Lewis Hamilton kept his title hopes alive with a comfortable victory from Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in the Mexican Grand Prix. Hamilton survived a scare at the start, when he ran wide at the first corner after locking a front tyre.

But otherwise he was untroubled en route to his 51st career win.
In the championship, the result changes little, and Rosberg can win the title by finishing second to Hamilton at the last two races of the season.

Hamilton is 19 points adrift with a total of 50 available in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. Rosberg can now regroup after a weekend on which Hamilton was in almost total control throughout.

The German will doubtless keep to his well-worn mantra that he is taking it one race at a time and trying to win each one, but he has the luxury of knowing he can afford to take it easy in both remaining races and clinch his first world title.
Both Mercedes take to the grass

Rosberg also had a scare, and a more eventful race than Hamilton, as 120,000 fans had little to excite them under blue skies and warm sunshine in Mexico City, until some frantic and bad-tempered late action in a battle over third place between Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Hamilton spent the first stint controlling his pace to ensure he did not overwork his damaged tyre, while Rosberg was under pressure from Verstappen.

Rosberg and the Dutchman had collided at the first corner as Verstappen tried to take second place, Rosberg taking to the grass behind Hamilton after the collision.