With three races remaining, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton is attempting to overtake second-place Sergio Perez, having closed the gap to just 20 points.
Following Sergio Perez’s crash at the Mexican Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton promised to seize the opportunity to cut the lead between him and second place Mercedes driver to 20 points.
Hamilton, 38, finished second at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday, with world champion Max Verstappen coming out on top after winning his 16th race of the year. Charles Leclerc completed the podium, while Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris finished fourth and fifth respectively.
As for Perez, he crashed out of his home Grand Prix at the first corner and is now fighting for his future with Red Bull. With three races left, including this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix, the difference between third and second in the overall standings is now just 20 points. Perez finished with zero points as a result, while Hamilton gained 19.
Hamilton also hopes to exact revenge on Perez for his most recent mishap, which occurred three weeks after the Englishman lost control in Qatar earlier this month. Hamilton stated, “It mostly depends on Checo’s [Perez] weekends.”
“They drive the car that won the championship. He’s just had some bad luck in certain situations. He lost points here, but I lost a good number of points in the last two races.
“I didn’t think I would be in shooting range after losing the points last week, but after today, we’ll give it our best shot. If we place second in the drivers’, that’s a bonus.”
Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff made the following statement following the Mexican Grand Prix: “I believe it was the first time he said, ‘The car is actually good!'” However, the drive was exceptionally brilliant, and the performance exhibits these oscillations. It’s hard to say for sure because the tires may or may not stick.
“We were grinning since the car was powerful. We had a huge lead on the final medium-fastest lap, I believe, once Lewis was in free air. It worked well.
Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate George Russell finished down in sixth and conceded: “For the last 20 laps it was just terrible. The pace was really strong after the red flag. I felt really good in the car.
“I was right behind Carlos, just couldn’t quite make the overtake and then my brakes overheated which we were concerned that we weren’t going to make it to the end, so I had to back off. As soon as I did that, I lost all my temperature in my tyres.”
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