Rate the race: 2017 Mexican Grand Prix

2017 Mexican Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Mexican Grand Prix.

Since 2008, F1 Fanatic has held polls on every F1 race to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

This poll has closed

The Mexican Grand Prix was rated 6.8 out of 10, which is its highest score in the three years since it returned to the F1 calendar.

An F1 Fanatic account is required to vote. You can register an account here or read more about registering here. When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.

View more Rate the Race results:

See the results for past seasons here:

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

72 comments on “Rate the race: 2017 Mexican Grand Prix”

  1. An exciting race. Not the best of the season, but definitely better than the 2015 and 16′ editions.

    1. Don’t agree. Exciting but not better than past years, those were unfortunately rated too low. As last years the podium is all wrong, Max should’ve been penalized yesterday but on the other hand he keeps the Kvyat stat going, which is amazing.

      1. Sad that you want to keep him off the podium with a penalty. 20 secs lead is a statement!

      2. Yes, absolutely unbelievable the coincidence that every time kvyat is demoted verstappen wins.

        In spain 2016, it was I think right to have just sent kvyat from red bull to toro rosso and promoted verstappen cause he showed to be a lot better, then he was lucky about mercedes contact and good to defend his position from raikkonen.

        In Malaysia 2017 kvyat had just lost his toro rosso seat to gasly for 1 race and verstappen had the best car of that race (maybe ferrari was better, but they weren’t in the right position to fight for win) and again outraced ricciardo, overtook hamilton for the lead (first time anyone did it this year) and no one saw him any more, and now in mexico, after kvyat was back for a race and then fired, verstappen was again lucky with a contact that took his only rivals out of the race for win and absolutely dominated, however he was quick enough that, even if it weren’t for hamilton’s and vettel’s problems he had a good chance of winning regardless, even more so cause every time stuff goes bad for kvyat it seems to go well for verstappen!

        Now verstappen is a very good driver and surely will win a lot more races in the future, but he and kvyat will always share this amazing record that verstappen’s first 3 wins all happened when kvyat was demoted!

  2. Just leaves a slight bitter taste in the mouth, to be honest. Deserved championship win, but the stewards bottled it today.

    1. What did they bottle?

      1. @hahostolze First, Verstappen should have been penalized on Saturday, secondly Vettel should’ve been penalized for hitting Lewis, his only excuse is to have lost front downforce after Max took a little bit of Seb’s wing off, anyway I think Seb should’ve been penalized for that and that incident only.

        1. Very happy you are not a steward.

          1. Indeed: :) :) ;)

        2. I think this is completely incorrect. There is no way Vettel was trying to hit Lewis. Why would he?

          1. @phil-f1-21 How does it matter if he was trying to do so or not? He did and there was no need for that at all. Avoidable incident all over. He applied too much throttle, lost the car and crashed into Hamilton.

            How does poor driving like that not fall under “causing an avoidable incident”?

      2. After COTA it was made very clear that you couldn’t have all four wheels off the track to overtake.
        SV passed FM with all four wheels off the track.
        No hint of the stewards even looking at the incident, let alone applying a penalty.

        1. Well, I hate inconsistencies ofc, but I think vettel had a very good excuse there, as in massa pushed him off the track! Vettel did his best to get back on the track as soon as he could actually. If anything, my father complained it was insane massa got away without even being investigated for pushing him off the track, it seems like he’s steering on vettel!

          1. Correct. Massa is becoming a very nasty frustrated driver this year. Hope he will retire ASAP. His time in F1 is over imo.

          2. @esploratore That has NEVER been a valid excuse for overtaking some one off track.

            Massa was ahead and had the right to the racing line.

            Vettel shoved Verstappen off in a much worse fashion and Verstappen was ahead of Vettel! So if that was a cause for a penalty then Vettel should have gotten it.

          3. I don’t think Massa’s push was intentional. He lost it under acceleration and had to turn into Vettel.

            That doesn’t mean poor driving should get a free pass. He bombed Vettel off to the gravel, good driving could have avoided that.

