Lewis Hamilton won the Mexican Grand Prix continuing his revived and more focused approach that saw him ease to victory over his closet rival and leader in the current drivers world championship, team mate Nico Rosberg. At one point during Saturday’s qualifying session it looked a though Rosberg wouldn’t even be second best after being outflanked by a resurgent Red Bull.

But it seemed as though Rosberg was managing the life of his Mercedes power-plant as he suddenly found speed to leap up to second in the final seconds of qualifying giving Mercedes a front 1-2 row start. It was the start where most of the action happened during the 71 lap race.

Both Hamilton and Rosberg made good starts, both braked as late as possible going into turn one, both locked up and both missed the apex. Hamilton, possibly distracted by watching Rosberg in his mirrors had the biggest lock up, went of circuit and cut back through the grass.

Hamilton rejoined the track still in the lead, Rosberg tip-toed around the first corner but was barged into by the Red Bull of Verstappen which forced Rosberg further off track and he opted to cut the corner also.

The safety car was brought out with lap one barley complete to clear up a low speed and race ending collision involving Manor Racing and Hass, the race was effectively reset. When the safety car period was over the race settled down into a processional Mercedes walk in the park.

At the Front Hamilton looked unflustered and Rosberg could find no answers to challenge, in reality he doesn’t need to with  two races remaining he only has to finish second in each to win the drivers title. Hamilton has to win all two and hope Rosberg has a bad race weekend.

So while Hamilton was cruising to victory behind him was a developing battle for third place between the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen which sparked into life with several laps to go. Verstappen opted for a one stop tyre strategy, Vettel was on two.

With around five laps remaining Vettel’s Ferrari, on fresher tyres, was closing in fast on Verstappen, third place was inevitable. But Verstappen had just enough life left in his tyres to retain third even going off track and cutting the corner on turn 1 on lap 68 while defending wheel to wheel against Vettel.

Or so he thought. The corner cutting on lap 68 was against the rules and ultimately cost Verstappen third place therefore elevating Vettel into third. Dramatically Vettel was later demoted to fifth having picked up a 10 second penalty while aggressively defending against Daniel Ricciardo on lap 70.

Vettel was deemed to have moved under braking when Ricciardo was wheel to wheel with the Ferrari driver while going for position. As a result, some time after collecting his trophy on the podium, Vettel was slapped down with a ten second penalty moving Ricciardo up to third.

While Hamilton elevates him self up the pantheon of F1 statistical tables there is one stat that he needs more than any other, this stat can not be defined. It is luck and a lot of it if he is to retain his drivers title to make it number 4 with just two races going.

Hamilton is slowly chipping away at Rosberg’s lead and is now 19 points behind in the drivers standings. Therefore Rosberg is still the favourite to take the 2016 driver championship.

2016 Mexico Grand Prix Results

Note – Sainz received a 5s time penalty for forcing Alonso off track. Kvyat and Verstappen received identical penalties for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage. Vettel received a 10s time penalty for driving dangerously or erratically.