Rosberg Pips Hamilton to Win Mexican Grand Prix
By: Cian of Setanta Sports
Nico Rosberg has held off the determined challenge of Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to win the Mexican Grand Prix.
The German started on pole and led throughout to hold off the new world champion by just under two seconds.
Rosberg's fourth win of the season - his first victory in four months - saw him leapfrog Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, whose poor display ended when he crashed out, into second spot in the drivers' standings.
Williams' Valtteri Bottas took third, having earlier been involved in another collision with Kimi Raikkonen which led to the Ferrari driver retiring from the race.
Bottas' performance was superb, having been forced to drive on the same medium tyres for the overwhelming majority of the race.
Rosberg started quickly from pole to successfully hold the inside line to give himself the all-important early control of the race and gradually established a small lead over Hamilton before a late Safety Car - called for after Vettel crashed out - wiped out the three-second gap.
The British driver threw everything at Rosberg after the restart, but he was unable to catch his rival and the German took the chequered flag, with Hamilton 1.9 seconds behind.
Ferrari had a night to forget with Vettel enduring a torrid time, picking up a puncture on the first lap after touching the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, before both spinning, and later crashing, out at Turn Four.
Raikkonen meanwhile had surged from his lowly starting position of 19th up to sixth before his suspension was broken in his clash with Bottas.
Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat finished fourth, having been passed by Bottas late on, while Ricciardo was fifth.
The second Williams of Felipe Massa grabbed sixth place while he was followed by Force India pair Nico Hulkenburg and the home favourite Sergio Perez who ended in seventh and eighth, respectively.
Max Verstappen drove home his Toro Rosso in ninth, ahead of Lotus' Romain Grosjean.
There was a hint of controversy in the race when Hamilton disagreed with a request for him to make a second pit stop after the team had planned to run the race with just one stop, fitting the 'medium' tyres for the final two-thirds of the race after running the first portion on the 'softs'.
However, with 25 laps remaining, Mercedes called Rosberg in for a second stop and then summoned Hamilton to the pits just a lap later.
After querying the request, Hamilton was told the decision was made for "safety reasons" because the first set of tyres were so worn they were "down to the canvas".
Hamilton responded by insisting the tyres felt "fine" before engineer Peter Bonnington over-ruled him.
Rosberg was understandably delighted with his win.
"Amazing day, a great battle with Lewis, who drove really well," he said. "I'm really happy with the win, what a place to do it.
"An absolutely awesome crowd."
Vettel meanwhile was disgusted with his afternoon's work.
"I had a bad start. - these things happen it is racing," he said. "The race was pretty much lost. I tried to come back, but two mistakes did not help.
"The last mistake was my mistake, so I'm not proud of it. We were very close to Mercedes in terms of pace, as close as we have been for a while. We were forcing it."
"Turn one, start of the race. He (Ricciardo) was closing the door, but he was not next to me. But it was too late and I had a bad feeling into turn two and three.
"This kind of stuff you can't do on purpose, so I'm not blaming him. Obviously it is a pain when it hits you in turn one."
Mexican Grand Prix: provisional race results
Pos. Driver, Team, Time/Ga
1. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 1hr 42:35:.038
2. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes +0:01.954
3. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes+0:14.592
4. Daniil Kvyat RUS Red Bull-Renault +0:16.572
5. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-Renault +0:19.682
6. Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes +0:21.493
7. Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India +0:25.860
8. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes +0:34.343
9. Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso +0:35.229
10. Romain Grosjean FRA Lotus +0:37.934
11. Pastor Maldonado COL Lotus
12. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber
13. Carlos Sainz Jr. SPA Toro Rosso
14. Jenson Button GBR McLaren
15. Alexander Rossi USA Manor
16. Will Stevens GBR Manor
Felipe Nasr BRA Sauber Retired (57)
Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari Crashed (50)
Kimi RaikKonen FIN Ferrari Retired (21)
Fernando Alonso SPA Retired (0)
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Date:July 19th, 2017