MOTORSPORT: Tristar burns even brighter

Mercedes is showing no mercy to its Formula 1 rivals, notching its 10th one-two finish of the season today after having already clinched the constructors’ and drivers’ world championships in recent weeks.

This time, in wildly-enthusiastic Mexico after the sport’s 23-year absence from there, it was Nico Rosberg leading home Lewis Hamilton.

Neither Ferrari finished for the first time since the 2006 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, but the Red Bull-Renaults were a creditable fourth and fifth, sandwiched between the Williams-Mercedes’.

Daniel Ricciardo was outqualified by his Russian teammate Daniil Kyvat by one-thousandth of a second and finished 1.8 seconds behind him in the race.

Ricciardo felt the tyre strategy for his car may have been wrong, although the long main straight was always going to make the race hard with the under-powered Renault engine.

The Australian said the atmosphere at the revised Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, now running through a baseball stadium but without its revered Peraltada section, had been “awesome” and that the Mexican race organisers had “set the bar even higher” for other GPs around the world.

McLaren and Honda’s woes went from bad to worse, with Fernando Alonso out on the first lap – he had gone to the grid knowing his MGU-H (motor generator unit – heat) was unlikely to last long – while Jenson Button finished two laps down in 14th.

It appears that Honda would be happy to fill Red Bull’s engine vacuum for next season, but that McLaren would exercise a right of veto as it sees itself having exclusivity on the Japanese company’s power units that have been a major disappointment but could well be greatly improved over the off-season.

“Clearly there is an issue in Red Bull which was created by Red Bull, not by anybody else and we are not a charity foundation, so we are not here to help,” McLaren sporting director Eric Boullier said.

Kyvat, only 21, was unlucky not to be on the podium for the second time in his first season with Red Bull Racing but was outgunned by the Williams-Mercedes of Finn Valterri Bottas after a late safety car.

“On the restart we didn’t have enough pace on the straight and Williams went full bananas, so Bottas passed me quite easily [and remained in third place],” Kyvat said.

“[But] the track has suited us quite well. I think this weekend showed we can be champions if we get back on the path. I believe in this team, I believe in us and I believe in our future.”

Max Verstappen, now 18, scored championship points with his ninth top-10 finish of his debut season in the similarly Renault-powered Toro Rosso, just behind home-town hero Sergio Perez – who was unlucky to finish behind his Force India-Mercedes teammate, German Nico Hulkenberg.

Brazilian veteran Felipe Massa’s sixth, on top of Bottas’ third, has given Williams a 71-point lead over Red Bull in the quest for third place in the constructors’ championship, behind Mercedes and Ferrari, with a maximum of 86 to score in the two remaining races in Sao Paulo and Abu Dhabi.

Rosberg has regained second in the driver standings from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who had a day of drama in Mexico – getting a puncture when cutting in front of Ricciardo at the first corner, spinning later and finally crashing. Kimi Raikkonen in the other Ferrari had his race ruined in contact with his countryman Bottas in a reversal of their fortunes in Russia last month.

While Daniel Ricciardo loved the atmosphere of the Mexican Grand Prix he found it “a bit of a frustrating race”.

“During the first stint with the ‘option’ tyres we weren’t really quick enough,” Ricciardo said.

“With the ‘prime’ tyres I thought I had really good pace, but once I caught the Williams’ I couldn’t pass them.

“We lost a lot of time there and, in hindsight, when the safety car came out I would have liked to put the ‘primes’ on as I felt I was a lot more competitive with them than with the ‘options’.

“Maybe it would have given us a better chance of getting to the podium.

“I wouldn’t say we were all that quick today, but to get both cars in the top five is OK.

“Sure we both want more, but we’ll see what happens in Brazil.

“The whole weekend has been awesome and this Grand Prix has set the bar even higher.

“The stadium is great and the fans are awesome.

“It’s nice to come to a new place, especially when it puts on a show like this.

“The drivers’ parade was awesome too. I had goose bumps. It was very exciting to see so many fans cheering for us.

“As for the incident with Sebastian [Vettel, at the first corner], I was on the inside and he took the apex, so I had nowhere else to go.”

A Renault engine man in the Red Bull garage, Matthieu Dubois, said the thin air because of Mexico’s altitude – 2200 metres above sea level – “made our lives very complicated from a turbine and cooling point of view”.

While it seems that the Red Bull and Renault fallout is beyond repair, Dubois said: “All the work before and during the weekend demonstrated once again the robustness of the [Renault] power unit, even when operated right on and sometimes even beyond its limits”.

“It is a bit sour that the safety car cost us a podium [with Kyvat],” he said.

Formula 1 World Championship driver standings after 17 of 19 rounds – 1. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 345 points; 2. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 272; 3. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Ferrari) 251; 4. Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams-Mercedes) 126; 5.  Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 123; 6. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Williams-Mercedes) 117; 7.  Daniil Kvyat (Russia, Red Bull-Renault) 88; 8. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 84; 9. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Force India-Mercedes) 68; 10. Max Verstappen (Netherlands,  Toro Rosso-Renault) 47; 11. Romain Grosjean (France, Lotus-Mercedes) 45; 12. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 44; 13. Felipe Nasr (Brazil, Sauber-Ferrari) 27; 14. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela, Lotus-Mercedes) 26; 15. Carlos Sainz Junior (Spain, Toro Rosso-Renault) 18; 16. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Honda) 16; 17. Fernando Alonso (Spain, McLaren-Honda) 11; 18. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden, Sauber-Ferrari) 9.
      
F1 constructor standings – 1. Mercedes 617 points; 2. Ferrari 374; 3. Williams-Mercedes 243; 4. Red Bull-Renault 172; 5. Force India-Mercedes 112; 6. Lotus-Mercedes 71; 7. Toro Rosso-Renault 65; 8. Sauber-Ferrari 36; 9. McLaren-Honda 27.