A stink erupted within the driving ranks at Mercedes after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen increased his lead in the Formula 1 championship by winning the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas had earned pole position, and his teammate Lewis Hamilton started alongside him at the front of the grid at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
But despite the pair blocking out the front of the grid to start the race, Verstappen was able to get alongside them immediately to create a three-way lead, before he passed them going around Turn One.
From there, Verstappen maintained the lead and won the event easily, ahead of second-placed Hamilton.
Bottas, meantime, was spun out by Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo at the first turn and neither of them were able to properly recover from that incident.
After the race, Hamilton revealed his frustration at his teammate Bottas for allowing the Red Bull car to pass them so easily at Turn One.
“I had envisaged it differently, naturally, in the sense that maybe Valtteri had got a better start and I would have tried to get into his tow,” Hamilton said.
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“But I was alongside him which was good, and then I was just covering my side of the track trying to make sure that no-one could come up the inside.
“So I was trying to keep whichever Red Bull I could see in my mirror behind, and I thought Valtteri would be doing the same.
“But obviously, he left the door open for Max, and Max was on the racing line so did a mega job braking into Turn 1.
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“Because I was on the inside on the dirt, there was no hope for me.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff also seemed unimpressed with Bottas after the race.
“Yeah, that should not happen,” Wolff told Sky when asked about Verstappen taking the lead off them straight away.
“We had two cars in front and seemed to open up the sea for Max to come around the outside.
“The spin afterwards [meant] a big loss of points with Valtteri’s car.
“It could have been a third or fourth place (which) is annoying to say the least.”
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