of the field.

"That made the race a lot harder, naturally," said Hamilton. "Having one car ahead just means they can play on the strategy.

"Their car was far superior this weekend and there was nothing we really could do about it," he admitted. "I gave it absolutely everything and even a great fight with Sergio at the end, but I'm really grateful I was able to at least get a second.

"I feel positive in the sense that I had a good race. I did it with the car that I had and the car was not good today. When you have Sergio behind you pushing you like that, you know the car is fast, so you know, I'm glad I was able to keep at least those two apart in terms of getting one-two for the team and we want to keep fighting.

"They've had the fastest car most of the year," he added, "so it's not a surprise. I wish we were quicker this weekend but today we were a long way off, so I don't really understand that, but we'll go back to the drawing board and try and come back next week stronger."

Pitting on lap 29, Perez didn't stop for another 11 laps, leaving the Mexican with fresher rubber for the final stages of the race.

"Sergio was super-close within that first stint and I couldn't really pull away from him," said the world champion. So it was a moment where they were either going to undercut us or we were going to undercut them. We stopped, and I think the team did a great job.

"It was just we didn't have really much left on the tyres at the end. But where there's a will, there's a way; we managed to keep them behind. One more lap and I think it would have been over.

"There's still four races," he insisted, "19 points is a lot of points and that's his ninth win so he's had a lot of wins this year.

"With their superior speed, if they were to carry them into the next ones then we may be in trouble, or we will be in trouble, but I don't know if they'll be using that huge wing they had on today, but naturally we'll find out when we get there. But I hope we're closer."

Check out our Sunday gallery from Mexico City, here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 09/11/2021 10:46

"@ RocDoc....Your comment re 'Russel' next year is already taking shape. Wolff has gone public with thinly guided discriminatory comments re expected behaviour and driver attitude towards the 'team'....read Hamilton. I wouldn't be surprised if certain clauses were already in Russell's contract when it comes to control orders as dictated. It will suck big time if it does come to pass and it would be hard to spot unless Russell rebels!!! Hopefully he has the cojones to resist any race fixing."

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2. Posted by dejan, 08/11/2021 19:00

"Seeing the Red Bull pace it might have actually worked out better for Hamilton as otherwise both Verstappen and Perez might have been able to pass him. In any case at least one of them would have so probably not much difference in the result for Hamilton. Maybe Mercedes as a team would have scored more points but I'm not sure he was looking at that picture when he made that comment."

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3. Posted by Tardis40, 08/11/2021 18:33

"boohoohoo"

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4. Posted by Rock Doc, 08/11/2021 17:34

"Not so many races ago Bottas was the the best teammate. But in F1 you are only as good as your last race.

I'm not sure George is going to be as accommodating as Bottas next year. It will be interesting to see the team dynamics on 2022."

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5. Posted by kdxrider, 08/11/2021 14:43

""Chester, not sure what you were watching but at the start I was wondering why Bottas was squeezing Hamilton to the right and leaving the door open on the left ---

I watched maybe 1/3rd on the race then switched off. Looking at the results this morning it looks like I didn't miss anything --- talk about a boring race."

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6. Posted by Chester, 08/11/2021 14:15

"Its Bottas' fault for Verstappen winning? Sad comment by Lewis. If this were professional wrestling, the 2021 season would see the Hamilton character being morphed from hero to heel."

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