Valtteri finished today's Mexico Grand Prix in P2 - his best ever result at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and his 20th podium place in Formula One. After an accident in the first lap, Lewis finished today's race in P9.
Lewis (333 points) leads the Drivers' Championship by 56 points from Sebastian Vettel (277 points) - an unassailable lead with two races remaining in the 2017 season. Valtteri (262 points) is a further 15 points down in P3 with 50 points remaining to be scored in the 2017 season.
After having secured the Constructors' World Championship last week in Austin, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (595 points) now lead Ferrari (455 points) by 140 points in the Constructors' Championship. Today's result marks the 290th race on the podium for Mercedes-Benz Power in Formula One.
Toto Wolff: This was the hardest championship ever, but it was also extremely well deserved. We had quite some up and downs this season with the new cars and tyres. We had to accept the fact that this is the reality now, and to progress was very difficult for the team and really took the maximum out of us. Lewis probably showed the best and most constant performance of his entire career this season, he has made a step forward in every respect and there is no doubt whatsoever that today the right man was crowned world champion today. While the result was good, the race was not what we had hoped for. But I'd like to just look at the positives today and not dig into a controversy that is not necessary at this stage - Lewis won the championship!
James Allison: We knew that the championship arithmetic favoured us going into this race. But that didn't mean that it was a comfortable afternoon after the melee of the first corner - either for us sitting on the pit wall with all the information at our fingertips but much more for Lewis who had the lonely task of picking his way back through the field from stone-cold last. In truth, as long as the front stayed reliable, this looked like Lewis was safe throughout, especially since Valtteri drove very capably, holding down a very assured second place. But you can't rely on that and so we were very keen to get Lewis up into 9th place and it was an amazing achievement for him to do that at this track which is so difficult to overtake at. It's a great feeling for us after sealing up the Constructors' Championship last week to come here and finish the championship that the rest of the world really cares about and to make sure that Lewis was crowned champion for the fourth time. It's hard to imagine a season where the champion has more richly deserved the spoils. It's been a brilliant, competitive, inspiring year of motorsport and Lewis has been the one constant throughout. We couldn't be happier for him.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "Firstly huge congratulations to Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team, four times world champion; we know how difficult that is to achieve. He's now the most successful British driver of all time; but today belonged to Max. After a good start he braved it out at the first couple of turns and after some good, close racing he emerged in the lead and from there onwards he was totally dominant and controlled the race to score his third grand prix victory quite comfortably.
"Conversely it was very disappointing for Daniel today, we took the penalty to avoid just that scenario and unfortunately he had what looks like an MGU-H failure. He had managed to get up to P7 before having to retire and for sure would have been on the podium. So that's our only frustration, but we will certainly savour the moment with Max's victory here in Mexico City."
Maurizio Arrivabene: Once again today, the result of the race does not reflect the true potential of the SF70H. We saw that potential yesterday with pole position and again this afternoon, with several overtaking moves and the race fastest lap. Unfortunately, the collision at the first corner compromised the entire race. Right to the very end, the team fought for the chance of winning this world championship. We will now continue to do our very best in the two remaining Grands Prix, tackling them with the same level of concentration and determination. Congratulations to Lewis on his world championship title.
Sahara Force India scored 16 points in today's Mexican Grand Prix as the team secured fourth place in the Constructors' World Championship for a second consecutive year.
Robert Fernley: "It's fantastic to confirm fourth place in the championship with a competitive race in front of so much support from the Mexican fans. For a while the podium looked to be within reach for Esteban until the Virtual Safety Car handed the advantage to Raikkonen and also brought Stroll into play. Esteban had to work hard for the final 20 laps fending off the Williams and did a fantastic job despite being on older tyres. Sergio made a late pit stop for some new ultra-soft tyres and was catching Stroll quickly, but we just ran out of laps. This result is another demonstration of the progress we have made this season and fourth place in the championship for the second year in a row is a wonderful reward for the entire team."
Lance Stroll finished sixth with Felipe Massa 11th in the Mexican Grand Prix. Both cars started on the ultrasoft Pirelli tyre with Felipe starting 10th and Lance 11th. Lance and Felipe both had good starts, initially running with Felipe eighth and Lance 10th at the end of Lap 1. Felipe ran as high as sixth before a slow puncture picked up at the start forced him to pit for the soft tyre on Lap 3, re-joining in 16th. Lance moved up to P4 before pitting for the supersoft tyre under a Virtual Safety Car period on Lap 32, re-joining in P5. Vettel, who was recovering from an early unscheduled pitstop, got past Lance late in the race to leave the Canadian sixth. Felipe moved up to 10th as the rest of the field pitted, before losing the position to Hamilton in the latter stages of the race.
