On Lap 44 of the Mexico City Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas was the last car running with the two Aston Martins out early. His race ended at high speed when his No. 77 Cadillac suffered a front-left suspension failure that sent him flying down the straight into the first corner.
The No. 77 used up the full length of the run-off and crashed hard into the wall, bringing out the red flag. Bottas was traveling around 199mph at the time of the failure.
Bottas bottomed out and slid into the wall back right first with no power. He was slow to leave the car and has been taken to the track’s medical center.
Shortly before the incident, Kimi Antonelli pitted for the first time on lap 44, with Mercedes finally giving up on the chance to get lucky with a Safety Car. If the decision had been made a lap later, Antonelli would’ve been able to fight for a win the weekend he more than likely locked up the championship.
Under the VSC, which lasted a lap before being upgraded to a full red flag, Hamilton came in to switch to a two-stop strategy after a horrible start.
Shortly after, the race was red-flagged on lap 46, so Hamilton lost P3 to Antonelli.
Before he got out of the car for the Red Flag, Hamilton radioed, “We have big problems, big, big problems.
Victoria Beaver is a nomadic sports writer who spends her time hopping between race tracks and hippie farms. She’s covered every corner of motorsports that will let her in from 410 Sprints to NASCAR to Supercross. Her daily driver is a 2010 Subaru that she refused to do the smallest amount of preventative maintenance on. Instead, she spends her free time and money building a 42-foot Skoolie to one day travel the country full time.
