Verstappen’s victory in Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix was his ninth in 18 races so far this season. Verstappen has a 19-point lead in the championship, edging ever closer to a clear win, with four races to go, and Hamilton, whose Mercedes team were outclassed in Mexico, has won only once in the past eight races. “There are still four races [to go],” he said, “[but] 19 points is a lot of points. Verstappen’s victory was expected before the teams turned up in Mexico – Red Bull have been strong there even in the years when Mercedes had a significant car advantage over them at most of the other tracks. Bottas would tow Hamilton, was the idea, so limiting the possibility of Verstappen trying to benefit from the slipstream himself. Verstappen was on the grippier part of the track, and simply swept around the outside into the lead. Verstappen was simply too quick – Hamilton reckoned his rival had about 0.5secs a lap or so on him – and he disappeared off into the distance at will. “There are four races to go, four wins to take and four DNFS to [potentially] suffer. “Naturally I feel we need to be winning every race,” he said.

Follow MotorMouth on social media:

• 
• 
• 
•