Yesterday’s race in Mexico City looked to be building to a dramatic finish.
With different strategies playing out for Ferrari and Mercedes, and then individually across all four drivers, it looked like any of the leading group could come out on top.
However it was not to be, as Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton held on at the front to score an unexpected win.
I am not undermining Hamilton’s win, he drive fantastically to manage the hard tyres for the majority of the race, but Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc should have had the tyres to catch and pass the three in front.
Yes, a slow stop may have dropped the Monegasque racer out of contention, but on fresh tyres he was unable to close the gap enough.
Dirty air was playing havoc in Mexico and, at over 2000m above sea level, air is at a premium. Bottas was already nagged by his race engineer for needing to manage temperatures, and I think the same issue befell Leclerc. He simply couldn’t get close enough as his performance became limited in the dirty air.
Bring on the new regulations.
Turbulent air needs to be reduced if drivers stand a chance of racing wheel-to-wheel, and I look forward to a change in regs that might see this one about.
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