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All eyes on Lewis Hamilton in Mexico

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<i> Image: AFP </i>
<i> Image: AFP </i>

The Brit is poised for victory, but Ferrari or Red Bull may just pip him to the post.

Lewis Hamilton will have a second bite at the title cherry in Mexico, where – sorry, Ferrari fans – only a disaster on the day can delay the inevitable.

Such is his lead in the championship that a P7 on the day would see him wrap up the title in Mexico for the second year in a row.

It would be his fifth title overall. However, don’t discount that disaster.

For weeks now, we have had Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff repeatedly warning that it is not over until the maths says it is. One can’t blame him, given last year’s Mexican Grand Prix decider.

Title rival, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, started on pole ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and Hamilton.

The Red Bull driver attacked, Vettel bumped into him, bounced into Hamilton and had to pit for a new front wing – while Hamilton needed new tyres after experiencing a puncture.

They fell to the back of the field, with Vettel recovering to P4 and Hamilton to P9.

F1 standings, October 27

It was, however, enough to hand the Brit his fourth title.

That was Hamilton’s worst showing in the three years since the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City returned to the calendar in 2015.

He was P2 the first year and victorious the second. Vettel has yet to make the podium.

The Ferrari driver has made life tough for himself of late, with his latest error on the track coming as recently as the US Grand Prix’s opening lap.

It wasn’t the first of the season, and it most likely won’t be the last.

But given that Kimi Räikkönen has shown that the Ferrari SF71H is back to being a race winner, even if Vettel cannot prevent Hamilton from winning the title, a wheel-to-wheel battle between the protagonists would go some way towards soothing ruffled red feathers.

There is more at play today than just the race to become five-time world champion, with Red Bull earmarking this race as the one it has a realistic chance of winning.

Verstappen did so last season, while the year before that, he was on course for the podium – only to be penalised five seconds for cutting a corner late in the race to stay ahead of Vettel.

That put the Ferrari driver up into third place. But, moments later, he was hit with a 10-second penalty for driving dangerously as he moved under braking to block Daniel Ricciardo. The Aussie claimed third.

With Verstappen recently stating that some people inside the Red Bull camp are making “jokes” about Ricciardo’s ongoing reliability troubles, he will be wanting the last laugh. And maybe a final trophy before he heads off to Renault.

The last time out in Austin, his soon-to-be-team scored a bit of breathing room in the battle for “best of the rest” in the standings as they claimed a first double-points haul in three races to edge 22 points clear of Haas.

Behind them, McLaren are trying to hold off Force India, but that seems unlikely given that the Woking has not scored in three races, while Force India have bagged five top-10 results. But as Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne continue their farewell tour, the Spaniard will be wanting to add to his 1 899 points tally, while point number 23 would be a good result for Vandoorne.

Mexico Grand Prix

With rain forecast for both the qualifying session and the grand prix – although only a 30% chance of rain forecast for today – the sell-out crowd can look forward to an intriguing race.

Here’s hoping it is decided on the track with a three-way fight, and not in the stewards’ office. – TEAMtalk Media

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