Lance moves up to 10th in the Drivers' Championship, ahead of Felipe in 11th. The team remains fifth in the Constructors' Championship with 76 points. Congratulations from Williams Martini Racing to Lewis Hamilton on securing his fourth world title.
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer: We had a good start and both cars got into reasonably good positions, apparently without damage, but that proved not to be the case. Felipe had a slow puncture from some minor contact in the first corner and we had to box him on the second lap. We fitted prime tyres to go the end. We were reasonably confident that tyre would go the distance and Felipe managed it very well. He had good pace throughout the entire race and if not for Vettel and Hamilton coming through from the back, he would have perhaps got a point or two. So it was a shame for Felipe because the car was there to get points today and he drove extremely well. On Lance's side, he showed strong pace and ran a great first stint on the ultrasoft tyre. He had some good fortune with the Virtual Safety Car which actually gained him a place over Perez. We were also able to fit the supersoft tyre at that stage to go to the end, so we had the tyre life and compound advantage over the two Force Indias. At one point it looked possible he could have taken the position off Ocon but it was just out of reach. It was a great sixth place finish though so Happy Birthday to Lance and well done for a great achievement today! We've taken some further advantage in our fifth place in the Constructors' Championship and well done to the team for getting two cars home and in good shape to go into the final two races. Finally, congratulations to Lewis for his fourth World Championship, he drove a terrific season and it's very well deserved.
A tough and hard-fought Mexican Grand Prix for both of our drivers, who drove brilliantly under difficult circumstances after starting at the back of the grid.
Stoffel made an epic start from 19th on the grid, and was up to 13th by the end of lap one, with Fernando just behind in 14th after lap two (from 18th on the grid). By lap five, Stoffel was up to 10th position, with Fernando in 12th behind a struggling [Romain] Grosjean. The pair fought a firm battle in which the latter gained an advantage off the track and was later penalised, although Fernando was still able to pass him and move up to 11th behind his teammate.
Both Stoffel and Fernando were then caught behind the Sauber of [Marcus] Ericsson for some laps, unable to get close enough in the corners to make a move after the straight. On lap 18, Fernando overtook Stoffel to give him the opportunity to attempt a pass, but he too struggled to make headway on what is notoriously a difficult track on which to overtake.
Following [Brendon] Hartley's retirement on lap 30, a miscommunication in the pits due to the late deployment of the VSC meant Stoffel was called late into the box and his pitstop was delayed, causing him to lose over five seconds in the stop and ultimately a position on track to [Felipe] Massa. He dropped down to 11th and then later 12th on lap 52, after a short-lived battle with a championship-fighting [Lewis] Hamilton. Despite a long and close fight with Massa over the closing 15 laps of the race, Stoffel was unable to capitalise on his strong pace and make a move stick, and he finished the race in 12th position.
Fernando enjoyed a feisty battle with [Sebastian] Vettel, and despite ultimately forfeiting that position, was up to eighth when he boxed a lap later than Stoffel on lap 32, losing only one further place during his stop. He then set about chasing down [Kevin] Magnussen, in which he made up a deficit of over eight seconds to close up to his rear wing and spent a long time - the pair battling for 34 laps - in his dirty air unable to pass. A close tussle with Hamilton ensued in the final stages, providing hugely entertaining viewing for the fans in the grandstands until Fernando was forced to concede four laps from the chequered flag. He ultimately finished the race in 10th place and scored a well-deserved point.
Eric Boullier: "Today was an extremely tough race for both our drivers, who drove incredibly well given the limitations of our car on a circuit that is well-known for its challenges, namely its power-sensitivity and its complex configuration, which make it almost impossible to overtake.
"Both Fernando and Stoffel showed strong pace and made a number of excruciatingly close attempts to overtake, but with little reward for their efforts. We can certainly see the potential in our package - both drivers made incredible starts from 18th and 19th on the grid - and it's frustrating to only have one point from 10th and 12th to show for it. Nevertheless, I think both of them should be proud of the performance they put in today on track, knowing as they do the challenges they face with every race, and it was positive to see us putting up a solid fight against the much less power-sensitive cars around us.
"A positive we can take from Mexico is that both cars made it to the end of the race despite the technical challenges this circuit poses in its altitude and cooling issues. We now look ahead to Brazil which should be a circuit much more sympathetic to our package, and we'll keep pushing hard to improve our chassis as we continue our development into next year.
