For only the third time this year the race winner made two pit stops instead of one. However Red Bull said Max Verstappen’s second stop was only precautionary and he could have gone the distance on his second set of tyres.
Red Bull were on course for a one-two finish until Daniel Ricciardo’s car failed – for the eighth time this year – on the 62nd lap of the race. He was on course to complete the race on a one-stop strategy.Although Mercedes set the fastest lap of the race, courtesy of Valtteri Bottas’s 1’18.741 on hyper-softs with six laps to go, the team struggled dreadfully with their tyres. Bottas pitted three times – highly unusual in 2018 – and sampled all three compounds as he tried in vain to find one which would work with his W09.
Had it not been for Ricciardo’s late retirement, both drivers would have finished lower than they started for the second race in a row. Lewis Hamilton’s eighth place on the fastest lap table gives a better illustration of how competitive they were.
The biggest climber of the race was Pierre Gasly, who made up 10 places from last on the grid to claim the final point.
2018 Mexican Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
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2018 Mexican Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:
Position change
| Driver | Start position | Lap one position change | Race position change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Hamilton | 3 | 1 | -1 |
| Valtteri Bottas | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 6 | -1 | 3 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 1 | -2 | |
| Max Verstappen | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Sergio Perez | 13 | 2 | |
| Esteban Ocon | 11 | -5 | 0 |
| Lance Stroll | 17 | 4 | 4 |
| Sergey Sirotkin | 19 | 4 | 5 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | 7 | -1 | 1 |
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | 8 | 2 | |
| Pierre Gasly | 20 | 3 | 10 |
| Brendon Hartley | 14 | -6 | 2 |
| Romain Grosjean | 18 | 0 | 2 |
| Kevin Magnussen | 16 | 2 | 1 |
| Fernando Alonso | 12 | 0 | |
| Stoffel Vandoorne | 15 | -4 | 7 |
| Marcus Ericsson | 10 | 0 | 1 |
| Charles Leclerc | 9 | 0 | 2 |
2018 Mexican Grand Prix lap times
All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:
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2018 Mexican Grand Prix fastest laps
Each driver’s fastest lap:
| Rank | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Gap | On lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’18.741 | 65 | |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’19.186 | 0.445 | 66 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’19.462 | 0.721 | 57 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’19.522 | 0.781 | 49 |
| 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’20.334 | 1.593 | 19 |
| 6 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’20.537 | 1.796 | 67 |
| 7 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’20.637 | 1.896 | 67 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’20.728 | 1.987 | 49 |
| 9 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’21.370 | 2.629 | 46 |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’21.874 | 3.133 | 45 |
| 11 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’21.921 | 3.180 | 14 |
| 12 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’22.386 | 3.645 | 6 |
| 13 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’22.438 | 3.697 | 26 |
| 14 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’22.440 | 3.699 | 18 |
| 15 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’22.629 | 3.888 | 6 |
| 16 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’22.640 | 3.899 | 66 |
| 17 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’22.755 | 4.014 | 69 |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’22.983 | 4.242 | 27 |
| 19 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’23.545 | 4.804 | 6 |
| 20 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’24.197 | 5.456 | 3 |
2018 Mexican Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | Stint 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max Verstappen | Ultra soft (13) | Super soft (35) | Super soft (23) | |
| Sebastian Vettel | Ultra soft (17) | Super soft (30) | Ultra soft (24) | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Ultra soft (17) | Super soft (54) | ||
| Lewis Hamilton | Ultra soft (11) | Super soft (36) | Ultra soft (24) | |
| Valtteri Bottas | Ultra soft (11) | Super soft (37) | Ultra soft (14) | Hyper soft (8) |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Hyper soft (12) | Super soft (57) | ||
