Lewis Hamilton drove a cracker of a race to gallop to victory in the US Grandprix at the Circuit of Americas. He was followed in second place by the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel who started on pole. Hamilton had been steadily making progress of cutting into Vettel’s lead and finally made the move in the DRS zone on lap 42. Fernando Alonso took third after fighting his way up the field, though the lack of pace was clearly evident as he finished 39 seconds behind Vettel. However, the result has allowed him to keep his drivers’ championship hopes alive, ensuring a proper battle to the finish at Brazil.
Behind the podium finishers, Felipe Massa in the sister Ferrari clinched fourth. He had originally qualified seventh and was then promoted to sixth due to Romain Grosjean incurring a five-place grid penalty for changing a gearbox. However, Ferrari then elected to break the seal on his gearbox so that team-mate Alonso, who qualified ninth would be pushed up the grid and onto the cleaner side of the track. Jenson Button took fifth ahead of the Lotus duo of Kimi Raikkonnen and Romain Grosjean.
Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India took eight-place after driving a strong race to maintain his position. His team mate Paul di Resta ran in the top ten for quite some time but went backwards to finish in fifteenth place. Williams were able to add three points to their tally courtesy of Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna completing the top-ten line up.
‘Home’ hero Sergio Perez for whom many Mexicans had trekked across the border, including billionaire Carlos Slim, could do no better than 11th place. Pedro de la Rosa in the HRT-Cosworth finished in 21st place and led team mate Narain Karthikeyan for most of the race. Michael Schumacher looked strong in qualifying after taking sixth place but went backwards after the first lap and ultimately finished down in 16th place. Nico Rosberg in the sister car finished in 13th place. Retirements included Mark Webber due to a KERS failure and Jean Eric Vergne for mechanical damage.
Red Bull under the guidance of design guru and strategist Adrian Newey has successfully wrapped up its third constructors title. Despite being over 100 points ahead of McLaren, the team admitted that this was a hard fought battle.
Sebastian Vettel leads Alonso by 13 points into the final race of the season. The German champion has said that whoever wins the title deserves it as both of them have fought hard this year. Kimi Raikkonnen and Lewis Hamilton will duel it out for third place also as just sixteen points separate them.
Formula one’s return to the America after a five-year hiatus turned out to be quite successful at the purpose built facility just outside Austin, Texas as crowds swelled to more than 100,000 on race day. Texas, a state known for its showmanship, did a splendid job with the race. Its special touch included giving the podium finishers Pirelli cowboy hats instead of the usual caps.
Image courtesy: Circut of the Americas Facebook page
