Lewis Hamilton won the United States Grand Prix at Austin and has moved closer to his fourth world title. This is Hamilton’s sixth victory at COTA and the fourth consecutive one.
Sebastian Vettel overtook Hamilton at the first turn to take the lead in the race. But his lead was short-lived as Hamilton took back the top place on the sixth lap.
Vettel took P2 coming 10.1 seconds after Hamilton at the Checkered flag. This race increased his gap with Hamilton to 66 from 59. There are only 75 more points left in the season.
At lap 54, Max Verstappen overtook the third place from Kimi Räikkönen. But the Dutchman got a five-second penalty because of gaining a competitive advantage while leaving the track. This penalty gave Räikkönen his Podium finish.
Valtteri Bottas coming in fifth, sealed the deal for Mercedes to win its fourth successive constructors’ championship.
Vettel had a fantastic start in this race from P2 and quickly moved to the inside line at turn 1 to steal the lead. Hamilton took a few laps to get his tyres to a good shape and launched an attack once they entered the straights on lap 6 and the Briton successfully moved to the inside line to take the lead back in the race.
At the end of lap 16, Vettel pitted to get soft tyres as Hamilton continued his laps. The British driver came to pits only by lap 19.
As Hamilton emerged from the pit lane, Vettel came in wide at the penultimate corner, allowing Hamilton to continue his lead in the race.
Starting at 16th, Verstappen raced hard and climbed to the top of the ladder while others pitted. But Hamilton caught up with the Dutchman and using DRS, passed him at Turn 14 and took back the lead.
At the end of lap 24, Verstappen changed to softs and emerged at fifth and then again pitted at lap 37 to change to super softs.
Vettel pitting the second time put Bottas at second with Räikkönen right behind him. As Bottas struggled to improve his pace, Räikkönen overtook the Mercedes driver at the end of the back straight.
On a fresh set of tyres, Vettel comfortably passed Bottas coming from the outside at turn 1, bringing him right behind teammate Räikkönen. The Finnish driver allowed his teammate to pass through to take the second.
In the final lap, Räikkönen lost the third place to Verstappen who dove to the inside line of the long right-hander, but his move to take advantage while off-track gave him a five-second penalty.
Daniel Ricciardo had a bad day at the US Grand Prix and had to retire after a fantastic battle with Bottas for the third place early in the race. He reported “engine is gone” on team radio.
Esteban Ocon had a good fight with Carlos Sainz as he held on to his sixth place. Sainz scored points coming seventh on his first outing with Renault, making his team proud of their choice.
Sergio Perez had a small tiff with his teammate Ocon during the race and came eighth while Felipe Massa and Daniil Kvyat rounded up the top 10.
Brendon Hartley came 13th in his maiden F1 race and was 26 seconds behind teammate Kvyat.
A loss of oil pressure sent Nico Hulkenberg to retirement and a bit later Fernando Alonso followed the suite due to an engine problem.
Pascal Wehrlein had a contact with Kevin Magnussen at the start of the race and retired while his teammate Marcus Ericsson came in 15th. Ericsson got a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Magnussen in the race.
