Hamilton wins F1 2018 Drivers’ Championship at Mexican GP

Lewis Hamilton becomes just the third driver ever to reach five Formula One world championships.

It’s been a more competitive Formula One season than many expected, but Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes still managed to secure the Drivers’ Championship on Sunday at the Mexican Grand Prix. Hamilton becomes only the third driver ever to reach five championship wins. He finished in fourth at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, after starting the race in third position.

Hamilton went into Sunday’s race needing just five points (in other words, a seventh-place or better finish) to clinch the title. Mercedes is also well ahead in the Constructor’s Championship, and will likely repeat there as well.

Hamilton joins very elite company of five-time winners — Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, ‘54, ‘55, ‘56, and ‘57) and Michael Schumacher, who has seven, (1994, ‘95, 2000, ‘01, ‘02, ‘03, and ‘04).

This season, Mercedes has been challenged more than expected by Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, as well as Vettel’s teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, and the pair of Red Bull drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. The Red Bulls locked out the front row of the Mexican Grand Prix, while Hamilton started one spot ahead of Vettel, his only competition in the standings with three races to go.

Vettel needed to win on Sunday to remain in the title talks, but Hamilton’s finish was enough that it doesn’t matter.

At the race start, Hamilton quickly overtook Ricciardo, while Verstappen took the lead in the race, so Hamilton spent the bulk of his race in second position. He was eventually passed by Vettel and then Ricciardo as he had some bad blistering on his tires.

That resulted in a late pit stop that pushed him down the order, but he was always well ahead of seventh place, having about a lap lead over the seventh-place driver at the time of his stop (Nico Hulkenberg). There was a lot of drama at the end of the race, when Ricciardo’s engine quit (he was running in second place) and Verstappen, the race leader, began to worry. They elected to turn down his engine, and he took his time around the final few laps.

A title win for Hamilton was not a certainty, especially after he started the season with second-, third-, and fourth-place finishes while Vettel won the first two races of the season. But at the end of the day, Hamilton finished in first place nine times going into Sunday’s race, while Vettel had five first-place finishes.

Other than his retirement in Austria, Hamilton did not finish lower than fifth place ahead of the Mexican GP. He also had finished on the podium 15 times in 18 races. He finished in third place at the United States Grand Prix a week ago, where he also had a chance to clinch the title but didn’t have enough separation from Vettel, who finished fourth.

Ferrari and Red Bull have made serious strides with their engines and cars over the course of this season, as have the competitive teams in the midfield. We’re looking at a more competitive Formula One right now, even if Hamilton is repeating as champion. Hamilton has now won the Drivers’ Championship in 2008, ‘14, ‘15, ‘17 and ‘18.

Vettel currently has four world championships. Both drivers will still be with their current teams in 2019, though there are still two more races to go in this F1 season — the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix.