'It was as if Bottas saw Hamilton as an opponent rather than teammate'

Lewis Hamilton would have loved to take victory in Mexico, but saw title rival Max Verstappen win the Grand Prix. The Dutchman did so at the start after overtaking Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton at the first corner. But was Hamilton's missing out on the win the fault of his teammate?

F1 journalist David Tremayne takes a closer look at the full situation from the start in Mexico. Bottas had a great start, but Hamilton's was slightly better. The Briton was right next to him and that's where Tremayne sees the first problem: "They were right next to each other, so the hope that Lewis would get a tow from his teammate was dashed," he reports at Formula1.com.

Bottas attacked Hamilton instead of Verstappen

"Valtteri made the misery worse for Mercedes by leaving a big gap to his left, almost as if he wanted to keep his own teammate at bay and was looking at him more than an opponent," Tremayne continued. The big gap on the left was Verstappen's way of attacking for first place. Something he succeeded in doing after a great start.

Verstappen was in the right place of the track, as the outside was a lot cleaner than the inside where the Mercedes were. "Max chuckled later, after he had driven majestically past both black cars and taken the lead. He knew that if Lewis or Valtteri braked later than him, they would simply lose grip on the dirty road surface."

Not Bottas' fault

Hamilton also had to do without Bottas after that, as he was tapped into the round by Daniel Ricciardo. But despite that, Bottas is not the culprit when it comes to Hamilton's victory believes Tremayne: "Mercedes were up to half a second slower than Red Bull Racing at similar times in the race and Max was as dominant as he was in the races in Austria and Zandvoort."