If Nico Rosberg was seeking redemption for throwing away a potential win in the USGP last weekend, he managed to find it in Mexico at the recently renovated Hermanos Rodriguez. The German claimed victory which is the first formula 1 win in Mexico since 1992.
The race was well under control by Rosberg who started from pole position and led the entire way. He was challenged by teammate Lewis Hamilton who may have been challenged by fitting prime tires for his final stint and even challenged the team on the radio questioning their reported degradation rates on his tires.
Lewis gave it a go and not the type of effort that was phoned in having just secured the driver’s title in Austin. He wanted the win and was hovering around 1 ½ seconds behind Rosberg at the finish. He couldn’t get close enough to Nico to mount an effective challenge which is a testament to how well Nico was driving on Sunday.
Nico needed this win, perhaps more than Hamilton, to restore some faith in himself that he can race at the top and win at the top.
Win
It had to be a big win for Nico who drove masterfully to secure the win from pole and needed to turn his fortunes around, albeit to late for the title run but it’s a move in the right direction heading into 2016.
A win for Russian Daniil Kvyat who drove an impeccable race to 4th having lost out to the Mercedes power of the Williams in the hands of Valtteri Bottas after a restart due to a safety car period. He may have given Red Bull Racing a podium had it not been for Sebastian Vettel’s crash.
A big win for the promoters of the Mexican Grand Prix for making the best use of their stadium section for the podium. Also to Mexico as a whole for the successful return to F1’s calendar. Very excited for the Mexican fans and for the venue. I will say that the OTT praise started to border on patronizing on the broadcasts and social media though as many races put over 100,000 bums in the seat on race day. Mexico City is massive and there are a lot of Mexican F1 fans so it isn’t a real stretch that it would be well supported on its return to F1. Also, the traffic nightmares tweeted were reminders that not every race is without its issues and the on-track racing was a pretty straightforward affair so let’s not patronize Mexican racing fans, they have always been there, it’s great that they now have a track and race to show their enthusiasm which they truly did in spades…awesome showing by any measure. Estimated 335,000 over the weekend! That’s awesome.
A win for Nico Hulkenberg who was always at risk of being outshone by the hometown favorite, Sergio Perez, but he needed a recovery drive having had a spate of bad luck and he delivered by staying ahead of his teammate for 7th place.
A big win for Sergio Perez who really was a terrific ambassador for Mexico and gave the crowd a real driver to cheer for. Not an also-ran or box to tick but a really talented F1 driver who was genuinely appreciative and moved by the Mexican fans and their support. Great weekend for both Mexican fans and Sergio.
A win for American driver Alexander Rossi who simply seems to be able to beat Will Stevens any time he gets in the car and it’s a good day when the guest driver beats the team leader.
A win for Lewis, who wasn’t happy with the team’s call on tires and pit strategy switching to plan B, for being magnanimous and complementing Nico’s drive.
Fail
A fail for Ferrari who suffered their first dual DNF since 2006 (which is really saying something positive if you think about it) as both Kimi and Seb failed to finish. Seb had an incident with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo at turn 1 and then struggled to make ground. In a rare moment, he was trying very hard to play catch up and threw it away at turn 7.
Kimi’s fail is coupled with Valtteri Bottas in my mind as the two had a mirror situation to the Russian Grand Prix which garnered a penalty for Kim but in this incident, no penalty for Bottas. It ended Kimi’s race and allowed Valtteri to claim the final step on the podium. Perhaps the fail here could be the inconsistency in penalties once again but I’m sure many Bottas fans will blame Kimi for the incident here as well as Russia. Such is the life of being a fan.
A fail for McLaren…enough said.
WTH
Ok, the Pirelli podium hats have officially become not fun. When Bottas and Hamilton refused to wear the sombreros on the podium, you know you’ve gone a bridge too far in schmaltzy podium antics. Cultural appropriation or not, perhaps Pirelli and promoters will reconsider their ethnic hat concept. Before we get to Baku.
I think the parc ferme through Nico off kilter as he left his helmet in the car and walked to the waiting room to be weighed. He then realized he didn’t have his helmet and started to go back for it. Where’s Herbie Blash to keep things like this from happening? Come on Herbie, we’re counting on you to see the fine details my friend.
According to our friend Peter, who times these kinds of things, the Mexican Grand Prix on NBC garnered 22:45 of full-screen time which was 45 seconds more than the Russian Grand Prix so we got an additional 45 seconds of action folks! Yes, my friends in the UK, we got to watch 22 minutes of the race in full-screen glory.
