MEXICO CITY – A one stop strategy proved to be the right call for Lewis Hamilton Sunday during the Mexican Grand Prix.

Hamilton and the Mercedes camp implemented the ambitious pit strategy call perfectly, allowing the Formula One championship leader to best the Ferrari squad to conquer the Mexican Grand Prix at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Charles Leclerc, who inherited the pole after Max Verstappen was penalized by stewards on Saturday, took the lead off the starting line with his Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel in tow.

Behind them Hamilton was scrapping with Verstappen for third, with the pair running briefly off the track after some slight contact. Hamilton rejoined the field in fifth while Verstappen slotted in eighth.

Disaster soon struck for Verstappen, who made contact with Valtteri Bottas and cut down a rear tire shortly after passing the pits. The resulting pit stop dropped the two-time and defending race winner out of contention.

Pit stops for the leaders began on lap 15 with third-place Alexander Albon hitting the pits. Leclerc soon followed suit, opting for the softer medium tires and a two-stop pit strategy. Hamilton, on the other hand, opted for the hard tires with the intent to run the remainder of the race without stopping again.

At the front, Vettel and Bottas decided to stay out and go as long as possible before making their one pit stop. Bottas hit the pits on lap 37, with Vettel following a lap later. Leclerc and Albon both hit the pits for their second stops on laps 44 and 45, giving the race lead to Hamilton.

From there it was a cat and mouse game for the Mercedes driver as he tried his best to maintain a gap over a fast closing Vettel. In the end Hamilton had just enough to hang on, earning his 83rd Grand Prix victory – and 10th this year – by nearly two seconds.

“Today was a surprise, we’ve really struggled here for quite some time and we came into this weekend expecting it to be very difficult,” said Hamilton. “We really thought we would be on the back foot, but we kept our heads down, we kept working hard and it all came together in the end. I had a crazy first couple of corners today, I was pushed on the grass at the start and then Max hit me. It was not easy to recover from that afterwards – I had a massive chunk of my floor missing, so the rear end was moving a lot and I had to really change the dynamic of how I was driving. I don’t know how I managed to keep it going, but I did.

“The guys also did a fantastic job with the strategy – we stopped pretty early, and honestly I thought it might have been too early, but it all worked out in the end. I really wanted to deliver for the fans today; they were all out there during the drivers’ parade supporting me, so I really wanted to give them a good performance and I’m so grateful we won.”

Bottas finished third to complete the podium, while Leclerc finished fourth after an agonizing slow final pit stop. Albon completed the top-five for Red Bull as Verstappen recovered from his disaster of a start to finish sixth.

Mexican favorite Sergio Perez finished seventh, followed by Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg.