Lewis Ham💞ilton believes he and Sebastian Vettel were lucky t⛦o avoid a “big collision” at the start of Formula 1’s Mexican Grand Prix.

A good launch from third on the grid enabled Hamilton to gain on the front-row starting Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, but the Mercedes driver was squeezed out ont💝o the grass by Vettel.

Hamilton lost momentum and found hims🐭elf coming under attack from Red Bull's Max Verstappen, before the pair made slight contact and lost ground as they skipped Turn 2 to avoid further drama.

Despite dropping back as low as fifth, Hamilton was able to perfe𒉰ct a one-stop strategy and claim a brilliant and unexpected victory for Mercedes in Mexico City, beating Vettel by ♏1.7s.

“I actually got a really good s💖tart,” Hamilton explained.

“I was pulling up to Charles [Leclerc] and Seb is coming across, coming ac꧟ross, coming across and I’m thinking ‘I’m on the white lin💞e, I don’t have anywhere further to go’.

“And he just keeps coming. So I had to🍬 avoid crashing with him, going on the grass. Avoid his wheels as well, otherwise I could have caused a big collisio🃏n for him.

“Then I was surrounded by a bunch of cars, I braked into Turn 1, and all of a sudden Max [♔Verstappen] is alongside me.

“If you’ve seen races befo🎀re, I always leave Max🎀 a lot of space – it’s the smartest thing you can do.

“But there wasn’t a lot of space to give him space. I think he had an oversteer moment or something and then I got a ༺massive hit from behind.

“Then I nearly took [Vettel] out.๊ My back end camܫe out and went straight on the grass. It was hair-raising.”

Vettel claimed he could not see Hamilton in his mirrors, while Mercedes boss Toto Wolff praised the way his driver i༺s able to get himself out of potentially race-ending accide🌊nts.

“I think this is clearly something that is a combination of talent and learning and e🏅xperience, that his racing is really great,” Wolff said.

“On a few occasions, he took himself out of what could have been a race-ending situation, with Sebastian where he avoided contact miraculously [inജ Canada], then contact here with Seb on the straight.

“And then again just a few seconds later being side-by-side with Max through Turn 2 and 3. He seems to have this great abi𒁏lity tꦅo put the car in the right place.”