Lewis Hamilton has criticized his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas for giving comfortable overtaking opportunity to his title rival Max Verstappen at turn one of the Mexican City Grand Prix race.

Pole sitter Bottas start the race ahead of Hamilton on Sunday, but the nearest rival Verstappen rushed around the outside of the Finn heading into Turn 1. Obviously, Max did a great late breaking job, while Hamilton claims that it was mistake by the Bottas, who widely open the door for Max.

“I had envisaged it differently naturally in the sense that Valtteri maybe got a better start and I would have tried to get into his tow but obviously I was alongside him which was good,” Hamilton said.

A nightmare start for Bottas, a thriller for Verstappen 😳😅#MexicoGP 🇲🇽 #F1 pic.twitter.com/YimWSYxe9i

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“I was covering my side of the track making sure that no one could come up the inside so was trying to keep whichever Red Bull I could see in my mirror behind.

“I thought Valtteri would be doing the same but he left the door open for Max. Max was on the racing line so did a mega job braking for Turn 1 and I was on the inside on the dirt and there was no hope for me.”

The final stint Hamilton was glad that he didn’t lose more points to Verstappen after heavily defending home hero Sergio Perez’s late charge in the “far superior” Red Bull car.

“I gave it absolutely everything and even obviously a great fight with Sergio at the end, but I’m really grateful I was able to at least get a second,” Hamilton said. “I feel positive in the sense that I had a good race. I did it with the car that I had and the car was not good today.

“When you have Sergio behind you pushing you like that, you know the car is fast, so you know, I’m glad I was able to keep at least those two apart in terms of getting one-two for the team and we want to keep fighting.

“They’ve had the fastest car most of the year so it’s not a surprise. I wish we were quicker this weekend but today we were a long way off, so I don’t really understand that, but we’ll go back to the drawing board and try and come back next week stronger.”