Having been beaten by Nico Rosberg in the last five races, including a retirement due to a blown engine in Malaysia, Lewis Hamilton found himself trailing the German by 33 points in the race for the Formula 1 title after the Japanese Grand Prix. It left Rosberg in the position of being able to finish second in the remaining four races even if Hamilton won them to claim his first world championship. Which sounds easy, but definitely isn't, especially with Red Bull Racing breathing down Mercedes AMG F1's necks. Hamilton put the ball squarely in Rosberg's court by winning the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
It was the defending F1 champion's fifth US GP win and third in a row, which tied him with Michael Schumacher as the driver with the most wins in America. Hamilton had not won a race since the German GP in July and his return to winning ways made him only the third F1 driver in history with 50 or more victories to his name. Only Alain Prost with 51 wins and Schumacher with 91 are higher up in the all-time wins tally.
After winning pole position in emphatic fashion yesterday, Hamilton won in equally emphatic fashion by having a clean getaway - something he has not always managed this year - and controlling the 56-lap race around the 5.513km, 20-turn circuit from the front of the field while Rosberg was left to fight for second place with Daniel Ricciardo.
Max Verstappen threatened to be a wild card for second place for a while but confusion during his second pit stop, when he incorrectly thought he had been called in. He dropped back far enough even for the lethargic Ferrari team to get ahead of the aggressive young Dutchman.
A few laps later his challenge was over entirely after a gearbox failure forced him to retire and lead to a virtual safety car period during which Rosberg was able to make an extra pit stop and thwart Ricciardo who had been planning to stay out for longer than the German after having stopped for fresh tyres after him prior to the VSC period.
Ricciardo's disappointment was not as great as that of Ferrari's, however, who never looked in the hunt for a podium spot and even less so after Kimi Raikkonen was forced to retire when a rear wheel was not securely attached during a pit stop.
Vettel was the lone Ferrari finisher in fourth place behind Hamilton, Rosberg and Ricciardo. However, he was a long way behind and the only consolation he could get was a fairly meaningless fastest lap after a late third stop for super soft tyres.
In fifth place was, perhaps, the driver of the race who showed his trademark speed, grit and aggression and the progress being made by McLaren-Honda. Former two-time world champion Fernando Alonso put two late and aggressive passes on Williams-Mercedes' Felipe Massa and Toro Rosso-Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.
Alonso's pass on Massa was being looked into but managing to catch and pass a Mercedes and Ferrari engined car is no mean feat for a car and power unit combination that was woefully lacking in straight-line speed, something that gets tested at CoTA.
Behind Sainz and Massa were Force India-Mercedes' Sergio Perez, McLaren-Honda's Jenson Button and Haas-Ferrari's Romain Grosejan to complete the top ten.
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