2019 Mexican Grand Prix

Lore & Background

This was Vettel's last podium until the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix.

Reader's Guide

Ahead of the race it was announced that a third DRS zone would be added between turns 11 and 12, to aid overtaking. The detection point is established after turn 9. Lewis Hamilton had a chance to win the World Drivers' Championship at this Grand Prix for the third straight year if he outscored his only remaining title contender, Valtteri Bottas, by 14 points or more. The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.

However, Nicholas Latifi drove in the first practice session for Williams, replacing Robert Kubica. On the final flying laps of the third qualifying session, Valtteri Bottas crashed heavily into the outside wall at turn 17 having previously set the sixth-fastest time. Bottas was uninjured, however the accident brought out the yellow flag, requiring the drivers passing to slow down. Max Verstappen, who had already set the fastest time, failed to slow down when passing the yellow flags.

He was later handed a three-place grid penalty for this infraction, and as a result the pole position was inherited by Charles Leclerc, with his teammate Sebastian Vettel joining him on the front row. On the opening lap, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton made light contact at turn 2 causing both cars to take to the grass and lose positions to Alexander Albon and the McLarens of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris, who had taken advantage of Valtteri Bottas' poor start to get ahead.

A virtual safety car was briefly called at the end of the lap in order to clear debris from the track at turn 2 following minor contact between Kimi Räikkönen and Kevin Magnussen. On lap 4 Hamilton re-passed Sainz to take 4th place. Verstappen overtook Bottas for 7th place on the inside of turn 13, however, the Red Bull's right-rear tyre made contact with Bottas' car causing Verstappen to suffer a puncture. Verstappen's tyre did not deflate until after he had passed the pit entry, with the tyre detaching soon after, causing him to fall to last place as he completed the lap with only three tyres.

Verstappen emerged from the pits over 30 seconds behind 19th-placed Romain Grosjean. On lap 8 Bottas passed Sainz to take 5th place. On lap 13 Norris made his first pit stop from 7th place. The McLaren pit crew failed to properly attach his front-left wheel and he was forced to pull over at the end of the pit lane.