Mexican Grand Prix Betting Tips

Three races remaining. The gap between championship leader Nico Rosberg and team-mate Lewis Hamilton now down to 26 points. Is there still life in this season’s title race? Straight off the back of the United States Grand Prix, we head quickly down to Mexico for Round 19 to find out. From the fall-out in Texas to a closer look at the Mexico City circuit, Betsafe and Planet F1 have all the angles covered for you ahead of this weekend’s race.

Hammer time

If there was any place that Hamilton was going to rediscover the magic, it was always going to be in Texas. Returning to the track where he won his third world championship title last year, the Brit, roared on by a legion of loyal followers, was back to his very best after a nightmare run since the summer break.

With pole position in the bag, all eyes (and worries) were focused on his start off the grid. Slow getaways have played a supporting role in Hamilton’s chaotic season, but there were no such issues this time. He flew off down to the iconic first corner and set about putting right some of the wrongs that have hindered this year.

Daniel Ricciardo, initially equipped with supersofts that gave him better grip, managed to get the jump on Rosberg in second place by Turn Two to set up what should have been a fascinating battle between the pair, but this duel, and the race as a whole, unfortunately delivered little after promising so much.

Ricciardo’s team-mate Max Verstappen had a part to play in ensuring Mercedes were able to completely dominate. A handful of laps after mishearing that he was told to pit – an error which led to a mad dash from his mechanics – the talented young Dutchman had to retire with a gearbox problem by lap 30.

How he positioned the car after retiring effectively ended Ricciardo’s chance to become the cat amongst the pigeons. The introduction of the virtual safety car gave the Mercedes duo a free pit-stop each and gave the Aussie no chance of performing an undercut.

Hamilton, who pulled out a ten-second lead at one stage, was then able to do the minimum amount of work possible and still win for a fifth time in the US. It was his first win since Round 12 in Germany, the 50th success of his career and, more importantly, the victory that helps shave off a few points on Rosberg’s championship lead.

Vettel, hindered by rear wing problems in his Ferrari, had to settle for fourth, while team-mate Kimi Raikkonen capped off a miserable afternoon on a three-stop strategy with a forced retirement after he was released from a pit-stop too early.

With one Red Bull and one Ferrari out of the race, that gave opportunities to others to claw some points together. Fernando Alonso clinched fifth spot for McLaren with a superb drive, while Carlos Sainz, Felipe Massa, Sergio Perez, Jenson Button and Romain Grosjean rounded off the top 10.

What to expect in Mexico

“The battle will continue. I will be going for it.”

There is the fighting spirit from Hamilton that many thought had been drained out of him with every reliability issue that came his way. Stage one of the rescue mission is complete, but he needs to win the final three races of the season to have any chance of retaining his world championship crown.

So we have a determined Hamilton and still a pretty relaxed Rosberg heading into Mexico, who knows he can clinch his maiden title with two seconds and a third at the very least.

 For all of Hamilton’s effort, he is going to need to pray that his team-mate runs into some reliability problems of his own.

The competitive Red Bull can still play a part in the title race, too. We only got a glimpse in America of them attacking Mercedes but there could be plenty more where that came from in Mexico come Sunday.

About Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez

After a 23-year absence from the F1 calendar, the Mexico Grand Prix returned at newly-refurbished Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit, named after brothers Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez who raced in the 60s and 70s, last year. The new design makes the race a great spectacle for fans, with not one, but two stadium sections which will be packed the rafters over the course of the weekend.

The 4.3km circuit is one of the shorter tracks that the drivers will face this year but, with 71 laps to tackle in testing conditions, the drivers will have to be razor-sharp if they want to look at back at Mexico with any fond memories.

After the 357 km/h dash down to the first corner, Turn Two and Turn Three come thick and fast before the drivers head down the second long straight at 320 km/h, which also acts as the second DRS activation zone.

Turns Four, Five and Six form a neatly-packed triangle and the first stadium section of the circuit which will see cars slow down all the way down to 80 km/h.

Then come the fastest corners on the track with Turns Seven, Eight and Nine creating a snake-like effect that can be aggressively attacked.

After a quick right-left hander, the cars will then hurtle head-first into the main and most impressive stadium section which features the slowest corner on the circuit.

The last obstacle is Turn 16, the newly-named Mansell Corner after his iconic overtake on Gerhard Berger here in 1990. A good exit is vital as this will bring you out onto the start-finish straight.

Previous winners and track suitability

After hiatuses between 1971-1985 and 1993-2014, previous winners of the Mexican Grand Prix are part of a rather exclusive club. Rosberg won last year’s race after Hamilton took his foot off the pedal following his third world championship, but can the German become only the fourth man to win the event more than once?

He is aiming to join Nigel Mansell (1987 and 1992) and Alain Prost (1988 and 1990) with two career victories in Mexico, while Jim Clark is a three-time winner – one of which coming in the pre-F1 era after he took over in his team-mate’s car in the pits!

All Clark’s victories came in a Lotus-powered car, and they currently sit on top of the winning constructors’ list with four wins in total. McLaren and Williams have three wins apiece with Ferrari rounding off the victors with two successes.

Mexico City is situated 2,200 m above sea level, which means this race is run at the highest altitude the drivers will face all year. With limited air supply to work with, it will give the engineers a severe headache as they try to limit the effect on engine deficiency.

Good traction, downforce and top speed are the three key ingredients to success here. And, as Valtteri Bottas showed last year with a podium finish in his Williams, this race could well throw up a few surprises.

About Mark Scott

Mark Scott is a contributor for PlanetF1, the definitive site for Formula One news, features, galleries and live coverage.