Lewis Hamilton has blamed Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas for leaving the “door open” to title rival Max Verstappen on the first nook of the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday.

After Mercedes locked out the entrance of the grid for the primary time this season, Verstappen handed each Hamilton and pole-sitter Bottas as he surged across the outdoors of the Finn heading into Flip 1.

The transfer proved important as Verstappen went on to safe his second consecutive win within the Americas and lengthen his championship lead over Hamilton to 19 factors with 4 races of the season remaining.

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Afterwards, Mercedes staff boss Toto Wolff lamented that his drivers had “opened the ocean” to Verstappen with their positioning heading into Flip 1, however Hamilton mentioned Bottas was the one at fault as he had been concentrating on overlaying the within.

“I had envisaged it in another way naturally within the sense that Valtteri perhaps received a greater begin and I might have tried to get into his tow however clearly I used to be alongside him which was good,” Hamilton mentioned.

“I used to be overlaying my aspect of the observe ensuring that nobody might come up the within so was attempting to maintain whichever Pink Bull I might see in my mirror behind.

“I believed Valtteri could be doing the identical however he left the door open for Max. Max was on the racing line so did a mega job braking for Flip 1 and I used to be on the within on the dust and there was no hope for me.”

Whereas Bottas was then hit by Daniel Ricciardo from behind, inflicting him to spin out of rivalry, Hamilton was compelled to defend second place from Sergio Perez on the Pink Bull driver’s house circuit.

In the long run, Hamilton was grateful that he did not lose additional floor to Verstappen after holding off Perez’s late cost within the “far superior” Pink Bull automobile.

“I gave it completely every little thing and even clearly an excellent battle with Sergio on the finish, however I am actually grateful I used to be capable of at the least get a second,” Hamilton mentioned. “I really feel optimistic within the sense that I had a very good race. I did it with the automobile that I had and the automobile was not good as we speak.

“When you have got Sergio behind you pushing you want that, you already know the automobile is quick, so you already know, I am glad I used to be capable of hold at the least these two aside when it comes to getting one-two for the staff and we need to hold combating.

“They’ve had the quickest automobile a lot of the yr so it isn’t a shock. I want we have been faster this weekend however as we speak we have been a good distance off, so I do not actually perceive that, however we’ll return to the drafting board and attempt to come again subsequent week stronger.”