Lewis Hamilton wins a thrilling US GP and claims his third world title

At the US GP in Austin on Sunday afternoon, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton secured his tenth win of the season and has won his third world title ahead of championship rivals Nico Rosberg in second place and Sebastian Vettel in third place.

At the start of the race, Hamilton gets the better start and passes his team mate. However heading into Turn 1, Hamilton defends his position and forces his team mate wide and relegates him to fifth place. But as we head into the first few corners, the two Red Bull drivers are challenging Hamilton for the lead of the race.

Lap 2 saw Hamilton leading Kvyat by 1.4 seconds. However further down the grid, Sauber driver Felipe Nasr lost most of his front wing at Turn 1 on Lap two after clipping the rear-left tyre of team-mate Marcus Ericsson on the team’s 400th grand prix.

At the end of the second lap, Will Stevens pits and officially retires from the Grand Prix after having an collusion on the track. In the opening laps of the race, there was a battle for fifth between Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg, Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen ongoing on the track as Kvyat is gaining on Hamilton for the lead of the race and was within DRS range.

On Lap 5, the debris at that corner where Nasr lost his front wing after colliding with his team mate led to the virtual safety car being called in order to remove the debris off the track. On the restart on Lap 8, Hamilton backed up those behind him to such a degree that once the racing resumed Rosberg soon passed Red Bull duo Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat for track position.

Over the next few laps, on wearing intermediate tyres and on a circuit not quite ready for a switch to slicks, a titanic battle ensued between the leading quartet. It was confirmed on Lap 9 that Valtteri Bottas has retired from the race with a broken rear suspension and ended a run of 27 consecutive finishes in the sport which is a great shame.

Lap 12 saw Romain Grosjean officially retire from the race with problems with his brakes on his Lotus car after colliding with Bottas earlier on in the race. Daniel Ricciardo in a great move manages to pass his team mate and also Rosberg and is now second in the race on Lap 13.

Kimi Raikkonen and Carlos Sainz Jr were having a great battle in the first half of the race for eighth and ninth place; with the two drivers going wheel to wheel (and very nearly ended up going into each other) and swapping places all the time. But Daniel Ricciardo took the lead on lap 15 from Hamilton; with Rosberg through for second shortly after.

Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen also had a great battle with each other for sixth place; with both drivers pushing their cars to the limit in their quest to get past each other but Verstappen brakes too late and loses out to the Ferrari driver.

With Ricciardo and Rosbeg passing him on the track, this then forced Hamilton into the pits at the end of Lap 18 taking on the soft tyres; which then set the tone as the rest of the field followed him in either on that lap or the following one. Lap 20 saw Kimi Raikkonen hitting the barrier and going off the track; bringing off his front wing. Raikkonen appeared to be stuck after getting his Ferrari caught with a sponsor sign but managed to get out of the predicament and back onto the track.

From fourth and second respectively, Hamilton and Rosberg made their way up to third and first with moves on Kvyat and Ricciardo; with the latter duo not as strong on slick rubber as they were on the intermediates tyres earlier on in the race. Lap 24 sees Felipe Massa retiring from the race with problems with his suspension on his Williams car and Kimi Raikkonen added to that list on Lap 27 when he was asked by his team to retire the car which had significant brake problems after going off the track a few laps previously.

In the second half of the race, Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson pulled his car out of the race at Turn 11 on Lap 28 of the race and its positioning on the track brought the safety car out. At this stage of the race, it wiped out a 10.6s lead for Rosberg over Hamilton who had passed Ricciardo for second just before Ericsson’s exit from the race.

All bar the leading four ( Rosberg, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Kvyat) pitted for another change of tyres, with fifth-placed Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari taking on a new set of mediums in an attempt to get to the end without another stop under the safety car which needed to recover Ericsson's Sauber from the track safely.

Once the safety car departed after five laps on Lap 33, Vettel soon cleared Kvyat and Ricciardo to move up to third before another incident on Lap 37. This time it was Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg retiring after running into the side of Ricciardo in a bid to claim fifth which then lead to a second virtual safety car being deployed under which Rosberg pitted which dropped him to fourth; with Hamilton staying out.

The battle for sixth between Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz Jr and Pastor Maldonado was worth watching; with all the drivers slowly gaining on each other.

But on Lap 42 of the race when Rosberg within six seconds of Hamilton, the safety car was deployed again when Daniil Kvyat lost his car on the approach to the final turn, sending him into a barrier. This then allowed Hamilton to make his second stop and come out behind Rosberg, whose hopes of extending the title race into Mexico next Sunday ended when he got out of shape at Turn 15 on the power and ran off track at Turn 16-17.

From there it was a smooth run to the finish for Lewis Hamilton who claimed his tenth victory of the season and secured his third title with a fantastic drive at the US GP. Congratulations to Hamilton on this amazing achievement who has now joined an exclusive club of world champions in the sport.

Hamilton finished ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg in second place who was 0.863 seconds behind him but was ahead of Sebastian Vettel who finished in a great third place who was 0.979 seconds behind the Mercedes of Hamilton.

Max Verstappen finished the race in a great fourth place ahead of Sergio Perez in fifth place, Jenson Button in sixth place and Carlos Sainz Jr in seventh place. Pastor Maldonado ended the race in eighth place ahead of Felipe Nasr in ninth place and Daniel Ricciardo who rounds off the top ten finishers.

Jenson Button qualified in eleventh place ahead of Pastor Maldonado in twelfth place, Sebastian Vettel in thirteenth place, Marcus Ericsson in fourteenth place and ahead of Felipe Nasr in fifteenth place. As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Valtteri Bottas finished in sixteenth place ahead of Alexander Rossi in seventeenth place, Kimi Raikkonen in eighteenth place, Will Stevens in nineteenth place and Carlos Sainz Jr who rounded off the grid in twentieth place.

Just 12 drivers saw the flag; with eight retiring through mechanical failure or after on-track incidents.

The classification of the United States GP is as follows:-

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.50.52.703
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 2.850s
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 3.381s
4. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 22.359s
5. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 24.413s
6. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 28.058s
7. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 30.619s *
8. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 32.273s
9. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 40.257s
10. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 53.371s
11. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 54.816s
12. Alexander Rossi, Manor, 1.15.277s
13. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 1.610s
14. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, Not classified
15. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, Not classified
16. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, Not classified
17. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, Not classified
18. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, Not classified
19. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, Not classified
20. Will Stevens, Manor, Not classified

[Carlos Sainz Jr served a five second time penalty]
Lewis Hamilton wins the Drivers' Championship with 327 points, Vettel is second with 251 points, Rosberg is third with 247 points, Raikkonen is fourth with 123 points, Bottas is fifth with 111 points, Massa is sixth with 109 points, Kvyat is seventh with 76 points, Ricciardo is eighth with 74 points, Perez is ninth with 64 points and Verstappen is tenth with 45 points.

Mercedes have won the Constructors Championship with 574 points, Ferrari is second with 374 points, Williams are third with 220 points, Red Bull are fourth with 150 points, Force India are fifth with 102 points, Lotus are sixth with 70 points, Toro Rosso are seventh with 63 points, Sauber are eighth with 36 points and McLaren-Honda are ninth with 27 points.

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Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa