Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton emerged victorious in the Mexican Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez yesterday. As a result, the iconic driver is one step closer to his sixth World Championship title. Hamilton could clinch the championship in the United States Grand Prix, which happens next Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas.

At the end of the Mexican GP, Hamilton expressed his amazement by saying that the race was nothing less than a "rollercoaster ride." Initially, Ferrari started the race on a positive note. They took a record 65th Formula 1 front-row lockout on Saturday. However, on Sunday, the Mercedes team outsmarted them on strategy and managed their tyres better.

A phenomenal combination of ruthless strategy and intelligent tyre management on Hamilton's car made things easier for the Silver Arrows to finish the race on the winning side. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel feels that his on-track opponents also got a bit lucky.

Vettel was racing with a one-stop strategy. Like him, Mercedes' Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas also adopted a similar strategy. Hamilton stopped on lap 23 to swap tyres from mediums to hards and Vettel stopped on lap 37. This should have helped Vettel gain some advantage during the later stages of the race.

Lewis Hamilton
Valtteri Bottas is hoping to challenge teammate Lewis Hamilton on a more consistent basis this season Getty

However, things didn't happen that way. Hamilton's tyre degradation was much less than originally feared. The British driver successfully made his tyres last longer and eventually emerged as the winner. In contrast, Vettel was not able to get any advantage from his strategy.

At the end of the race, Vettel said that he had a good strategy in place but didn't have the required speed to end up winning the race. He also felt that Mercedes took a huge risk by keeping Valtteri Bottas out for so long.

Vettel's team mate, pole sitter Charles Leclerc, was essentially put out of contention after Ferrari gave him a two-stop strategy. This is already the third race in a row where poor team strategy has cost him a win from pole position.

Vettel, who finished second in the Mexican GP, was asked if his team is taking enough risks to win more. The German responded by saying that Ferrari is taking risks but not to a point that could make them look stupid. Unfortunately, the results contradict his opinion. Ferrari has lost out on winning the past three races despite starting ahead of the Mercedes drivers.

Team Principal Mattia Binotto also defended Ferrari's strategy. In an interview with Formula1.com he said, "I think what we did was right – but obviously looking now at the race from the end our mistake was not to consider the one-stop possible, or such an early one-stop even more difficult. But that's the type of gamble you can do when you are behind, not the kind of gamble you will do when you're ahead. I think they did the right choice."