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 Max Verstappen, Red Bull, second place, congratulates Race winner Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1, in Parc Ferme

How the pretender to F1’s throne emerged as its king was crowned

The 2017 Formula 1 championship battle was decided by a collision, and after that the title rivals weren't the only ones driving like champions in Mexico on Sunday…

Max Verstappen could not help but be fast in Mexico. With the race in the bag, and his Red Bull team monitoring the gap back to Valtteri Bottas, he could only say "I'm really sorry" when admonished for his lap times having stayed the same after agreeing to ease off.

At that point, early in the second stint of what was a one-stop race for the first and second place finishers, Bottas still had a vague hope of closing the gap after both had switched from ultra-softs to super-softs.

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