Mexican Grand Prix 2015: Nico Rosberg holds off Lewis Hamilton to win fourth race of the season

Nico Rosberg took his fourth win of the season with a composed drive to see off teammate Lewis Hamilton, who finished in second, at the Mexican Grand Prix. The German was rarely under threat despite his teammate being under two seconds behind for most of the race.

Valtteri Bottas took third place after overtaking Daniil Kvyat during the restart following a safety car period after Sebastian Vettel spun into the barriers on Lap 52. The Russian finished in fourth and maintains his championship lead over his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who finished in fifth ahead of the second Williams of Felipe Massa.

The Ferrari team had a day to forget after both cars retired from the race – first time since the 2006 Australian Grand Prix – with Kimi Raikkonen the first casualty when he suffered a suspension failure following collision with Bottas, the second time in three races. Vettel, meanwhile, had an incident packed race, which included a tyre puncture on lap 1, which put him at the back of the pack and then a spin on Lap 18, which hampered his progress, however, the final blow came on Lap 52 when he spun into the barriers.

Rosberg looked to be back to his best at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez after a good start helped him keep ahead of Hamilton, which was the closest the Briton got to making a move on his teammate. The German controlled the race from the front despite being called for an unscheduled stop and losing his lead advantage to Hamilton due to the safety car period following Vettel's crash.

The Mercedes team decided to switch to a two-stop strategy midway through the race due to concerns of tyre wear. Rosberg stopped first handing Hamilton the lead, while the Briton was reluctant to stop, he gave in to the team's wishes and complete his second stop, handing back the lead to his teammate. And despite making inroads into Rosberg's lead during the latter part of the race, the 2015 F1 world champion was unable to challenge the German for the race lead.

Sergio Perez, who was cheered at every turn, finished eighth in front of his home crowd, but was beaten by his teammate, who finished seventh. Verstappen continued to impress as the young Dutchman followed up his fourth place finish at the US Grand prix with another points scoring finish in ninth place. Romain Grosjean took the final point for the Lotus Team, whom he will be leaving at the end of the season to join Haas Racing Team, who begin their F1 journey next season.

The McLaren-Honda team's struggles continued despite showing improvement during the course of the weekend. The Woking-based team, however, failed to replicate their good form from the US Grand Prix, as Fernando Alonso retired on Lap 1 with an MGU-H failure, while Button had to settle for 14<sup>th place just ahead of the Manor Marussia cars of Alexander Rossi and Will Stevens.

This result leaves Vettel's battle with Rosberg for second place in the Drivers' Championship firmly in the Mercedes drivers' control as the F1 juggernaut heads to Brazil for the penultimate race of the season.