As if to demonstrate Lewis Hamilton’s dominance over his teammate this year, Nico Rosberg won his 4th race of the season at the Mexican Grand Prix his first since Austria way back in July. What the stats don’t tell you is how determined Rosberg was to beat Hamilton in what was a closely fought battle for victory. As usual both Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid during Saturday’s qualifying, Rosberg scored his third pole position in a row with Hamilton just a fraction of a second behind. Formula One returned to Mexico for the first time in 23 years, the track facilities have been completely modernised, the circuit received a new layout and fresh layer of tarmac. Mexico is high altitude which means low oxygen this causes stress on the engines but coincidentally with less air F1 cars are actually faster, even in a high downforce setup the cars were reaching up too 225mph on the main straights. The biggest problems most drivers complained about was the lack of grip, the new surface was so new that the oils used in the tarmac had not yet fully set and residue droplets were causing lots of side ways moments which made for a great spectacle. Nevertheless come race day 20 of the worlds best drivers would have to face 71 laps on a slithery circuit. The main attention before the race was focused on the first corner. At last week’s US GP Rosberg complained Hamilton deliberately pushed him wide going into the first corner on the opening lap. Rosberg felt the move was overly aggressive and cost him the win and at Mexico Rosberg seemed to be on a mission to prove to himself he can fend off Hamilton under the most intense pressure. He did just that, both Rosberg and Hamilton were never separated by more than 2-3seconds during the entire race. So would Rosberg and Hamilton have another incident on the opening lap going into turn one? No. Hamilton never looked like getting the better of Rosberg, at one point during the closing stages both were pushing so hard that they both went beyond the limits of the circuit. Both had to make two stops for fresh tyres because the circuit was  causing more wear than anticipated. Hamilton had planned to go for one stop and initially queried his team as to why there was a need to do so. The end result was that a largely fascinating race was yet again dominated by the Mercedes duo with the William’s of Valtteri Bottas in third. Ferrari endured a miserable race, Raikkonen started way down the order, a result of grid penalties for engine changes. Raikkonen had a spirited race making his way up to 5th at one stage but was out of the race by lap 22 after trying to fend off the faster William’s of Bottas. Bottas made his bid going into turn 4, by turn five both were side by side and while Raikkonen was ahead and with the racing line to his advantage Bottas remained undeterred causing an inevitable collision and bumped into the side of Raikkonen’s Ferrari’s. The impact sheering off the right rear suspension. Vettel endured his worst race of the year, on the first lap he suffered a puncture after the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo bumped into him, he made an unforced error by spining on lap 18 and by lap 52 it was finally all over he made another unforced error. Vettel outbraked himself going into turn 7 and made an appointment with the tyre barriers. Vettel’s crash brought out the safety car which grouped the remaining participants together giving Hamilton a glimmer of hope for the race win but Rosberg held firm and edged out his team mate for the win.