Race details | |||
---|---|---|---|
Race 19 of 21 in the 2016 Formula One season | |||
![]() |
|||
Date | 30 October 2016 | ||
Official name | Formula 1 Gran Premio de México 2016 | ||
Location | Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City, Mexico | ||
Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
Course length | 4.304 km (2.674 mi) | ||
Distance | 71 laps, 305.541 km (191.939 mi) | ||
Attendance | 135,026 (Sunday) 339,967 (3-day total)) |
||
Pole position | |||
Driver | Mercedes | ||
Time | 1:18.704 | ||
Fastest lap | |||
Driver |
![]() |
Red Bull-TAG Heuer | |
Time | 1:21.134 on lap 53 | ||
Podium | |||
First | Mercedes | ||
Second | Mercedes | ||
Third | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | ||
|
The 2016 Mexican Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Gran Premio de México 2016) was the Formula One motor race run on 30 October 2016 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, the eighteenth Mexican Grand Prix, and the sixteenth time that the race had been run as a World Championship event since the inaugural season in 1950.
Defending race winner Nico Rosberg entered the round with a twenty-six point lead over team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the World Drivers' Championship; they were the only two drivers who could win the title at the start of the race, and both remained in contention after it. Their team, Mercedes, held a lead of two hundred and thirty-six points over Red Bull Racing in the World Constructors' Championship before the race; Red Bull were fifty-three points ahead of Scuderia Ferrari.
Both Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel were stripped of third place podium finishes when penalised post-race. Verstappen crossed the finish line in third, followed 0.99 seconds later by Vettel, himself followed 3.55 seconds later by Verstappen's team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. Before the trophy presentation, Verstappen was penalised five seconds for cutting a race corner and unfairly maintaining his narrow lead over Vettel on lap 68. While Vettel attended the podium ceremony as the revised third place finisher, he was soon given a ten-second penalty for driving dangerously on lap 69, for moving under braking to block Ricciardo as he attempted a pass, under new rules introduced at the United States Grand Prix the previous week. This meant that Ricciardo was promoted to third which also sealed third place in the championship for him, while Verstappen was relegated from third to fourth and Vettel was moved from fourth to third to fifth once the stewards had reviewed all incidents.