ROSBERG wins with HAMILTON and BOTTAS during the 2015 Formula One World Championship, Mexico Grand Prix
Mexico City, November 1, 2015 – Nico Rosberg has won the first Mexican Grand Prix in 23 years from pole, with a two-stop strategy. Using a soft-medium-medium strategy, he beat his team mate Lewis Hamilton to secure a 10th one-two of the season for Mercedes and move back to second in the driver points standings.
Behind them, the race strategies were affected by a safety car with just 20 laps to go. This effectively allowed a ‘free’ pit stop, which meant that those contemplating another stop could do so without a big penalty.
Nico Rosberg -That was the best podium of my life! Thousands and thousands of people singing your name after winning on a great track… it’s unbelievable! In that moment you feel like a rock star on stage and I enjoyed every second. Thank you so much to all the Mexican fans who made my win here so special. And thanks also to Bernie and the organisers who worked hard to set up this amazing event. It was a perfect weekend for me. I had a good Qualifying and was able to control the race from the front, responding each time Lewis came closer. It was tricky because there was really no grip on the rears – especially after the Safety Car, with cold tyres. But in the end I felt comfortable. The performance this weekend is down to great teamwork with my engineers, as we found a great setup for the special conditions here, so a big thank you to them. Now I look forward to the race in Brazil. It´s always great to come with a win to the next race, so hopefully I can carry this form to Interlagos.
Lewis Hamilton -Today was a pretty good race. I actually really enjoyed it and had a lot of fun. I was pushing so hard, giving absolutely everything that I had, and I think I had more pace than Nico. But, unfortunately, you can’t really follow another car here. The closer and closer you get it’s like two negative poles of a pair of magnets repelling each other, so there was nothing I could do. I knew I needed a good start to get the run on Nico into Turn One. But I had hardly any tow and, from there, he made no mistakes. When it came to the pit stops, there was no real stress. At the time, I just didn’t agree with the decision to pit a second time, that’s all. The team takes these decisions and I abide by them but I initially wasn’t sure on this one. As it turned out, there was then a Safety Car anyway. I have full confidence in these guys and we still got the 1-2 as a team, so that’s positive. I have to say, it’s been the best week and the best crowd I’ve ever seen here in Mexico. There are so many people with so much energy and so much excitement for the sport here. All the other countries we go to need to make a big effort to keep up with these guys. Next stop Brazil and I’ve never won there, so that’s the goal in two weeks.
The exception was local hero Sergio Perez, driving for Force India, who stopped only once and finished in a points-scoring eighth: reinforcing his reputation for excellent tyre management. Perez was the only one-stopper in the race, with the vast majority of drivers stopping twice and a handful stopping three times: although none of the three-stoppers managed to score points.
An extra dimension to today’s race was added by the highest track temperatures seen all weekend, despite earlier predictions of rain. With 46 degrees of track temperature and an increasing amount of rubber on the new surface, the pattern of wear and degradation seen in practice and qualifying was altered. The extra traction also helped to increase the very high top speeds seen in the thin air of Mexico, with Sebastian Vettel recording 366kph on the straight. Williams driver Felipe Massa clocked 352kph on the straight even without DRS assistance.
Valtteri Bottas: I’m very pleased with the result today. Every decision from the team on strategy was right, so I’m really delighted with what we achieved as a team. It feels so good, after so much bad luck recently and so much hard work, to get the reward. It was a great feeling on the podium, that was very special. Regarding the incident with one of the Ferraris, it was unlucky that it was me and him again but of course I didn’t want it to end up like that.
As the race went on and the track evolved, the medium tyre in particular came into its own, with the fastest lap being set by Rosberg (lap 67) on this compound at a pace about one second off the pole position he had set on soft tyres.
All the drivers started on the soft tyre compound, apart from the two McLarens as well as Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen, who started on the medium compound.
