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Mexico City stats - Rosberg secures first career hat-trick

01 Nov 2015

After a disappointing race in Austin last weekend, almost everything went right for Nico Rosberg in Mexico. After capturing his 20th pole position on Saturday - the most by any driver not to have won the world championship - the German then took victory and fastest lap in Sunday’s race to claim his first career hat-trick.

It was Rosberg’s fourth win of the season and his 12th career triumph, moving him level with Mario Andretti, Carlos Reutemann and Alan Jones on the all-time list. It was also Mercedes’ tenth one-two of 2015, though just the fourth in which Rosberg has headed team mate Hamilton.

Perhaps of equal significance, it was the first time in four races (and the seventh time in 20 attempts) that Rosberg has converted pole position into victory. It also moves him 21 points clear of Vettel in the battle for P2 in the drivers’ standings.

Speaking of Vettel, it really was a race to forget for German, who failed to finish in the points for just the second time this season. But it was even worse for his Ferrari team who, with Kimi Raikkonen also retiring, saw neither of their cars classified as finishers for the first time since the 2006 Australian Grand Prix, nine years and 183 races ago. That ended the longest such streak of all-time. 

Coincidentally, it was the third successive Mexican Grand Prix where both Ferraris have failed to see the chequered flag - though there was obviously a 23-year gap between the second and third races!

Elsewhere, Valtteri Bottas secured his second podium finish of the season with third, whilst Sergio Perez delighted the home fans by coming home in eighth place and becoming just the second Mexican driver to finish in the points in his home race, and the first since Pedro Rodriguez in 1970.

Perez, who finished one place back from team mate Nico Hulkenberg as Force India recorded their fifth double points finish of the season, has now scored in six of the last seven races.

Behind Perez, Max Verstappen, fresh from becoming the youngest driver to top a practice session on Friday, finished ninth - the fifth race in a row he has scored points and the ninth time in his rookie campaign.

But Pastor Maldonado saw his own multiple race points streak come to an end by the narrowest of margins as he finished 11th, just 0.6s behind Lotus team mate Romain Grosjean. The Venezuelan did however have the honour of recording the fastest speed of the race, clocking an astonishing 366.4 km/h (227.6 mph) - comfortably the fastest speed trap figure of the season.