  3. I can’t decide if that was dull or exciting. It felt like both at the same time

    1. Well said @strontium, I feel much the same. That fight of Hamilton with Alonso was great, and the 1st two corners were great too – but still, the top 4 was spread by 70 seconds at the end, and the rest more than a lap down; it seemed only VET and HAM were able to make any lasting moves today, after the 1st lap and apart from pitstops; I get why people gave VET driver of the race, he did try to make it an exciting race.

      1. That fight of Hamilton with Alonso was great

        It’s also a reminder of what we are missing out on with Alonso in an uncompetative car. I really hope that McLaren, Red Bull and the Renault works team will be able to fight for the championship with Mercedes and Ferrari. If that’s the case 2018 could epic.

        1. Yes, and I’m gonna say this was a great race.

          1) Verstappen dominated and kept the kvyat demotion = win streak going
          2) Vettel and hamilton both did interesting recovery races, for who thinks hamilton’s was underwhelming, remember he had a puncture, you lose over 1 min from that position with a puncture, even verstappen didn’t do better than 10th at monza with a puncture

          Too bad obviously that we couldn’t see a 3-drivers duel between verstappen, vettel and hamilton for long, but hopefully in the future, however if you get that you don’t get the recovery races.

          Also ricciardo did an interesting recovery for that little he was in the race, think he was already 8th few laps from start.

  4. Alex McFarlane
    29th October 2017, 21:08

    From the replay and the comfort of my armchair, I’m sure Vettel could have avoided contact with Hamilton, he went super aggressive and once again made contact with two drivers. I can understand it this time as this was last chance saloon to all intents and purposes.

    That said, he ruined his own race today so justice was served naturally.

  5. Fantastic race of MAG, keeping both Alonso and Hamilton behind for a lot of laps.

  6. There’s a lot of ingredients for great racing but there’s something that does not work, I actually believe this might have been the worst of all new Mexican gp’s, apart from Seb and Hamilton there was no dynamic.
    The futile Alonso battle was the highlight of the GP for me and it was great, I wish all Mexico on-track fights were like that one, that’s how this track was meant to work.

    1. Forgot the number, with the Alonso/Ham it is a 7 for me.

      1. It’s the dependency on aero, no?

        I hated seeing everyone “break the tow” in order to keep their equipment in optimum conditions. The cars are not raceable, they’re stupid fast but they require too much maintenance.

  7. For Mexico that was half decent. Championship contenders on a charge, Verstappen taking a dominant win.

    And Hamilton Vs Alonso was probably the best wheel to wheel battle all season, roll on 2018! 7/10

    1. But why did he took so long to overtake a McLaren. Was his car damaged or smt?

      1. It was indeed damaged!

      2. It had fairly hefty rear diffuser damage, McLaren probably had the 2nd best chassis after Red Bull in Mexico, and the altitude seemed to lessen the power unit advantage. Plus Alonso is one of the best.

        1. Thomas Gammelby
          30th October 2017, 9:51

          Why didn’t they both pass the slowest car on the grid “Haas” (according to qualifying) intelligent and fair defending by KMag…? I also still recognise Alonso’s defence in an also inferior car. But had KMag defended as hard, had he been given a penalty & labled a dirty driver? At least in 1 corner Alonso didn’t leave Hamilton room to race and forced Hamilton to back off if he didn’t want to crash or go of track…. However I find it a bit more remarkable that kevin held his 8th pos, given the competition behind him. Just my humble 2 cents.

          1. Alonso Vs Hamilton was clean and fair. It’s the best example of how aggressive you can be without overstepping the mark. No one exceeded track limits, and they left each other enough space. Pushing at corner exit when you’re the car ahead is fine.

  8. Great first lab but it got an bit stall as every one got into his place. just an 8 from me for the trill of does his engine blow up…

  9. A solid 8…..not really surprised at the first lap incident….something had to give…and again Seb does not do pressure….even the team radio told him to stay focused….not sure how he didn’t have to give the place back to Massa…oh sorry it’s Ferrari again.. A very tense rather than exciting race…..and at least Torro Rosso can take heart that next year they will have the reliable Honda engine, instead of……..
    Congratulations Lewis

  10. First fine modern Mexican GP, but a big shame that Ocon’s podium chance was ruined by a VSC. Maybe he should have pitted for a softer set as well.

