Lewis Hamilton gave it his best shot to clinch victory in today's Mexican Grand Prix, but he was forced to concede that Red Bull and Max Verstappen were simply too fast to catch at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
Hamilton started from third place but immediately jumped ahead of his Mercedes team mate George Russell at the first corner. Both opted to start on medium tyres while Verstappen was on the quicker but shorter-lived softs.
Hamilton was able to stay in touch with Verstappen, but he dropped back after pitting to switch to the hard tyres. Verstappen has already moved on to the mediums and Mercedes expected these to degrade more quickly than they did.
It eventually became clear that the tactic hadn't worked for Mercedes as both Hamilton and Russell struggled to 'turn on' the white-walled tyres. Verstappen and his Red Bull partner Sergio Perez had no problem making the softs last to the finish.
Even if the tyre strategy had gone better for him, Hamilton admitted that Verstappen had simply been too fast and in a league of his own in Mexico City - not for the first time this season.
"I was so close I think in that first stint," he told the media in parc ferme after the chequered flag. "But I think the Red Bull was just clearly too fast today. Ultimately maybe they had the better tyre strategy.
"I’m not sure it was the right tyre in the end," he said of the decision to run the second stint on the hard compound. "I thought we should have started on the soft, obviously we had the opposite tyre.
"It was okay in the first stint, but the hard tyre was just offset," he added, having made the point repeatedly during the race over the Mercedes team radio. “Think the medium looks quick, they’re going to get to the end," he had warned toward the end of the race.
Team principal Toto Wolff appeared to concede the point when he came on the team radio after the chequered flag to say that “in hindsight” Mercedes had probably made the wrong tyre call today.
Even when it was clear that the victory was out of reach, Hamilton still had a battle on his hands to hold on to second place and stay ahead of home favourite Perez all the way to the finish.
"I gave my best today, and really pushed hard," Perez said. "Overtaking is so difficult - as soon as I got behind him, it was really difficult to follow. I had to take third."
That didn't go down well with the vast number of Mexican fans in the grandstand, and Hamilton was on the receiving end of some loud boos and cheers in the post-race podium formalities.
"Definitely a bit awkward this time around,” Hamilton said of the reception he received on Sunday. “Boos all day.
"But nonetheless I have so much love for Mexico and for the people here. What a great race event they put on this weekend," he said, adding his congratulations to Verstappen for winning the race and setting a new record for the most wins in a single season.
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