Mexico Crowned Five Champions. Only One Won the Race.

A second place, a third, a win, a ninth and a fourth. Mexico’s five championship-clinching results show why the biggest celebration doesn’t always belong to the driver on the top step.

Lewis Hamilton finished ninth in Mexico in 2017. Max Verstappen won the race and lapped him. Hamilton left as world champion.

A year later, Verstappen won again. Hamilton finished fourth and collected another title.

Those two afternoons capture something unusually fitting about Mexico’s championship history. Five drivers’ titles have been settled here. Only once did the newly crowned champion also win the Grand Prix.

As Formula 1 returns to Mexico City, those five finishes are worth a closer look.

1964: Surtees needed second. He got it.

John Surtees arrived at the finale in a three-way title fight with Graham Hill and Jim Clark. For much of the race, Clark looked set to take the championship.

Then an oil leak brought Clark’s challenge undone in the closing laps. Ferrari teammate Lorenzo Bandini let Surtees through into second, the position he needed to beat Hill to the title by one point.

Dan Gurney won the race. Surtees secured a distinction that still stands: world championships on both motorcycles and in Formula 1.

Second place was enough to make history.

1967: Hulme followed his rival home.

Denny Hulme’s title rival was also his teammate and team boss, Jack Brabham.

In Mexico, Brabham finished second behind Jim Clark. Hulme came home third, keeping enough of his championship advantage to become New Zealand’s first Formula 1 world champion.

Brabham beat him on the day. Hulme won the season.

1968: Hill did both.

Graham Hill is the exception in this group.

He entered the Mexican finale fighting Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme for the championship, then won the race to secure his second world title.

Of Mexico’s five championship-clinching afternoons, this was the only one with the same driver at the top of both the race result and the final standings.

2017: Ninth place, fourth title.

First-lap contact with Sebastian Vettel left Hamilton with a puncture and a recovery drive.

Verstappen escaped at the front and won. Hamilton worked his way back to ninth, while Vettel’s fourth place wasn’t enough to keep the championship alive.

Hamilton had endured a difficult race. The advantage he had built across the season meant it didn’t have to be a winning one.

2018: Off the podium, on top of the world.

Hamilton’s next Mexican coronation came with fourth place.

Verstappen won ahead of Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen, leaving Hamilton outside the podium celebrations but beyond reach in the championship. His fifth title was secured with two races remaining.

Mexico had delivered the same split for a second consecutive year: Verstappen took the victory, Hamilton took the crown.

Two different finish lines

These five races aren’t evidence that winning in Mexico doesn’t matter. They show how much work can already be done before a title-deciding Sunday begins.

Sometimes the championship requires a late change of position. Sometimes it rewards a controlled finish behind a rival. Sometimes even ninth is enough.

That’s the distinction to watch when a title is within reach: the driver chasing the race win and the driver chasing the championship may be racing toward very different targets.