Hamilton cruises to easy USGP victory

Lewis Hamilton untouchable

Sebastian Vettel got the jump on polesitter Lewis Hamilton at the start of the USGP but in a few laps Hamilton blew past him like he was standing still and the race was over.

Meanwhile Vettel had a sure 2nd place in hand but Ferrari decided to pit Vettel for a 2nd time for Super Softs and that put him down in 4th place from which he had to recover because Hamilton, Raikkonen and Bottas did the race on one stop ahead of him.

He made it back up to 2nd but Hamilton was too far ahead and he had to settle for 2nd 10-seconds behind.

With the Ferrari's tires gone, Max Verstappen passed Kimi Raikkonen on the last lap and finished 3rd ahead of Raikkonen but later was penalized 5 seconds for going off the track to make the pass and was moved back to 4th. Verstappen started 17th and won the drive of the day award.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Valtteri Bottas survived a late stop for tires to finish 5th ahead of Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz Jr..

Rounding out the top-10 was Sergio Perez in eighth, Felipe Massa ninth and Daniil Kvyat tenth.

Hamilton's point lead over Vettel is now too much – the championship for all intents and purposes is over.

The win was Hamilton's 4th USGP win in a row at COTA and his 6th USGP win of his career and he gives Mercedes its 4th straight Manufacturers Championship. Afterwards he said this track is now his favorite on the schedule.

It was Hamilton's 9th win of the year in the Aldo Costa designed Mercedes.

When Vettel got the jump on polesitter Hamilton at the start, it looked as if Ferrari were going to get the win they needed, but it soon became clear that the silver car, right behind him, had better pace. And when the points leader sliced decisively down the inside of him on the sixth lap, that was pretty much all she wrote.

Hamilton had a scare on the 20th lap as he emerged from what transpired to be his sole pit stop, and Vettel, who had stopped three laps earlier, had wiped out a 4.4s deficit and was almost right on him. Hamilton wasn’t amused and rebuked his team, but at the same time he quickly pulled away again, and when Vettel had to stop again on the 39th lap, it was also soon clear that Mercedes would not need to do the same.

Vettel set fastest lap but it was not enough

Vettel had thus by then fallen to fourth place, as Bottas and Raikkonen waged a single-stop duel for second well behind Hamilton. Eventually the older Finn passed his younger countryman, and as Vettel was by then coming after Bottas like gangbusters, Ferrari sensed the chance to limit the damage. When Vettel pounced on Bottas on the 51st lap, they immediately switched Vettel for Raikkonen, maximising the German’s score and limiting the further loss to Hamilton to seven points. Hamilton now has 331, Vettel 265. Very close to that fourth title, but the cigar can’t be lit just yet.

Raikkonen, meanwhile, hand his hands full with Verstappen, Red Bull’s sole runner after Ricciardo’s battle early on with Bottas had ended with a possible engine problem. The Dutchman drove brilliantly from 16th on the grid (due to engine penalties), to snatch third place with an aggressive move on the last lap. Raikkonen, who had already been in fuel-saving mode, dropped back four seconds immediately, but for Verstappen that would not be enough. He was gathered with Hamilton and Vettel in the green room when the news came that a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits to make the pass had dropped him behind Raikkonen. He was not amused.

As Bottas trailed home fifth, there was some excellent racing behind the top five.

Ocon and Sainz were locked in a duel for many laps, but the Frenchman never gave the Renault debutant the opening he was looking for. Likewise Perez, in the other Force India, who had earlier asked his team to tell Ocon to let him by, lacked his partner’s pace but just fended off final points scorers Massa and Kvyat at the flag.

Williams’ Lance Stroll took 11th, just ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne and the aforementioned Hartley, as Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Haas’s Kevin Magnussen completed the finishers; the Swede got a five-second penalty for tipping the Dane into a spin as Vettel lapped them on the 47th lap.

Like Ricciardo and Hulkenberg, McLaren’s Fernando Alonso fell prey to mechanical ills, while Pascal Wehrlein’s Sauber suffered damage after a first-lap collision with Magnussen.

Though Hamilton still needs nine points to secure the drivers’ title – just fifth place in Mexico next weekend will be enough – Mercedes cemented the constructors’ championship, and now have 575 points to Ferrari’s 428, Red Bull’s 315 and Force India’s 159.

