Having secured his place in Q2 in only his second ever Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend, Brendon Hartley was looking forward to a strong race despite an engine issue preventing him from further improving his starting position in the second part of qualifying on Saturday. Forced to take some new engine components overnight that would necessitate grid penalties preventing him from taking his 13^th place starting position, the New Zealander was remaining positive coming into race day.
 
Starting from 17^th on the grid, he remained right in the mix during the early laps, capitalising on some first corner drama’s to move up to 14^th by lap four. Settling into a good rhythm on Pirelli’s Ultrasoft tyre, the low degradation nature of the Mexico circuit was allowing him to run a longer opening stint. However, Brendon was about to have his race cut short with engine failure on lap 30 while running in a career best 11^th overall. Happy to have made good progress during his short participation in the race since his first outing in Austin, Hartley is now looking towards the final two races of the year to build on the experience gained so far.
 
Brendon Hartley – #28 Scuderia Toro Rosso:
“It’s always disappointing not to finish a race, so I’m not the happiest man today but I’m still smiling because I’ve made progress compared to last week in Austin. It’s just a shame that the race was cut short and it’s been quite a tough weekend: issues on Friday, I then couldn’t make progress in yesterday’s Q2 once the engine went and in today’s race I lost power at the end of the straight line, then saw the white smoke and was asked to stop… It would’ve been good to get to the end of the race because I was enjoying all the battles! I now look forward to the next couple of races, hopefully things will go smoother than today, get to the end of the race and see where we end up!”