Sebastian Vettel (P14): 6.5/10
Having rekindled his love of racing last time out in Austin, Sebastian Vettel started the weekend brightly enough with tenth place in FP1. However the Aston Martin driver was last-but-one in final practice which was followed by missing the first cut in qualifying, leaving him starting the race from 16th place on the grid. He picked up a couple of places at the start and then ran the first stint behind Daniel Ricciardo and Zhou Guanyu, ran a mighty 38 laps on his initial set of sort tyres (which Pirelli suggested would only last 15). Once the pit stops had sorted themselves out his net position was unchanged. Zhou had fallen behind him, but the Alfa Romeo was able to get around him on lap 57. Fernando Alonso's retirement on lap 64 promoted him back to his familiar 14th place, and he was joined by his team mate Lance Stroll running behind him for the final few laps. All in all, a frustrating day for the four-time champion: if Austin had made him start to think it might be too early for him to quit the sport, Mexico probably made him think that putting his feet up by the fire is no bad thing after all.
Zhou Guanyu (P13): 6/10
Zhou Guanyu was 12th quickest in his first taste of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in a Formula 1 car, but was slowest of all in the subsequent Pirelli tyre test with hydraulic problems (not that it really mattered or signified much). After that, a solid Saturday saw him 12th in both final practice and in qualifying. Starting on the medium tyre, he maintained position at the start of the race, but got picked off by Daniel Ricciardo on lap nine after which he continued to circulate in 13th place. He completed a massive 45 laps on his first set of tyres before finally pitting for a set of the softs; but while the same strategy helped propel Ricciardo into the points by the finish, Zhou got snagged behind Pierre Gasly and made little progress after coming back out in 16th. Although he successfully picked off Sebastian Vettel, his only other positional gains were handed to him as a result of the late retirements of Yuki Tsunoda and Fernando Alonso.