Renault have moved back in front of Haas and to within five points of Toro Rosso in the fight for sixth place.

There is no way Verstappen should have been penalized

Max Verstappen hit out at "one idiot steward", believing they "killed" the race, following his post-race penalty at Austin, and urged fans not to attend next year's event.

Verstappen, having started from 16th position, ran a two-stop strategy, and vaulted into contention for the podium, catching Kimi Räikkönen during the closing stages.

Verstappen grabbed the inside line into Turn 17 on the final lap and netted the position, but was issued with a five-second time penalty, demoting him back to fourth, after it was deemed that he cut the circuit.

"It's just one idiot steward up there who makes the decisions against me," Verstappen said.

"[He was] also in Mexico [in 2016, when Verstappen was penalised]. Now I get a five-second penalty and a penalty point, for what?

"At the end of the day, everybody's running wide everywhere, there are no track limits, and then the crowd is loving it and you do something like that in front of world TV.

"You pick someone out from the podium again and tell them to go away. At the end of the day, I still had a great race. I'm happy with fourth. Just the way they did it is unbelievable."

Verstappen went on to comment: "You can't protest, it's in the rules. They know how to make the rules. At the moment it's in their favour.

"They decide and you can't do anything against them which is of course really weird. But what can you do?

"It's not good for the crowd. I really hope next year nobody is coming, because like this, the sport doesn't make sense. Everyone is loving it, great action.

"You go five or 10 centimetres in the inside of the kerb, everyone is running wide everywhere, nobody's saying anything, like in qualifying at Turn 19 you could just run wide wherever you liked.

"And they killed the race basically like that."

Quotes

Hamilton celebrates

Lewis Hamilton
Firstly, I want to say big congratulations to everyone in the team – both back at the factory and here. There has been an incredible push for this kind of performance this year. We really pulled together more than I have experienced and seen over the last five years to create something quite special. I'm really proud for everyone, especially going from one era of car to another which is something that has never been done before. It shows the strength of the team and I'm proud to be part of it. The race was great, it was probably one of the most fun races that I have had for a while – and there were quite a few fun ones this year. I didn't get away to a great start, but I was kind of chilled about it, knowing from the past that I can overtake here. I had a lot of fun trying to get closer and overtaking. Today the wind changed 180 degrees and it made the track so special to drive; the car felt amazing going through the Esses. We have three more races left this season – and that's three I want to win.

Valtteri Bottas
Today was a tough day for me. In the first three quarters of the race, everything was going quite well and the pace was not bad. However, I couldn't make the one-stop strategy work with all the fighting with Sebastian and Kimi in the second stint. That was wearing the Soft tyres off quite a bit, they started to go and it simply was not possible to stick to just one stop. I tried everything I could to defend, but it was too late, so unfortunately we had to pit again. I'm still disappointed with my race, and I will need a few moments to get over it. However, I'm also happy for the Constructors' title. It is amazing to be part of this championship-winning team.

Toto Wolff
The first words today go to our team – in the factories in Brackley and Brixworth, as well as the fantastic support we receive from Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart. I am so proud of what has been achieved: winning across a rule change, something has never been done before in the sport, and doing it because every team member has dug deeper to find performance, been even more diligent on reliability and this has come together in the most special way. We had the quickest car out there in the race today – Lewis did a faultless job, picking off Sebastian and then managing his one-stop strategy to perfection. Valtteri had a tougher time: running in dirty air meant he couldn't convert his good pace into what would have been a deserved podium finish. But overall, we must be satisfied that we have got half of the job done today; one title down and one more still to win. Our target must to be to keep our foot on the gas and win each of the next three races.

James Allison
You can't argue with any race where you overtake on track for the lead and then romp off to the win. It was a brilliant drive by Lewis and a very welcome tonic to some of the narrative that had built in recent weeks suggesting that the momentum of the development race had shifted towards our competitors. This car, team and our drivers showed themselves today to be worthy, worthy winners of the Constructors' title. For a long time, we looked to be on course for a comfortable podium with Valtteri, too. He enjoyed a strong first stint and looked set to take second place from Sebastian for a significant portion of the race. However, in the second stint we were not able to make the tyres last well enough to help the one-stop strategy pay off. Nevertheless, he still scored the points we needed to secure the title at the first time of asking, and he will certainly enjoy even stronger races in the future.

Results

Fastest Race Lap: Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1m37.766s