Lewis Hamilton crowned Formula One world champion for fifth time after fourth place in Mexico
Most successful British driver ever has equalled the great Juan Manuel Fangio's record after ensuring he finished inside the top seven
Most successful British driver ever has equalled the great Juan Manuel Fangio's record after ensuring he finished inside the top seven
LEWIS HAMILTON was crowned Formula One world champion for a fifth time -- but boy was he made to sweat for it.
The Brit's fourth place finish in the Mexico Grand Prix was enough, as his Mercedes team's questionable tyre strategy made life extremely uncomfortable.
This was supposed to a cake-walk but Hamilton only narrowly avoided a brush with the crash-barriers while he needed race-winner Max Verstappen to hold off Sebastian Vettel late on.
Vettel's second-place finish will leave him wondering what might have been this season after it has had promised so much for the German.
The result means Hamilton, 33, is now tied with F1 legend Juan Manuel Fangio on five world titles, only Michael Schumacher with seven has more.
He made a dream start, squeezing past Daniel Ricciardo into turn one and up to second place behind Verstappen.
He looked comfortable and pitted at the end of lap 11 for new tyres, which was a routine stop by his Mercedes mechanics.
It was all going swimmingly and there was no surprise that he did not bother himself with charging down leader Verstappen, who had shown great pace all weekend.
There was further indication that he was playing it safe when he did not put up a fight as Vettel passed him on lap 39.
But it all changed around 10 laps later when he started to question his team's tyre strategy and then came the heart-in-mouth moment which could have cost him.
He locked up at Turn One on lap 47 and slid towards the crash-barriers, only narrowly missing contact with the metal fence, he was required to pit and dropped back to sixth.
Hamilton was panicked and said over his team's radio: "Something is definitely not quite right when I have got fresh tyres and cannot match their times."
He need not have worried, for in the end the statistics will show he won this title by a comfortable margin.
It would be easy to dismiss this championship win a gift from Vettel and Ferrari due to their own spectacular collapse over the season.
The inquest into how they have managed to stuff up this championship has already begun at their Maranello HQ.
For the best part of the season they had the quickest car and their early season form forces Mercedes into making mistakes.
In Australia, Merc bungled their maths and allowed Vettel to leapfrog Hamilton with a pitstop and went on to win the race.
In Bahrain, Hamilton was forced to take a grid penalty for a gear box change while in Austria he suffered a terminal failure when his car broke down.
Add in the disappointment of failing to win the British GP after being hit by Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and, based on previous years, Hamilton was expected to go into a meltdown.
However, he didn't.
He has remained surprisingly calm and level-headed throughout the whole season while also juggling it with his fledging fashion business.
There have been no outbursts or tantrums; in fact it has all been a bit too perfect all round, despite knowing that he cannot influence the outcome of Vettel's own performances.
So while his maiden win in 2008 was impressive, as too was his commanding victories in 2014, 2015 and 2017, it would only be right to label this as his greatest achievement.
Hamilton showed his class when he needed it most and there are three perfect examples in 2018.
In the German GP when it started to rain, Vettel was left red-faced as he spun off while leading and Hamilton skilfully adapted to the conditions and took an unlikely victory.
Then in Hungary, he again excelled in the wet. A breath-taking qualifying lap given the conditions, as he took pole and converted that into a victory.
And then there was Singapore. A race where Mercedes have historically struggled, yet Hamilton climbed off the plane after a whirlwind promotional tour for Tommy Hilfiger and took pole and the win.
And here in Mexico, despite the disappointment of failing to land the title in Austin and in tricky conditions he held his nerve to do the business.