Lap 1/71 Hamilton is down into fifth and Verstappen is nowhere! Leclarc leads from Vettel from Albon from Sainz from Hamilton! Verstappen is eighth! Phew!
Lap 1/71 And off we go! The front four all get away well, and Hamilton and Verstappen are on the grass!
Only Monaco is shorter than the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, so we’ve got 71 laps of race. I quite fancy Verstappen here.
Twenty-one million people live in Mexico City, that is outrageous. By way of comparison, London has 8.9 million. Pathetic.
Oh gosh, Button has grey trainers on to match his grey skin-tights. Strength and comfort at this difficult time.
I love how little the drivers want to talk to the telly. Premier League managers could learn a lot from them.
Jenson Button is wearing extremely tight trousers – I hope the blood flow is ok. Meanwhile, Valteri Bottas says he feels good.
Verstappen says it’s a long race with a lot of opportunities. He doesn’t quite use words that begin with eff and off to get the mic out of his coupon.
Leclerc, in pole, says that the overnight rain doesn’t seem to have changed the track. He reckons it’ll be hard to keep his first place and was very happy with his second before he was upgraded.
Alex Albon says it’s not just about looking in front but making sure to keep the McLaren’s behind at bay.
“If the situation at Williams doesn’t improve next season – and I can’t see it doing so,” emails Luke Forrester, “I’m afraid to say – do you think there’s a chance the team might fold in a year or two? They’re so far behind the rest of the pack that it surely can’t be tenable to keep going for too much longer. I’d hate to see it happen, though.”
It’s possible I guess, but probably depends on how much they think they can make versus how much they have to spend.
Aaaaand here’s Tiesto. He’s supporting Veratappen, which reminds me how much I love it when sportsmen learn sporting phrases in not their other tongue – Michael van Gerwen always refers to Raymond van Barneveld as “My fellow countryman”.
Time for Martin Brundle to run about the grid trying to cajole people who don’t want to talk to him to talk to him.
“Where does Lewis Hamilton stand?” asks Asad Butt. “It’s got to be somewhere near the top. He’s very near to being the most successful driver ever and his longevity cannot be taken for granted. I’d add Daley Thompson and Mo Farah to the list and would hope that Dina Asher-Smith makes a future appearance.”
Yes, all that sounds fair. Thompson whistling the national anthem stands out as a moment from my childhood but as an adult I can’t get my head around his infamous and awful t-shirt.
I’ve just learnt that Tiesto will shortly be playing. I guess the plan is to warm up people’s eardrums for the noise of the race.
“It’s kinda depressing to see the grid for the race following teams so much,” emails Tom Smith. “Machine vs man balance all wrong…”
I wondered about that while typing it out. I guess you’d argue that teams follow the talent, and Verstappen would’ve been in poll but for an oversight. But yes.
A question: where does Lewis Hamilton stand in the all-time list of British sportfolk? Others who are up there: Andy Murray, Bobby Charlton, Kelly Holmes, Denise Lewis, Jess Ennis, Chris Hoy, Steve Redgrave, Ian Botham. I’m sure I’ve missed some.
Preamble
Here we go again! Lewis Hamilton will now attempt to clinch his sixth driver world championship, which will take him above Juan Manuel Fangio in the all-time standings and alone in second place behind Michael Schumacher, who has seven. Increasingly, it’s looking like when, not if, Hamilton supplants him as the greatest of all-time – and that’s before we factor in him saving the planet.
Fourteen points more than Valtteri Bottas will do it, giving him a lead of 78 points with three races to go – what a victory lap that would be. He starts today’s race on the second row of the grid, but ahead of his Mercedes team-mate, and will fancy himself to, at the very least, hang on to third. This circuit doesn’t especially suit his car – the long straights suit the Ferraris in front of him, and Max Verstappen, behind him, has won the last two races here. But Hamilton is a better driver than all of them, so resolving matters today is well within the ambit of his talent. Here we go again!
Flag: 7.10pm GMT
Updated