The Formula One drivers and teams were in the land of the free for the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI 2018 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX at Circuit of The Americas. With the season coming to a rapid close, Lewis Hamilton had the chance to secure his fifth career title. The easiest way for him to get it done was to win the race and hope that Sebastian Vettel doesn’t finish in P2. Did he do it?
Despite a great effort, he did not secure his championship title. Here’s a recap of the race:
Off the grid, both Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen got away evenly. Hamilton moved to the inside to cover off Räikkönen into the first corner, but he got some wheel spin, allowing Räikkönen to take the lead of the race. Daniel Ricciardo got a good start and was able to put some pressure on Valtteri Bottas, but he did not launch an overtake. Vettel ran wide into the first corner but was able to rejoin the track without having lost positions.
The first lap got a whole lot more dramatic at the turn 4-5-6 sequence. Lance Stroll was along in the inside of Fernando Alonso while other drivers in front were forced to cut the corner. Stroll made contact with the sidepod of Alonso’s McLaren, taking the veteran racer out of the race. The incident earned Stroll a drive through penalty for causing a collision.
A little while later, Romain Grosjean locked up in turn 12 and collided with Charles Leclerc, taking himself out of the race. But further ahead, there was some drama between Ricciardo and Vettel. Ricciardo was able to overtake Vettel. Vettel overdid it in turn 12, allowing Ricciardo to retake the position. But in turn 13, Vettel found himself on the inside of Ricciardo, colliding with the Red Bull and spinning himself around in a situation similar to Japan.
Ricciardo maintained the position, but his car quit on him on lap 9, making him the victim of yet another mechanical failure this season. This brought out the virtual safety car, allowing Hamilton to make a pit stop, doing the opposite of the leading Ferrari. Ferrari believed that Mercedes were putting Hamilton the two-stop strategy.
When the race resumed, Hamilton breezed by Bottas, which was no shock since they were on different tyre strategies. Hamilton was released to chase down Räikkönen, rapidly eating away at the gap to the leader. Within just a few laps, Hamilton was well within the DRS zone.
On lap 21, Hamilton was right on the gearbox of Räikkönen’s Ferrari. The two were side-by-side around turn 14, with Hamilton on the outside. Räikkönen was aggressive in taking the inside line. With Räikkönen now under severe risk of being overtaken, he peeled into the pit lane for his pitstop, releasing Hamilton into the lead. Hamilton had been slowed a lot by Ferrari, so he was happy to finally be released to set some good lap times.
Max Verstappen pitted a lap later, attempting to jump Bottas. It was successful, as Bottas rejoined the race after his pit stop behind Verstappen.
On lap 25, Vettel allowed Räikkönen to pass him. Räikkönen was the newer tyres and Vettel was running slower on his old set of tyres. Räikkönen set the fastest lap after being released. Vettel told his team that his rear tyres were shot and requesting his pitstop. Vettel held up Verstappen as much as possible to assist his teammate, but the Red Bull did get by near the end of the lap, although it wouldn’t have mattered due to Vettel being called into the pit lane.
With a 17 seconds race lead, Hamilton switched into tyre conservation mode to try and make it to the end of the race on his current set of soft tyres. A clean pit stop would put him behind Räikkönen but narrowly ahead of Verstappen, although the gaps were closing rapidly meaning that the team would not have a huge window of time to calculate their best option.
The team opted not to take the opportunity to pit, instead allowing the gap to close dramatically. However, the pace of Räikkönen would have easily gave him the race victory, so Hamilton had no option but to pit for a fresh set of tyres on lap 38. With no new sets of supersoft tyres remaining in their allocation, Hamilton’s car was fitted with a new set of soft tyres.
He exited the pit lane in P4 behind his teammate Bottas, Verstappen and the new race leader Räikkönen. With Vettel in P5, Hamilton needed to finish at least second in the race in order to mathematically secure his fifth World Drivers’ Championship title (although it would be a mathematical tie and would only be secured because Hamilton has more race victories in 2018). Setting back to back lap records on his new tyres, Hamilton showed that he was going to give it his all to chase down Räikkönen or at the very least secure his title.
Bottas slowed to allow Hamilton by, not slowing down his teammate at all. Flying through traffic, the only car that stood in the way of Hamilton and his championship title was the Red Bull of Verstappen, but with 13 laps remaining in the race, it was looking like a big hurdle to jump. Furthermore, Vettel was now close to Bottas, giving him the potential to enter P4 and stop Hamilton from securing the title.
As the laps ticked down, the top three drivers closed within a few seconds of each other. With just three laps left, Hamilton made an overtaking attempt on Verstappen, running side-by-side into turn 17. However, Hamilton couldn’t get the job done and ran wide. Further back, Vettel challenged Bottas into the first corner and Bottas ran wide, giving Vettel P4 in the race.
Kimi Räikkönen ended his long winless streak, taking what will probably be his final career race victory, given that he is moving to Sauber next season.
Hamilton will have another chance to secure his title next weekend at the Mexican Grand Prix, where he will almost certainly earn his fifth World Drivers’ Championship title.
Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