"I'd also like to take the opportunity to congratulate our former teammate Lewis [Hamilton] on a very well-deserved fourth championship. Today was a taste of what we hope will be more to come, and we look forward to more exciting battles with him on track next year."
Yusuke Hasegawa: "Despite having both cars starting from the back of the grid, it was a great result for the team that we were able to grab a point in the end. Both Fernando and Stoffel made brilliant starts, and fought around tenth place throughout the race.
"Fernando, who has had a good feeling in the car all weekend, drove a superb, dogged race to eventually snatch the final point. His drive today was full of passion and showed what an incredibly skilled driver he is, and I think he deserves to be praised. Stoffel had an incredible start and pushed hard all race long, therefore it is disappointing that he was unable to reach the points.
"Regarding our PU, despite having a tough challenge at high altitude here in Mexico, both cars finished the race and we had decent speed. I think we can come away from this weekend with some positivity. The team also did a good job with strategy and everyone worked incredibly hard today. Obviously we have only two more races to go as McLaren Honda, and we will continue to work together and finish in the best position we can.
"Finally, I would also like to congratulate Lewis [Hamilton] and Mercedes for their world championship wins. Both Lewis and the team have done an incredible job this season."
Franz Tost (Team Principal): "First of all, I'd like to congratulate Max and Red Bull for this fantastic victory here in Mexico. Regarding our weekend, it's been a difficult one for us, as we didn't have any trouble-free practice sessions. We had Power Unit failures every day and therefore we couldn't prepare the cars in a proper way. With all the penalties, we had to start from the back of the grid and from there it's very difficult to overtake and score points. Nevertheless, I must say that both Brendon and Pierre have done a good job - we have to take into consideration that they are new to the team and they were not able to complete as many laps as we had planned at the start of the weekend...They definitely made the best out of this situation! Regarding Brendon's retirement, we spotted a very high oil consumption and, actually, some oil went into the exhaust, causing its failure. Let's now think of the next round in Brazil, where we hope to have an easier weekend."
It's been said that luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Haas F1 Team embodied this mantra in the Mexican Grand Prix Sunday at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.
After struggling to find speed and grip throughout the 4.304-kilometer (2.674-mile), 17-turn circuit in the practice and qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday leading into the race, Haas F1 Team rallied to score a points-paying finish for the 11th time this season care of an eighth-place drive by Kevin Magnussen.
Magnussen qualified a disappointing 18th but rose to 14th before the race even started thanks to grid penalties incurred by others ahead of him. And when the green flag waved to send the field barreling into turn one, the aggressiveness of others also benefitted Magnussen.
Contact between title protagonists Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari sent the duo to the pits at the end of lap one, allowing Magnussen and teammate Romain Grosjean to climb to 10th and 12th, respectively.
Soon, others needed to pit after sustaining damage from the carbon-fiber shrapnel left on the track from the dustup between Hamilton and Vettel. By lap five, Magnussen was eighth and Grosjean was 11th.
Magnussen climbed to as high as sixth by lap 20 after Sergio Perez brought his Force India to the pits on lap 19 and Nico Hulkenberg did the same with his Renault on the following lap. But by lap 30, Perez had caught back up to Magnussen, and he got underneath Magnussen on the inside of turn one to take sixth.
Shortly thereafter, the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was displayed for Brendon Hartley's stricken Toro Rosso. This allowed Haas F1 Team to pit Magnussen and Grosjean.
Both drivers came in for service lap 31. Magnussen swapped his Pirelli P Zero ultrasoft tires for a new set of Yellow softs while Grosjean ditched his Red supersofts for softs. Grosjean, however, had to serve a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits at turn 14 during a preceding battle with the McLaren of Fernando Alonso.
While Magnussen was able to maintain his track position, Grosjean dropped to 15th.
With the VSC period over, racing resumed. Vettel and Hamilton, who were forced to the back of the field after their early-race pit stops, were now charging ahead. Hamilton made his way past Grosjean on lap 35, leaving Grosjean in 16th. Vettel caught Magnussen on lap 37, dropping him to eighth.
Magnussen had built up a substantial gap on ninth-place Alonso, and for the remainder of the 71-lap race, Magnussen pushed hard to maintain the advantage. While Alonso was able to chip away at the deficit to Magnussen and even get within his slipstream in the final six laps, Alonso soon had a different priority - holding off a determined Hamilton.
After some spirited running, Hamilton finally got past Alonso on lap 67 and promptly set his sights on Magnussen.
