The Mexican Grand Prix 2017 was the 18th round of the 2017 F1 season, and took place at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, Mexico, on October 29th.
Max Verstappen won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Valtteri Bottas, and Kimi Räikkönen completing the podium.
Sebastian Vettel started from the pole position, but only managed to finish 4th.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 23 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 1-4: 5 stops
- Laps 31-32: 12 stops
The fastest pit stop was Valtteri Bottas's, stopping the clock at 21.758 seconds during his pit stop on lap 32, while the slowest one was was Sebastian Vettel's, who stopped the clock at 32.037 seconds, 10.279 seconds slower than Bottas, during his pit stop on lap 1.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 1 stop. Only Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Pérez and Romain Grosjean decided to try something different with a 2 stops strategy.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
-
1Felipe Massa
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1Pascal Wehrlein
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12Nico Hülkenberg
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1Esteban Ocon
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5Marcus Ericsson
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6Kevin Magnussen
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7Stoffel Vandoorne
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7Pierre Gasly
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1Max Verstappen
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2Valtteri Bottas
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2Kimi Räikkönen
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5Lance Stroll
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8Fernando Alonso
2 stops
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3Sebastian Vettel
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6Lewis Hamilton
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8Carlos Sainz
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2Sergio Pérez
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-Romain Grosjean
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy gained 3.36 positions on average, while those on a 2 stops strategy lost an average of 1.75 positions.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 1 stop strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There were some incidents during the race, with 5 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Carlos Sainz, Marcus Ericsson, Brendon Hartley, and Daniel Ricciardo, all of whom suffered an engine malfunction, and Nico Hülkenberg, who suffered from electrical problems on lap 24.
Engine
-
Carlos SainzLap 59
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Marcus EricssonLap 55
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Brendon HartleyLap 30
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Daniel RicciardoLap 5
Electrical
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Nico HülkenbergLap 24
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel managed to get the pole position by 0.086 seconds and a final lipe time of 1:16.488. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Max Verstappen.
The second line fo the grid was dominated by Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton in third position, and Valtteri Bottas in fourth.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and 11 out of the 12 drivers that took place in Q2 were able to improve their times.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that 8 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.