The United States Grand Prix was one of the wettest weekends in Formula One history, with rain hindering most of Friday and Saturday and forcing qualifying to be pushed to Sunday. Despite the rain earlier in the weekend, the race was able to go ahead as planned.
Friday was a short day, as poor weather conditions grounded the medical helicopter and forced race control to cancel the final practice session of the day. Earlier in the day was not much better, as rain paid a visit to the circuit. Nico Rosberg led the only session of the day, with both Red Bulls and a Toro Rosso directly behind him. Title hopeful, Lewis Hamilton, finished ahead of Sebastian Vettel by 0.007 seconds for fifth on the time charts. Pastor Maldonado completed an out lap, but did not run any more laps for the day.
Saturday was no better than the day before. Teams were able to run free practice three despite the wet conditions on the track. Lap times were considerably slower than the first free practice session, as the conditions were worse. Lewis Hamilton topped the charts, while Sebastian Vettel set a time just under his. When it came time to qualify, the rain had increased. The FIA decided to delay the start of qualifying, in hopes that the rain would let up. After three hours of delays that gave the teams lots of free time to mess around in the garage, qualifying was officially postpone until Sunday morning.
Qualifying took place on Sunday in the wet conditions. It was cut short by rain, forcing the FIA to cancel the final qualifying session. Nico Rosberg took pole with Lewis Hamilton alongside him on the grid. By race time, the weather had vastly improved. At the start of the race, teams ran the intermediate tyres, but ten laps into the race, the track had dried to the point that teams began to take the gamble and switch to the dry weather tyres. Once the intermediate tyres started to overheat and the treads wore off, the cars became twitchy and out of control, but it was still too wet in some areas for the slick tyres. Daniel Ricciardo was the driver who was able to find the pace required to take the lead with the intermediate tyres, while searching for wet wherever it was possible. Ten laps after teams began to talk about running the slick tyres, the front runners went in for the slick tyres. Hamilton was the first to do so, with the others following the next lap. Robserg later reclaimed the lead of the race and began to create a massive lead until Marcus Ericsson stopped his car on track, bringing out the safety car. Following the safety car, the Mercedes cars were able to pull away in the lead and Red Bull struggled to find the grip required and dropped down the field. Sebastian Vettel put in a spectacular effort to make it up to third. Another safety car was brought out for Daniil Kvyat when he was sent into the wall. Hamilton took the lead from Rosberg after Rosberg went wide. Vettel tried to fight back to second position in the final laps, but could not get by Rosberg. This makes Lewis Hamilton a three time World Champion.
As the season nears its end, Formula One will remain in North America for one more week this season. The Mexican Grand Prix returns to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez on the first of November.
