Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 at Austin

F1 Grand Prix, GP USA, Circuit of The Americas

Lewis Hamilton has won the United States GP in a controlled manner. The Briton held onto his pole position and went on to lead Nico Rosberg to the finish flag, reducing his deficit in the championship to 26 points. Daniel Ricciardo finished in third position to complete the podium.

Perfect conditions set the scenery for the United States Grand Prix, and as soon as the lights went out, it was clear that Hamilton enjoyed a solid start this time around, following three practice starts during the laps into his way to the grid.

Ricciardo, who gambled on using super softs in attempt to gain postions in the first laps managed to get past Rosberg in turn 3 and therefore moved up into second, ahead of the second Mercedes. Raikkonen moved up into fourth, ahead of Verstappen who, just like the Mercedes, started on used soft tyres. Behind them were Vettel, Massa, Sainz, Alonso and Gutierrez. Button quickly challenged that 10th place and got past the Haas driver on lap 2.

Hulkenberg and Massa returned to the pits at the end of the first lap. Bottas rejoined after getting new tyres while Hulkenberg retired from the race. Their coming together in turn 1 was later investigated, but left without a penalty.

Perez and Kvyat also had a coming together, with Perez clearly unhappy. Both managed to continue their races, but Perez lost 6 places in the event. Kvyat continued without much loss of time, but was later given a 10s time penalty for causing the collision.

On lap 8, Ricciardo and Raikkonen were the first to stop, changing their supersofts to new softs. Both men were easily matching the times of the Mercedes, but were unable to really attempt any passing manoeuvres. Only a single lap after that, Verstappen pitted as well, event though he started on the theoretically longer lasting soft tyres.

On lap 10, Rosberg pitted to change to mediums, rejoining the track in 6th, just ahead of Raikkonen, Alonso and Verstappen. Hamilton stopped another lap later but got switched onto a new set of softs. The Briton rejoined the racetrack, 4 seconds ahead of Ricciardo and 6 down on Vettel.

The latter Ferrari driver only pitted after 14 laps, recording the longest stint on super softs thus far. He final lap was however 1.3s slower than Hamilton while Rosberg even managed a 1:43.338 on medium, 2 full seconds quicker than Vettel. Verstappen though was quicker still, first passing Raikkonen and then ending up on Rosberg's tail by lap 17.

Esteban Gutierrez meanwhile slowly returned to the pits after encountering a brake issue at the end of the back straight. It looks like yet another brake failure on the Haas, this time with the front left. The team went on to change the tyres, but subsequently decided to retire the the car anyway.

By lap 20, Hamilton lead the race with just 5s in hand over Ricciardo. Rosberg followed in third, 1.5s down on Ricciardo and just half a second ahead of Verstappen. Raikkonen was 4 seconds further down the road, and Vettel another 3 more. Felipe Massa in 7th position was already half a minute down on the leader.

On lap 25, Raikkonen start the next string of stops after getting hauled in by Vettel. Ricciardo changed to medium on the next lap in a very quick stop. Verstappen in contrast had a very slow stop one lap later, finding nobody ready to change his tyres when he entered the pits. Verstappen's radio message "I thought you called me in, I'm sorry", says it all. The Dutchman rejoined the track in 6th, 13 seconds down on Raikkonen.

The time loss proved to be of little important though, as three laps later the rolled back to the pits at 50 km/h in first gear with a strange knocking noise in the engine. He stopped early though and parked his car alongside the barriers, creating a virtual safety car period to clear the Red Bull. Hamilton, Rosberg, Sainz and Alonso, among others, exploited this to make their second stops, all changing to new mediums.

One interesting event on track was Rosberg's pit exit, as he briefly appeared to go for a pass on Wehrlein who had also just pitted. Completely outside of the track and on the red run-off tarmac, he eventually changed his mind and opted to let the Manor driver take turn 1 first. Luckily for him of course, as overtaking is a no-no under the safety car, virtual or not.

On lap 33, on the first pass after the end of the safety car period, Hamilton led Rosberg by 10 seconds. Ricciardo was third, 3.5s further down the road and another 1.5s ahead of Raikkonen. Vettel, Sainz, Massa, Alonso, Perez and Button completed the top 10.

Meanwhile, in 14th and 15th positions, a battle went on between both Renault drivers. Palmer had finally caught up with his team mate, having chased him throughout the first half of the race.

On lap 38, Raikkonen pitted to change to new softs, but subsequently stopped halfway towards turn 1, saying a rear wheel was not properly fixed. Having sat there for around 10 seconds, the Finn reversed back into the pitlane to safely park his car there and retire from the race.

The Finn's retirement meant the battle for 5th opened up, with Sainz being chased by Massa and Alonso, both within 2s off the Toro Rosso driver. Sainz ran on softs whereas the two cars behind him were using mediums, all in use since the safety car period. As the tension built up towards the end, and Massa failed to get past Sainz, Alonso muscled himself past Massa on lap 53 before taking Sainz as well on the final lap. It did however involve a coming together with Massa, which resulting in a puncture for the Brazilian and a stewards' investigation.

At the very front, Hamilton won the US GP in a straightforward way, ahead of Rosberg and Ricciardo. Sebastian Vettel pitted 2 laps from the end to set the fastest lap, but kept his 4th place as he was a long way ahead of Alonso, Sainz and Massa.