    1. Force India were more concerned with staying ahead of hulkenberg than Raikonnen, even without the VSC I doubt Ocon could of stayed ahead of Kimi with the tire defecit he would of had.

  11. The first few corners pretty much ended any chance of getting a good race at the front, and the ‘comeback’ drives were rendered somewhat less impressive because 90% of the other drivers appeared to have zero interest in defending.

    Gave it a six, which seems reasonable.

    1. @neilosjames – on the contrary, I think that the comeback drives were impressive and interesting because only a very few drivers gave up their positions without a fight. For a long time HAM didn’t improve at all, and VET didn’t reach the podium. MAG and ALO didn’t hand out any favours or gifts, but most of it was fought hard, but reasonably fair. MAG seemed to try to prevent ALO from getting into clean air, and did sort of slow ALO till he got into a fight with HAM, which provided MAG with less defending to do. Good racing, and MAS also did what he could to keep both VET and HAM behind him.

      1. What I mean is that as soon as either Vettel or Hamilton got a run into the braking zone, most of the other drivers just rolled over and didn’t even try to defend. It was just ‘there you go, you take the inside line into Turn 1, I’ll just stay out here on the outside and roll out a red carpet while you drive past me’.

        Alonso and Massa were notable exceptions. I’d rather everyone at least tried to do what they did, but hardly anyone did.

  12. I instinctively gave the race a 9…and soon after I realised that I had dozed off at some point in the middle!

  13. Boring. Thanks Sebastian !

  14. 8/10 that battle between ALO and HAM was epic, shows how fair and skillful those two are unlike another German four times WC with some disgusting moves.
    Too bad Vettel robbed us of some interesting battles, I still think that the crash could have been avoided easily, but as usual Vettel isn’t at fault, thank you FIA.

  15. That’s what a 6 looks like for me.

    With the new cars overtaking send to be a lot more difficult here.

  16. Why didn’t stewards investigate Seb’s overtake on Massa? Last weekend all four wheels outside the white line and gaining a lasting advantage merited a penalty, this week it didn’t.

    Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think either Max in USA or Seb in Mexico should have been a penalty; just calling out the stewards on their inconsistency.

    1. Because:

      a) Massa clearly forced Vettel wide despite Vettel being slightly ahead
      b) Vettel did return to take the next corner properly
      c) It happened on the outside rather than the inside of a corner

      1. Thanks Christopher; so the circuit was lengthened in the example today but shortened in last week’s. Do the regs make that distinction, (thinking specifically about when overtaking)?

        1. @f1bobby – I don’t know if the regulations make that distinction, but Charlie has stated that this is one of the things he looks at when deciding whether to forward an incident to the stewards or not – did it shorten the track, or, did it allow the driver a better line thereafter.

      2. @chrischrill
        a) Massa was clearly ahead relative to the actual racing line
        b) So what?
        c) So what?

        It’s a while ago, but Vettel overtook Massa in Hockenheim on the outside and got a penalty for that as well.

        There really is no consistency lately.

  17. It’s a 5/10 for me, very mediocre race. The reason? The best battles we had ontrack was Ericsson on the McLaren’s. Those three stayed in view for much of the race. Impressive to see a Sauber battling for P8, of course, but if that’s the best we get then the race isn’t good enough. By the midway point, pretty much no position changes occurred other than Vettel and Hamilton slowly fighting their way up the grid.

  18. Boring.
    As a Dutchman I like to see Verstappen win. But not like this.
    Why oh why Seb did you think it was wise to put your wing against Lewises rim?
    The Finns were not on Max’s level, so at turn 3 the race was over. Bugger.

    The only excitement came from Renault engines blowing up like a Chinese roll. But just like last race, lady luck decided car number 33 had already had enough trouble for the year.
    So Renault engines scored another win. Maybe McLaren still feel confident they have landed a big fish.

