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Lap distance: 4.304km. Total distance: 305.354km (71 laps)
2017 pole: Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari One minute 16.488 seconds.
2017 winner: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull
Race lap record: One minute 18.785 seconds (Vettel, 2017)
Start time: 1310 local (1810 GMT)
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TITLE
Lewis Hamilton will take his fifth world championship with two races to spare if the Mercedes driver scores five points, which means finishing at least seventh.
The Briton is 70 points clear of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who must win all three remaining races to have any chance.
Title-clinching scenarios:
1.Hamilton champion if he finishes in the top seven, regardless of what Vettel does.
2.Hamilton champion if Vettel fails to win.
Mercedes are 66 points ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ championship and on course to wrap up the title for the fifth year in a row. They will need to score 20 points more than Ferrari to do so in Mexico.
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MEXICO
Hamilton won his fourth championship in Mexico last year and looks set to make it five this time.
Hamilton (2016) and Verstappen are the only active drivers to have won in Mexico, with the race returning in 2015 – when now-retired Nico Rosberg won for Mercedes, for the first time since 1992.
Ferrari last won in 1990 with Frenchman Alain Prost.
The race was won from pole position in 2015 and 2016.
Sunday will be the 19th time Mexico has held a championship grand prix.
The circuit is the highest altitude of any on the calendar (2,200 metres above sea level) and the pit straight is one of the longest in Formula One.
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RACE WINS
Hamilton has nine wins this season to Vettel’s five. Daniel Ricciardo has two, Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen one each.
Hamilton has 71 victories from 225 races and is second in the all-time list behind seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher (91). Vettel, third on the all-time list, has 52.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen won in Texas, setting a record for most races between wins (113). His last previous win was in Australia in 2013.
Ferrari have won 235 races since 1950, McLaren 182, Williams 114, Mercedes 85 and Red Bull 58. Former champions McLaren and Williams have not won since 2012.
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POLE POSITION
Hamilton has a record 81 career poles, Vettel 55.
Verstappen, who turned 21 at the end of September, can still become the youngest ever pole sitter but time is running out. The current youngest is Vettel, who did it at 21 years and 72 days.
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PODIUM
Hamilton has 132 career podiums and is second on the all-time list behind Schumacher (155). Vettel has 109, Raikkonen 101.
Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas has had seven second-place finishes this season.
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POINTS
Every driver on the starting grid has scored this season.
MILESTONE
Mercedes are one pole position away from their 100th in Formula One. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
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