The final four laps were scintillating. Magnussen extracted everything available from his Haas VF-17 to hold off Hamilton and cross the stripe in eighth place to earn his fifth top-10 of the season. Grosjean, meanwhile, finished 15th.
Eighteen rounds into the 20-race Formula One schedule, Haas F1 Team remains eighth in the constructors standings with 47 points, just one point behind seventh-place Renault and six points behind sixth-place Toro Rosso. Haas F1 Team holds a 23-point advantage over ninth-place McLaren. Grosjean is 13th in the championship standings with 28 points and Magnussen is 14th with 19 points.
Next up on the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship is the penultimate Brazilian Grand Prix Nov. 10-12 at Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo.
Guenther Steiner: "What can I say? We bounced back. Did we expect this? No, but I think we deserved it. Everybody fought hard after the disappointments of the last two days. Kevin did a magnificent job. Unfortunately for Romain, it didn't work out as well. We are very happy for the team to have scored points again."
After a good start to the Mexican Grand Prix, fortunes quickly turned for both Renault Sport Formula One Team drivers. After gaining one position at the start of the race and running as high as P4, an ERS problem forced Nico Hulkenberg into retirement for safety reasons. Carlos Sainz had an equally good start, moving up one position to P7. He pitted on lap two after a high-speed spin and later retired from seventeenth with a mechanical issue.
Nico started the race from P7 on Ultrasoft (purple) Pirelli tyres, switching to a new set of Soft (yellow) tyres on lap 19 and retired on lap 24. Carlos started the race from P8 on a set of Ultrasoft tyres pitting on lap 2 for a new set of Softs (yellow) and again on lap 31 for Ultrasofts. He retired on lap 55.
Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director: "The Mexican Grand prix was a difficult one for us with multiple incidents throughout the weekend. Both Nico's retirement and one of our partner teams' car is a reminder that reliability remains an issue and the consequences weigh heavily on us and our customer teams. Being in high altitude, we recognise the inevitable challenges this circuit brings. It's about finding performance without compromising reliability. This weekend, we had performance, qualifying was very good for many of the different Renault-powered cars. However, the balance between performance and reliability was not good. Max Verstappen's win confirms the engine's potential and I want to congratulate him and his team for this great race. I'd also like to congratulate Lewis Hamilton who entered our sport's history today. As a team, we need to stay motivated for the last two races and focus on our objectives."
The Sauber F1 Team finished the Mexican Grand Prix on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in P14 (Pascal Wehrlein). Marcus Ericsson retired in lap 56 due to a technical issue around the rear inboard suspension, which needs to be further investigated. The race concluded the competition for the 2017 FIA Formula 1 World Championship title, which was won by Lewis Hamilton for the fourth time.
Charles Leclerc, who has driven in three FP1 sessions for the Sauber F1 Team so far, will be driving the Sauber C36-Ferrari in the upcoming Pirelli tyre test on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on the 31st of October and 1st of November 2017.
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: "We had a decent pace throughout the race. Marcus did a good job fighting with our direct competitors in the midfield during the first stint. A shame, that he was not able to finish the race due to a technical issue. As for Pascal, he also put in a good performance, even though he was on a different tyre strategy."
A thrilling Mexican Grand Prix was won by Red Bull's Max Verstappen with an expected one-stop strategy, but an early collision between title protagonists Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) forced them both onto different two-stop strategies.
After pitting for soft tyres at the end of the opening lap, they both used a virtual safety car halfway through the race to switch on to supersoft (for Hamilton) and ultrasoft (for Vettel). But as Vettel did not finish in the top two, Hamilton could claim his fourth drivers' title - and his third with Pirelli.
Along with Renault's Carlos Sainz and Force India's Sergio Perez, Hamilton and Vettel were the only drivers to stop twice. All the other drivers stopped just once, with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen the highest-placed competitor to use the soft (rather than the supersoft) for his second stint.
Max Verstappen won the Mexican Grand Prix with a one-stop strategy as expected, making his sole pit stop from ultrasoft to supersoft on lap 32.
Mario Isola: "The collision on the opening lap and the virtual safety car meant that Hamilton and Vettel both had to diverge from the expected one-stop strategy, adding an extra tactical element to this race. Keeping the tyres within the correct operating window was essential, with low degradation, minimal downforce in the thin air, and a slippery surface in Mexico, but Verstappen managed this perfectly to seal a textbook victory. We saw all three compounds used during the race, with teams implementing different strategies to react to the changing circumstances of this fascinating grand prix, and no issues whatsoever from the tyres. Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton for a well-deserved fourth driver's title, following a stunning season."
