Despite having the opportunity to secure his World Drivers’ Championship title at the United States Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was not able to do so. Sebastian Vettel was able to maintain a second place finish, despite a late race gamble from the Ferrari strategists.
Tension was high, as Lewis Hamilton had the chance to secure his fourth World Drivers’ Championship title. If Hamilton won the race, he would take home the title if Sebastian Vettel failed to finish within the top five. If Hamilton finished second in the race, Vettel had to finish eighth or higher to keep his championship hopes alive. A Mercedes 1-2 finish with Bottas leading would also prevent Hamilton from securing the title in Austin. The pressure was on.
Getting off of the grid, both of the leading cars made a great start. However, Vettel’s start was just a fraction better. Hamilton moved to the inside of the straight to try and block off Vettel and the Ferrari driver pushed back. The duo made tyre to tyre contact into turn one, but Vettel was able to exit the corner with the race lead.
However, by the second lap, all eyes were on the scrap between Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo lunged up the inside into turn one. Despite the efforts and wheel to wheel battle that ensued, Bottas maintained his position ahead of the Red Bull. This didn’t stop Ricciardo from trying again on lap four. He dove up the inside again, locking up his tyres. The Red Bull ran a bit wide and the pair almost made contact. Bottas still maintained his lead.
Meanwhile at the front, Hamilton began to find his pace, setting the fastest laps and allowing him to close the gap to the leading Ferrari ahead. By lap six, Mercedes was within the DRS zone. Heading into turn 12, Hamilton made the overtake on Vettel with some assistance from the DRS. Vettel gave his all, staying on the gearbox of the Mercedes for the following corners, but the strength of the Mercedes power unit allowed Hamilton to creep away from the pursuing Vettel. By lap 12, the gap had increased to over three seconds, while Vettel began to struggle with tyre degradation.
Having fallen back into the clutches of Kimi Räikkönen, Ricciardo was the first of the front runners to pit for fresh tyres. His tyres were likely worn very heavily from his earlier push to fight with Bottas. A few drivers further down the field followed suit. With the new tyres, Ricciardo was able to push hard and set the fastest lap. However, drama struck a few laps later when an engine failure sidelined the car.
Ferrari reacted to the rapidly declining pace of the ultra soft tyre compounds, pitting on lap 17 for the soft tyres. He slotted into P5, behind Max Verstappen. Less than a lap after pitting, Vettel got the tyres up to pace, setting fastest sectors and eating away at his gap to Hamilton. Bottas was the first of the Mercedes drivers to pit on lap 19 and Hamilton followed on the next lap.
Thanks to a perfect pitstop from the Mercedes crew, Hamilton was able to get out of the pits narrowly in front of Vettel. Less than a car’s length separated the two as they came into turn one. Vettel lit up the rear tyres on the exit of turn one, but just didn’t have the pace to make the move on Hamilton just yet. He remained within the DRS zone, but wasn’t close enough to make an overtaking maneuver on the Mercedes. He slowly drifted outside of the DRS zone, giving Hamilton the advantage to pull ahead.
Ricciardo and Bottas were not the only drivers to provide an entertaining battle in the race; Carlos Sainz and Sergio Pérez had a good wheel to wheel battle. Sainz was eventually able to make the move stick at the at turn 19 on lap 34 of the race, impressing the Renault team in his first race with the team.
In the second half of the race, Räikkönen had made up enough ground on Bottas to pose a threat. Meanwhile, Verstappen made a shocking pitstop for new tyres, despite gaining ground on the Bottas-Räikkönen battle. The team put on a set of super soft tyres, despite having a set of ultra soft tyres in the bank.
Ferrari reacted to the removal of the Verstappen threat, pitting Vettel for a set of super soft tyres in one last attempt to make up ground on the leading Mercedes. With a little more than 15 laps left in the race, Vettel needed to push hard to catch up to the cars ahead.
While his teammate was attempting to catch up, Räikkönen finally made a move on his fellow countryman Bottas on lap 43 for second place. He began to pull away quite quickly, showing that the Ferrari cars have the pace to compete with Mercedes on this track.
Vettel and more so Verstappen were lucky to avoid the aftermath of a collision between Kevin Magnussen and Marcus Ericsson. Magnussen slowed on the outside to let Vettel get by and Ericsson attempted to follow Vettel through for an easy overtake. Magnussen didn’t really like that, cutting to the inside of the corner to cover him off. The two made contact, spinning the Haas. Ericsson was given a five second time penalty for the incident, although both continued the race.
Near the front, Vettel had worked his way within the DRS zone to the Mercedes of Bottas with less than ten laps remaining in the race. Vettel got by Bottas on the outside of turn one with six laps remaining, putting himself into P3. Unsurprisingly, Ferrari team orders can into play the following lap to swap Vettel and Räikkönen.
Bottas fell into the hands of Verstappen a few laps later, thanks to a series of lock ups. Verstappen got by, but not without some minor contact between the two. In an odd turn of events, Bottas pitted in for ultra soft tyres at the end of the lap, despite having less than five laps remaining in the race.
Verstappen made a late push on Räikkönen in the closing laps of the race. It appeared as though he wouldn’t be able to make the move, but Verstappen was able to get his Red Bull on the inside of the corner and take the final podium position comfortably. All the effort was all for nothing though, as the stewards handed Verstappen a podium for cutting the corner during the overtake. Verstappen was booted out of the podium room after the race.
Despite Hamilton taking his sixth United States Grand Prix victory, Vettel was able to keep his World Drivers’ Championship hopes alive with a second place finish in the race. Vettel loses more points in the championship race, but keeps his hopes alive for at least another round in the championship. The World Constructors’ Championship was secured by Mercedes for the fourth consecutive season.
Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