    1. Just seen where Renault have said the engines were there fault…they did not factor in correctly the high altitude and should have set them for more reliability and less performance…as Mercedes did…..
      Sounds feasible I suppose…….

      1. @job452 It’s interesting to compare that to Honda saying they found some unexpectedly good settings for the high altitude just last week, after they managed to improve the correlation between their engine test bench in recent months (just read a motorsport article on that).

  19. 5.

    I don’t think anyone was to blame for the fiasco at the start. Verstappen had nothing to lose, and made a move that he probably wouldn’t have made if he actually had a dog in the championship fight. Vettel did what he could, Hamilton saw a chance to get around Vettel, Vettel had Bottas next to him and well, hit Lewis’s tire. Not much really could have changed unless Max doesn’t make that move there, but thats racing. Besides the first corner mayhem, the race was dull. DRS again showed it to be the predominant method of passing.

    No tire should be able to last half a race distance as the ultra’s being run for anything longer than 10 laps is maddening. Tracking back to the beginning of the Pirelli era, you can see how Pirelli is killing this sport. the top 3 were covered by what, 40 seconds? It was a parade of really expensive cars. Yet again, it’s another race that was only made exciting because two cars were greatly out of position. Personally, I am completely unimpressed by the race. Mexico is unique, the thin air and the old school style track layout make for an exciting atmosphere. However the cars can’t follow, AGAIN.

    The worst part is, we are stuck with this for the next 4 years. Too bad we can’t impeach Jean Todt too.

    1. Maybe things will be better in 2018. Even with the whatever-they-are-going-to-name-it bolted onto these cars. maybe the racing will just be so good that I will not notice the cockpit thong

    2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      30th October 2017, 0:38

      But Max has nothing to lose all the time!!! So he just takes the risk knowing that if they hit, it’s going to cost the other driver a lot more than him. I’m not sure I’m 100% sold on that. It was okay the 1st time, maybe the 2nd but he’s practically gambling on the other driver yielding for him cause he has fewer points in the championship.

      1. Good that there’s an advantage even having all problems he had early on due to reliability then!

      2. So Max should not go for gaps and he always needs to back out?

        Come on. You could also say Vettel could’ve backed out because he was beaten.

        It’s racing not knitting

      3. I think this is really just a time of the season issue. The Red Bull seems to have improved reliability and pace right at the time the other teams are really at the crunch point of the championship. So Max can afford to take risks as he has nothing to lose whilst the Merc and Ferrari drivers do. It’s not Max’s fault, it’s just circumstance.

  20. I was extremely disappointed by a number of drivers who didn’t put up any kind of fight against Vettel and Hamilton. There was so much passing that was at best just a highway change of position, not really an overtake. Only Alonso and Massa actually put up some kind of fight.

    1. Explains why older races in f1 were more exciting. Its not the cars but the drivers themselves.

  21. Really Vestappen should not ever allowed in front team.
    It takes a lots of excitement out. Good thing he doesn’t turn his engine too early so we got to see rare things like Hamilton getting blue flag and fighting Alonso.

  22. 7/10
    The start was fantastic. There were overtakes and solid defending. It was good to see Alonso and Hamilton battle. Dominant Verstappen, Hamilton winning the championship, Vettel cutting through the midfield, Ocon’s solid drive and good turnout are among the positives.

  23. Reminded me a bit of 2003 Japanese GP, where Schumacher did everything he could to lose the WDC, and in the end it was his team mate that sealed it for him as Barrichello prevented Räikkönen from winning.

    The race itself was somehow both exciting and dull. More of the latter, perhaps, but at least it kept me somewhat interested throughout the whole race. 6/10.

  24. 6.

    VET was pretty strong in the 1st half of the season, quite a mess in the 2nd half. Lots of incidents caused by him or his track driving to be a WDC. HAM is a deserved champ, he had the better car overall too. Congrats. All of these coupled with Ferrari’s reliability issues, no wonder the WDC ended a lot sooner than expected (yeah, as I said, the WDC ended when HAM increased his points lead by more than 25points… and that was many races ago).

