Hamilton crowned champion as Verstappen wins in Mexico

Lewis Hamilton sealed the 2017 world championship despite crossing the line in a lowly ninth place in the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen took his third Formula 1 victory with a convincing win over Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Kimi Raikkonen took the final podium spot for Ferrari.

Sebastian Vettel's last remaining chances of overhauling Hamilton in the world champion expired after he finished in fourth place. He and Hamilton had clashed on the first lap, sending both drivers to the back of the field.

Mexican Grand Prix - Race results

In place of the showbiz razzamataz seen last week in Austin, this week's pre-race proceedings were dominated by a poignant moment of silence for those affected by the recent earthquake in Mexico. Once the anthem was completed, attention turned to the race itself as the drivers left the grid for the formation lap. With the exception of Romain Grosjean and Fernando Alonso on supersofts, everyone had selected to start the race on ultras.

When the lights went out, polesitter Sebastian Vettel initially got a good launch from the grid but then lost ground in the run down to the first corner. Max Verstappen was able to go around the outside, giving him control of the inside line into turn 2. The Ferrari and the Red Bull made contact, wrecking Vettel's front wing. As he fell back, he also made secondary contact with the back of Lewis Hamilton's car.

It was a disaster for the two title contenders. Vettel was forced to pit for a new front wing, while Hamilton limped back with a right-rear puncture putting both men at the back. The one bright light for both men was the opportunity to switch to the supersofts and hope to regain lost ground over the remaining 70 laps of the race.

Verstappen had been left in control of the race, already several seconds ahead of Valtteri Bottas. Force India's Esteban Ocon was up to third ahead of the Renault's Nico Hulkenberg, with his own team mate Sergio Perez up to fifth from tenth on the grid.

The second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo had vaulted into the top ten in the opening laps, despite starting from 16th place after overnight power unit changes. However all the effort came to naught as the Australian limped into the pits just six laps into the race with a terminal issue, becoming the first retirement of the afternoon.

Vettel was making much better progress than Hamilton when it came to working his way forward. On lap 13 he passed Felipe Massa for 15th place despite being forced off at turn 4 in the process. The Williams had already been forced to pit with a slow puncture; Carlos Sainz had similarly made an early stop after flat spotting the tyres on his Renault.

Vettel soon made quick work of Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly. He then dispatched Romain Grosjean on lap 18, the Haas driver having already been handed a five second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage while battling with McLaren's Fernando Alonso. By contrast, Hamilton was still stuck at the back, and at imminent risk of being lapped. The Mercedes appeared to have been more seriously wounded in the first lap incident than initially realised.

Perez was the first of the leaders to make a scheduled pit stop on lap 19, followed by Hulkenberg and Ocon. That promoted Kimi Raikkonen to third place ahead of Williams' Lance Stroll, with Ocon returning to the track in fifth ahead of Kevin Magnussen. Hulkenberg and Perez slotted in behind the Haas.

Sauber's Marcus Ericsson was running in ninth ahead of Alonso, who was struggling to hold off Vettel. The Ferrari did move into the top ten a few minutes later, thanks to Hulkenberg being ordered to park on the grass verge on lap 26. He was told to exit the car with all due haste due to an ERS issue: "The car is not safe, Nico," warned the Renault pit wall. "You need to climb out by jumping off the front."

By this time, Hamilton had suffered the ignominy of being shown blue flags ordering him to allow Verstappen and Bottas to put him a lap down. He did finally manage to overtake Sainz for 17th a few laps later and was then able to pick off the Sauber of Pascal Wehrlein a few minutes later.

Lap 32 saw the retirement of Brendon Hartley after the Toro Rosso became the latest Renault-related retirement. That triggered a virtual safety car, with Verstappen and Bottas taking the opportunity to make their pit stops and switch to supersoft tyres. Raikkonen also came in, opting to switch to soft tyres and coming back out in third ahead of Ocon and Stroll. Perez was in sixth, having pulled off a pass on Magnussen just before the VSC.

Vettel similarly pitted, adopting an agressive strategy by taking ultrasoft tyres for the remaining 38 laps of the race. He duly set the latest fastest lap of the race after coming out ahead of Alonso. The McLaren was the last car on the lead lap at the midway point of the race, ahead of Massa in tenth.

Verstappen snatched the race lap record away from Vettel on lap 36 as he extended his lead over Bottas to more than ten seconds. Worried by the Renault reliability issues seen elsewhere, the Red Bull pit wall told him to slow his pace. "I'll just take it easy then," he replied, only to set the same blistering lap time next time round. "I'm really sorry!", the Dutchman chortled when further admonished by his race engineer, clearly enjoying every minute.

Vettel's ultrasofts were serving him well as he found his way past Magnussen for seventh. He kept on fighting, and on lap 51 he broke Mexican fans' hearts with a pass on Perez in turn 4 for sixth. An irked Perez then pitted for ultras of his own in search of some payback in the closing laps. Vettel then made it into the top five with a DRS move on Stroll on lap 55, and subsequently made short work of Ocon for fourth.

Hamilton remained a lap down, but by now had passed Gasly, Ericsson, Vandoorne and Massa to finally return to the points in tenth place on lap 57. His next target was a more formidable one, Alonso rebuffing Hamilton's attacks until the pair made light contact on lap 66.

The Mercedes had finally made it into ninth place, and it was a significant development: the two points meant that Vettel now had to win the race to keep his title hopes alive. It was too much to ask for: he was still 24s behind Raikkonen for third, a huge gap to make up even with team orders. Bottas was a further half a minute down the road in that crucial second place, and Verstappen was strolling away at the front a further 20s clear. The title was sealed.

As the championship scenario played out, the field behind him had been further thinned out. Marcus Ericsson exited with a fire at the back of his Sauber, while Carlos Sainz made a rather less dramatic precautionary retirement. It left 15 cars still running, of which only the top four were still on the lead lap.

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