IMAGE: Hamilton's damaged floor after Verstappen collision

Lewis Hamilton was able to drive on after sustaining damage in a first-lap tangle with Max Verstappen to win the Mexican Grand Prix.

After being forced onto the grass to avoid hitting Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton saw Verstappen pull up alongside him into Turn 1 and the pair could not make it through Turn 2 without colliding and escaping on another verge.

Both dropped down the order, although Hamilton only fell two places and was able to make a dicey one-stop strategy work to secure a 1oth victory of 2019 and move to the brink of a sixth world title.

As the image shows below, however, he did so with not-so insignificant damage to his W10.

Describing how the missing pieces affected his race afterwards, Hamilton said: "I was not expecting to have that pace and to be able to keep up with the Ferraris but it worked and even with a damaged car.

"A big part of the side of my rear floor was missing. I didn't actually know how much was missing or what was damaged but the balance was quite a lot different.

"The rear end was quite weak so I was particularly sliding around a lot in the high-speed, so I had to change my settings quite a lot and had to drive it a little bit differently because I couldn’t attack the same way on the entry of corners because the rear stability wasn’t the same.

"I would imagine a good couple of tenths probably, just from rear floor damage.

"It’s quite a sensitive area around where the tyres is. But why I’m probably even more happy that I was able to make these tyres last the way we did."

Related

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton drops Mercedes BOMBSHELL ahead of Las Vegas GP

• Yesterday 20:02

F1 Today

F1 News Today: Hamilton FRUSTRATION revealed as seven-time champion makes LAST RACE announcement

• Yesterday 15:33