VERSTAPPEN WINNER, HAMILTON SECURED 5-TH CHAMPION TITLE

Lewis Hamilton clinched his fifth Formula 1 title despite failing to finish on the podium in the Mexican Grand Prix, which was won by Max Verstappen. Poleman Daniel Ricciardo was swamped by team-mate Verstappen and Hamilton at the start and Verstappen went side-by-side with Hamilton to take the lead. #Lewi5 #HIFIVE.

Verstappen breezed clear to a dominant victory ahead of the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen as Hamilton slipped to fourth at the finish, but that was enough to clinch the championship with two races to go.

Hamilton tried to keep pace with Verstappen over the opening stint but gradually slipped back and came under pressure from Ricciardo, but held onto second until pitting on lap 11 of 71. Ricciardo stopped on the next lap while Verstappen went one further, and the undercut gave Hamilton a brief reprieve from Ricciardo but not enough to come close to challenging Verstappen.

With the Dutchman looking untouchable out front, Hamilton started to be caught again by Ricciardo and Vettel after the long-running Ferraris finally stopped. Hamilton edged clear again as the frontrunners negotiated heavy traffic, and a virtual safety car for Carlos Sainz Jr's stricken Renault - which had been comfortably in the points but suffered a complete shutdown - put a temporary hold on the Ricciardo/Vettel scrap behind. It re-engaged after a couple of laps and more heavy traffic allowed Vettel to size up his former team-mate before, on lap 34, throwing a superb move inside Ricciardo under braking for the first corner.

Vettel was four seconds behind Hamilton at this stage but made rapid inroads as Mercedes struggled to keep its tyres alive. Five laps after he cleared Ricciardo, Vettel passed Hamilton at the same place when Hamilton attempted to defend, locked up and skated across the grass.

Mercedes brought Hamilton into the pits on the same lap, with Bottas following suit having lost sixth to Raikkonen in an identical lock-up/off-track incident at Turn 1 moments after Hamilton's. With the lead Mercedes out of the picture the race boiled down to a Red Bull vs Vettel fight, with Ferrari going aggressive by pitting Vettel for a fresh set of ultrasofts. That brought him within 10 seconds of Verstappen once Red Bull brought him in for fresh supersofts, but Ricciardo stayed out and kept track position ahead of Vettel.

That stunted Vettel's bid to catch Verstappen and as Ricciardo's pace held up in the closing stages Vettel looked unable to get close enough to launch an attack. However, with 10 laps ago smoke emerged from the rear of the Renault-powered Red Bull and Ricciardo went straight on at Turn 1, stopped and suffered his eighth retirement of the season.

Verstappen asked Red Bull if he needed to be worried or conserve the engine but he had a trouble-free run to the finish to record his second victory of the season. Vettel and Raikkonen completed the podium as Hamilton struggled to fourth, frustrated with Mercedes' lack of pace compared to its rivals.

Hamilton's mood lifted swiftly, though, as he celebrated a fifth title that moves him level with Juan Manuel Fangio on the list of all-time championship successes. Bottas completed the top five - a lap down - having stopped for a third time, setting the fastest lap of the race on hypersofts at the end.

Nico Hulkenberg finished sixth for the second race in a row as Renault secured best-of-the-rest honours behind the leading three teams. Hulkenberg executed a one-stop strategy well to keep comfortably clear of Sauber's Charles Leclerc in seventh.

Stoffel Vandoorne produced an unexpected boost at the end of a difficult season by rising to eighth in his McLaren, ending a run of 14 races without points that stretches back to Azerbaijan in April. Marcus Ericsson made it a double-points finish for Sauber in ninth to vault the Swiss team above Toro Rosso into eighth in the constructors' championship, despite Pierre Gasly rising from the back to score a solitary point.

MEXICAN GRAND PRIX - HERMANOS RODRIGUEZ 71 laps, 304.356km., Weather: Sunny.
CLASSIFIED:
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME/GAP
1.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1h38:28.851
2.	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	+ 17.316
3.	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	+ 49.914
4.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	+ 1:18.738
5.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	+ 1 lap
6.	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	+ 2 laps
7.	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	+ 2 laps
8.	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	+ 2 laps
9.	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	+ 2 laps
10.	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	+ 2 laps
11.	Esteban Ocon	Force India	+ 2 laps
12.	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	+ 2 laps
13.	Lance Stroll	Williams	+ 2 laps
14.	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	+ 2 laps
15.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+ 2 laps
16.	Romain Grosjean	Haas	+ 2 laps
FASTEST LAP: DANIEL RICCIARDO - 1:19.462
NOT CLASSIFIED:
17.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	techical
18.	Sergio Perez	Force India	techical
19.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	techical
20.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	incident
2015 Nico Rosberg - Mercedes AMG - 1h42:35.038 2016 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h40:31.402 2017 Max Verstappen - Red Bull - 1h36:26.550 2018 Max Verstappen - Red Bull - 1h38:28.851 @MkFormula1 - Republic of Macedonia

***AFTER 19/21 RACES***
DRIVERS:
1.	Lewis Hamilton	358
2.	Sebastian Vettel	294
3.	Kimi Raikkonen	236
4.	Valtteri Bottas	227
5.	Max Verstappen	216
6.	Daniel Ricciardo	146
7.	Nico Hulkenberg	69
8.	Sergio Perez	57
9.	Kevin Magnussen	53
10.	Fernando Alonso	50
11.	Esteban Ocon	49
12.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	45
13.	Romain Grosjean	31
14.	Pierre Gasly	29
15.	Charles Leclerc	27
16.	Stoffel Vandoorne	12
17.	Marcus Ericsson	9
18.	Lance Stroll	6
19.	Brendon Hartley	4
20.	Sergey Sirotkin	1
CONSTRUCTORS:
1.	Mercedes AMG	585
2.	Ferrari	530
3.	Red Bull	337
4.	Renault	114
5.	Haas	92
6.	McLaren	62
7.	Force India(new owner)	47
8.	Sauber	36
9.	Toro Rosso	33
10.	Williams	7
DQ	Force India(old owner)	52