Results:
| Pos | Driver | Car/Engine | Laps | Time/Delay |
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 71 | 1h 42:35.038 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 71 | 1.954 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Mercedes | 71 | 14.592 |
| 4 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull/Renault | 71 | 16.572 |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 71 | 19.682 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 71 | 21.493 |
| 7 | Nico Hülkenberg | Force India/Mercedes | 71 | 25.860 |
| 8 | Sergio Pérez | Force India/Mercedes | 71 | 34.343 |
| 9 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso/Renault | 71 | 35.229 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus/Mercedes | 71 | 37.934 |
| 11 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus/Mercedes | 71 | 38.538 |
| 12 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 71 | 40.180 |
| 13 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Renault | 71 | 48.772 |
| 14 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda | 71 | 49.214 |
| 15 | Alexander Rossi | Marussia/Ferrari | 69 | 2 Laps |
| 16 | Will Stevens | Marussia/Ferrari | 69 | 2 Laps |
| – | Felipe Nasr | Sauber/Ferrari | 57 | Brakes |
| – | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 50 | Spun off |
| – | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 21 | Collision |
| – | Fernando Alonso | McLaren/Honda | 1 | Power Unit |
“According to our friend Peter, who times these kinds of things, the Mexican Grand Prix on NBC garnered 22:45 of full-screen time which was 45 seconds more than the Russian Grand Prix so we got an additional 45 seconds of action folks! Yes, my friends in the UK, we got to watch 22 minutes of the race in full-screen glory.”
I am really curious to hear the comparison times between NBC/CNBC/NBCS. I feel being on NBC Sports we get less ads.
No adds on Univision, and it was free in most of the USA. There were 3 or 4 Polo cologne overlays, but none of the action was missed and it was right in sync with the iPad app/BBC audio.
So how many minutes of the broadcast was complete ad break, as in no side-by-side etc?
Less than 2 minutes of the Univision broadcast was overlay….there was no side by side
Oh and they had boots on the ground this race, but no Will Buxton type in the paddock. It was almost pure world feed.
Sorry I meant to send that to Todd, Univision does sound rather good though as an alternative over in the US,
I don’t time these kinds of things but Peter does, he’s a stickler for detail that Peter. Russian GP was on NBCSN right? That was more ads according to Peter. Not sure, I haven’t timed it myself. Anyone who recorded it can go back and double check the timing. :)
That was mention of Alexander Rossi in the race review. It was a definite win for him again in Mexico. :) I think that makes him 4-0 on wins over his more experienced teammate Will Stevens. Will has him beat on qualifying 3-1 performance though.
Alexander has been really talking firmly about his plans for being in F1 in2016 with a team, but I’m worried about him after the leadership exodus at the Manor team. There really are not any other seats left outside of Manor, that I know about.
Another race, another colossal #$%&-up from Kimi Raikkonen. Has he finished a race since renewing his contract? With respect for the analysis above, still this one was completely obvious, and I don’t think it comes down to fan loyalty. Bottas hard against the edge of the track, Raikkonen bashing across him from behind. The last time Kimi walloped his countryman and embarrassed his team in a violent blunder he proudly stated he’d do it again. Mission accomplished. Ferrari should pay this contract off and start fresh.
Raikkonen certainly did not “bash him across from behind.” If he had how is it even possible for Bottas’ left front to contact Kimi’s right rear. Raikkonen had the racing line, gave Bottas enough room and a choice. It was Kimi’s corner, Bottas should have backed off and Bottas chose not too. I don’t blame him for racing Raikkonen in the manner that did given the Sochi incident but he took a big risk in choosing to make the statement he did as it could have easily ended both their races. I don’t fault either driver given the circumstances; I… Read more »
I think that’s a super clear incident. Raikkonen has tons of room on the inside but chooses not to use it, thinking he’s Lewis Hamilton at Austin turn one. But Bottas is no Nico Rosberg. Bottas was at the edge of the track, Raikkonen was attempting to pass and rather than using the track he had available he tried to use the track Bottas was already on. Open and shut.
I actually don’t think, in those incidents, the stewards were inconsistent. I think people look at the stewards like ‘X infraction should always yield Y punishment’ and maybe it should but I think the stewards try to intervene only to remedy injustice, like does X infraction + Y result = a fair outcome? In Russia, Raikkonen was at fault but Bottas paid the price, so the stewards stepped in. In Mexico Raikkonen was at fault and took himself out, so there’s no need to get involved. (in Austin Raikonnen managed to ruin his race without using Bottas in the process,… Read more »
On the subject of hats, I beg to differ…
COTA was Maldonado’s first time of making three points finishes in succession and he nearly extended that to four. So, four finishes in a row is a win.