Hamilton clinched fourth F1 title in Mexico despite ninth-place finish

Nine years ago today, Lewis Hamilton secured his fourth Formula 1 drivers’ title at the Mexican Grand Prix after an opening-lap clash turned his race into a damage-limitation fight. He finished ninth, a lap behind race winner Max Verstappen, but the result clinched the championship.

The sequence began when Verstappen challenged pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel around the outside through Turns 1 and 2. Their light contact unsettled the Ferrari and left Vettel out of position for Turn 3. Hamilton took the outside line there, where Vettel’s front wing clipped the Mercedes’ right-rear. The impact punctured a tyre and tore away roughly half of the left side of Hamilton’s rear diffuser.

With less rear downforce, Hamilton struggled to find stability in traffic, and Verstappen eventually lapped him. The FIA stewards investigated the Turn 3 clash and ruled that no single driver was wholly to blame; no penalty followed.

Hamilton arrived with a 66-point lead over Vettel, 331 to 265. A top-five finish would secure the title regardless of the Ferrari driver’s result. Hamilton’s ninth place brought two points; Vettel recovered to fourth, but the championship gap was already unassailable before the chequered flag.

Afterward, Hamilton said the achievement did not feel real. He described it as a race he did not want when he was “40 seconds behind or something,” but said he had never given up.

The title moved Hamilton past Jackie Stewart’s three championships, making him the most successful British F1 driver at the time. It also put him level on four with Vettel and Alain Prost; Hamilton would later surpass both.