    Congrats to VER too. It’s hard to tell for sure how ”deserved” was the win without VET and HAM fighting him, but he looked really strong. BOT had no chance. It seems that RBR improved their car a lot since the start of the season, they almost have the same number of wins as Ferrari. Anyway, VER is the new hot shot without doubt now, once his car will be good enough to fight for champs on regular basis, it’ll be almost impossible to stop him. HAM and VET days might be numbered…

  25. I enjoyed it. However, deducted a point due to whatever chaos happened when the race finished/podium spinning round for a DJ… wow…

  26. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
    30th October 2017, 10:10

    I really don’t like this circuit, putting two of the fastest cars at the back helped boost overtaking, but otherwise it would have been pretty poor. I gave it a 6. The track layout needs some work.

  27. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    30th October 2017, 13:11

    7.

  28. 6. How people gave this 8s and 9s I don’t know but then I find myself thinking this quite often ;-)

    No action at the front for any of the podium places after the first couple of laps. Some good comeback drives later on.

    The highlight I think was the brief battle between Lewis and Fernando. Fernando really exceeding the capabilities of his car again.

  29. Michael Brown (@)
    30th October 2017, 15:33

    4/10. Marginally better than the Russian GP because there were actual overtakes. This circuit is awfully designed, with the stadium section and the first three turns separating the cars like the final chicane in Spain.

  30. Gave it a 7 because the fans were out it was a big weekend but three full points off for a fairly poor F1 track.
    Its a big show place the stadium arena bit is fantastic, Id dearly love to hear the cars come round in a race but as a racing, overtaking F1 circuit its well below what I want to see.
    Max hitting Vet then Vet hits Ham hard I cant call anything on it, its first lap shenanigans, while Charlie gives them the first corner incident immunity the drivers will use it. (didnt see Ham cutting the first corner this year)

    Best bit is the WDC is over we can look forward to some good racing at Brazil :)

  31. I gave the race a 5.25

    This race didn’t really excite me and the main feeling I got from it was that it was a bit of an anti-climax.

    The fans were again great but just as in the previous two years I don’t think they got a quality race that they deserved.

    Considering the points Hamilton needed to seal the title it was more a question of when not if he would be the 2017 champion no matter what Vettel did, but the championship was effectively decided after the first lap when Vettel ran into Hamilton causing them both to pit and dropping them down the order.

    After that Verstappen cruised to a victory as dominant as any we have seen this season, the only concern was when the cars with Renault engines started to break down, would the same thing happen to Verstappen given his reliability record this season, he didn’t help matters by putting in fastest laps when he didn’t need to and after his team had already told him to ease off. But his car held out and he continued the odd record of winning every race after Kvyat has been demoted, as Kvyat has now completely left the Red Bull programme, Verstappen’s next victory will obviously end this.

    Even without the problems for Hamilton and Vettel I think Verstappen would have won, but if they had all been together at the front throughout the race it would have made things more interesting.

    From the highlights it seemed there was action spread throughout the race especially with Vettel coming back through the field to finish fourth, and on paper with the way the race went I would have thought that I would have enjoyed it more than I did but for whatever reason it did not grip me that much.

    There were a few elements which could have contributed to my lower rating, the fact I only saw the highlights which were on late at night, and given the fact the clocks had just gone back it felt even later and so I was a bit tired while watching, and then with regard to the race itself, in my mind at least, the winner was never really in doubt after the first lap.

    Although the title did not go down to the last race, the way this season has ended gives us hope that next we could be treated to a good championship battle next year with multiple drivers from a few different teams.

    Red Bull have developed their car really well over the course of the season to the point where in races at least they a match for anyone, McLaren should be more competitive with the Renault engine, and you would have thought that the works Renault team would be higher up also, while I don’t think they will all be challenging for the title with Mercedes and Ferrari I think we could have winners from more than three teams.

    The main things that need to happen for this to transpire are for the teams challenging Mercedes to improve their reliability, Mercedes also have room for improvement, the car could be better at following other cars and be more consistent over the whole range of circuits and conditions.

Comments are closed.