Hamilton crowned champion after thrilling US Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton took victory in Texas after a tough battle with team mate Nico Rosberg and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. The result was enough to give Hamilton to points advantage he needed to wrap up the title with three races still to go.

He becomes the first British driver to successfully defend his world championship, and becomes the tenth driver in Formula One history to win three titles.

Interestingly, Hamilton was struggling in the early stages of the race on the intermediate tyres. Having beaten polesitter Rosberg off the line, Hamilton came under pressure from the Red Bulls of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian took the lead as Hamilton’s tyres began to drop off.

This pushed him onto the slick soft tyres, with Rosberg and the Red Bulls doing the same the following lap. It quickly became apparent the RB11 could not match the pace on the dry track, which put the two Mercedes back out in front, with Rosberg managing to pull out an 11 second lead.

A safety car, however, brought Hamilton back in play, but he was unable to capitalise on this opportunity. It was not until a Virtual Safety Car later in the race that saw a change in fortunes. Rosberg pitted for a new set of tyres, but Hamilton could not as the VSC period ended before he could get back to the pits. It looked as though he would have to try and go to the end on his tyres.

But a second safety car meant he could pit and stay in close proximity to his team mate. And a mistake from Rosberg on the exit of turn 16, whereby the German span up his rear wheels and ran off the circuit, allowed Hamilton to take the lead.

Sebastian Vettel was 3rd having started 13th on the grid. Both he and Kimi Raikkonen took a 10-place grid penalty for taking on a fifth ICE this weekend. Vettel found himself inside the top 10 at the end of the first lap, and put himself in a brilliant position when he took to the slick tyres, selecting the mediums rather than the softs.

Although it was expected he would not be able to match the pace of the soft tyre runners, he began picking off cars before finding himself in 3rd place. He was unable, however, to complete the race on those tyres. He pitted under the second safety car and mounted a late challenge to Rosberg for 2nd but to no avail.

Max Verstappen matched his best Formula One finish from Hungary with an incredible 4th place. The Dutchman was showing strong pace in the rain and, when the slicks came on, he took on the Red Bulls. He didn’t pit again, which gave him track position and he was able to keep his tyres in a good condition until the finish.

Sergio Perez took 5th after a hard battle with the Ferraris early on and with the McLarens towards the end of the race. He was ahead of Jenson Button who was one of the first to pit for slicks. He suffered some graining whilst in a battle for 6th, so pitted under the second safety car and recovered to 7th, but inherited a place from Carlos Sainz who received a 5-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane. The Spaniard came up from last on the grid.

Pastor Maldonado was 8th, coming on strong in the latter stages of the race as he caught the cars squabbling for 5th. Felipe Nasr was just behind to score points on Sauber’s 400th Grand Prix appearance.

Daniel Ricciardo completed the points to round off an ultimately disappointing race for Red Bull. They went from challenging for, and briefly taking, the lead on the intermediate tyres to a DNF for Kvyat and just a single point for Ricciardo, who was compromised after a collision with Nico Hulkenberg left the Australian with damage.

Fernando Alonso was 11th having fought for a top 6 finish with his team mate using the upgraded Honda power unit, but a loss in power in the final laps saw him drop outside of the points. Alexander Rossi was the final car to cross the line in 12th at his home race to match Manor’s best result of the season.

There were eight retirees from the race. Will Stevens was the first car to pull out of the race, with Bottas getting tangled up at turn 1 and retiring with a suspension failure. The day got worse for Williams when Felipe Massa made it a double DNF for the team. Romain Grosjean was also a victim of a turn 1 collision and retired with overheating brakes. Kimi Raikkonen also had overheating brakes having hit the wall shortly after putting on the slicks. Marcus Ericsson was the cause of the first safety car when he pulled over to the side of the track.

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