so early into question, and eventually forcing Chief Strategist James Vowles to step in and reassure him over team radio.

MEXICAN GP: Verstappen suffers puncture amid intense Bottas battle

Up in first and second, Vettel and Bottas had committed to going long and one-stopping, Bottas eventually bringing his Merc in for hards on Lap 37, matched by Vettel a lap later. With Leclerc and Albon taking their second stops on Lap 44 and 45 – Leclerc stationary for a painfully long time, as his Ferrari mechanics struggled to affix his right-rear hard tyre – we were then set up for a scintillating grand finale. With 10 laps to go, it was an edgy Hamilton leading by three seconds from a tightly bunched, fresher-tyred pack of Vettel, Bottas and Leclerc, Alboneight seconds adrift in fifth, with Verstappen having clawed his way back into P6, over half a minute further back. But unfortunately for Vettel and Ferrari, Hamilton’s misgivings about his tyre life proved unfounded, the Briton with enough in hand to sweep through to his second victory in Mexico City – and the 55th time that he and Vettel had finished one-two – with the order in the top six unchanged by the chequered flag.

MEXICAN GP: Slow Ferrari pit stop costs Leclerc

Sergio Perez delighted him home fans by claiming a joint-best Mexico result of P7, having resisted a Daniel Ricciardo dive-bomb 10 laps from the end, the Australian eventually settling for eighth, having made a 50-lap first stint on the hard tyres work brilliantly for him from his