| Charles Leclerc | Hyper soft (13) | Super soft (56) | ||
| Stoffel Vandoorne | Ultra soft (12) | Super soft (57) | ||
| Marcus Ericsson | Hyper soft (16) | Super soft (53) | ||
| Pierre Gasly | Hyper soft (5) | Super soft (21) | Super soft (43) | |
| Esteban Ocon | Super soft (1) | Super soft (29) | Ultra soft (39) | |
| Brendon Hartley | Super soft (1) | Ultra soft (23) | Super soft (45) | |
| Lance Stroll | Ultra soft (10) | Ultra soft (13) | Super soft (46) | |
| Sergey Sirotkin | Ultra soft (11) | Super soft (58) | ||
| Kevin Magnussen | Super soft (43) | Ultra soft (26) | ||
| Romain Grosjean | Super soft (44) | Ultra soft (16) | Hyper soft (8) | |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Ultra soft (12) | Super soft (49) | ||
| Sergio Perez | Super soft (30) | Ultra soft (8) | ||
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | Hyper soft (11) | Super soft (17) | ||
| Fernando Alonso | Ultra soft (3) |
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2018 Mexican Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 21.777 | 47 | |
| 2 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 22.017 | 0.240 | 17 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 22.022 | 0.245 | 12 |
| 4 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 22.055 | 0.278 | 1 |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 22.088 | 0.311 | 48 |
| 6 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 22.105 | 0.328 | 11 |
| 7 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 22.174 | 0.397 | 12 |
| 8 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 22.175 | 0.398 | 13 |
| 9 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 22.269 | 0.492 | 11 |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 22.390 | 0.613 | 43 |
| 11 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 22.399 | 0.622 | 47 |
| 12 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 22.512 | 0.735 | 62 |
| 13 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 22.570 | 0.793 | 5 |
| 14 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 22.588 | 0.811 | 13 |
| 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 22.658 | 0.881 | 17 |
| 16 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 22.660 | 0.883 | 11 |
| 17 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 22.732 | 0.955 | 11 |
| 18 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 22.733 | 0.956 | 44 |
| 19 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 22.756 | 0.979 | 30 |
| 20 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 23.037 | 1.260 | 12 |
| 21 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 23.055 | 1.278 | 26 |
| 22 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 23.371 | 1.594 | 23 |
| 23 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 23.426 | 1.649 | 60 |
| 24 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 23.553 | 1.776 | 24 |
| 25 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 23.755 | 1.978 | 30 |
| 26 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 23.887 | 2.110 | 48 |
| 27 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 24.451 | 2.674 | 10 |
| 28 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 27.806 | 6.029 | 1 |
| 29 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 31.406 | 9.629 | 16 |
2018 Mexican Grand Prix
- “These tyres are a disgrace for F1”: Over 300 Mexican GP team radio messages
- Verstappen breaks record for most wins without a pole
- 2018 Mexican Grand Prix Star Performers
- Top ten pictures from the 2018 Mexican Grand Prix
- Verstappen’s win, Hamilton’s title in tyre-dominated Mexican GP
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
29th October 2018, 9:07
I’m really curious as to what happened to Mercedes, their race pace normally gets better as fuel load decreases but here it was the opposite. No tire worked really, new hypersofts only just better than much older supers. That’s so weird.
Colin (@theniloc)
29th October 2018, 10:07
Did anyone see what happened at Ericsson’s pitstop? It was almost 10 seconds.
Does it look like he would have beaten Vandoorne if he’d had a clean stop?
Jere (@jerejj)
29th October 2018, 10:31
@theniloc No, because it wasn’t shown on the world feed.
Krommenaas (@krommenaas)
29th October 2018, 11:45
Vandoorne came to within 1.2s of Leclerc before his tires ran out, so even if hadn’t undercut Ericsson he would have at the very least been on his tail for a long time.
Tango (@tango)
30th October 2018, 14:49
The two categories graph though…
Bart
1st November 2018, 20:37
Like there could be 20 cars in between. And the back-markers form a tighter pack than the 3 top teams.