Nico Rosberg Wins Formula 1 Gran Premio de Mexico 2015

Mexico City November 1, 2015; Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg won Sunday’s Formula 1 Gran Premio de Mexico 2015 after a superbly measured drive saw him defeat team mate Lewis Hamilton by 1.9s. Valtteri Bottas took third for Williams, as Ferrari recorded their first double DNF since 2006.

F1’s return to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez produced a fascinating 71 laps of racing, in which polesitter Rosberg was never headed - pit stops aside - and in which a late safety car bunched the pack up, allowing Bottas to jump the Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat on the restart to secure his podium place.

Kvyat held on to fourth, fending off team mate Daniel Ricciardo, while Felipe Massa finished sixth in the sister Williams. Sergio Perez was beaten to seventh in his home race by Force India team mate Nico Hulkenberg, and Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean completed the top ten.

It was a miserable afternoon for Ferrari. Sebastian Vettel dropped to the back on lap one after picking up a puncture in first-turn contact with Ricciardo. A Turn 8 spin on lap 18 then stymied his fightback, which ended in the wall on lap 52 when he mysteriously went straight on at Turn 7, triggering the safety car.

Kimi Raikkonen, meanwhile, had risen to sixth from his P19 start when a coming together with Bottas ended his race on lap 22 thanks to broken right-rear suspension. The contact, which came as the Williams was attempting a pass in Turn 5, was deemed a racing incident by the stewards.

Fernando Alonso was the race’s first retirement, McLaren ordering him to pit after just one lap with technical problems. Felipe Nasr was the other man on the DNF list, his Sauber’s brakes crying enough just after the restart on lap 59.

Rosberg's win - his fourth of the season and the 12th of his career - moves him back above Vettel in the battle for second place in the drivers' championship, 21 points clear of his fellow German.

2015   Mexican Grand Prix    -  Formula One World Championship