United States – Race: The Ride of Lewis Hamilton

The United States Grand Prix in Austin has only 18 cars at the start due to the absence of the Caterham and Marussia teams, victims of financial crises.

The start is launched under the Texan sun and it’s Rosberg who makes the holeshot. He turns into the lead ahead of his teammate while Fernando Alonso attacks the Williams before reconsidering. An accident between Perez, Räikkönen, and Sutil causes the safety car to enter before the end of the first lap. Both the Force India and the Sauber are forced to retire. Several drivers take the opportunity to change tires and strategy: Magnussen, Button, Hülkenberg, Gutierrez, and Vettel.

The restart takes place on the 5th lap. The positions of the leading drivers do not change, except for Riccardo after a successful attack on Alonso at the first braking. The events allow Romain Grosjean to take the 10th place.

Lap 9, the Mercedes drivers are exchanging the fastest laps in the race. Hamilton manages to stay within a second behind Rosberg, allowing him to benefit from DRS on the two straights. On lap 11, Gutierrez, Maldonado, and Vergne are penalized 5 seconds for speeding under the safety car. Drivers on hard tires are struggling with grip due to the higher temperatures, more significant than during practice.

At the 14th lap, Rosberg manages to extend his lead to more than a second over his teammate. At the end of the same lap, Ricciardo and Massa stop, switching to hard and soft tires respectively. At the end of the 15th lap, Rosberg stops to switch to hard tires while Bottas opts for soft tires but comes out behind Ricciardo. The following lap, Hamilton enters the pits to put on hard tires. He comes out 3 seconds behind the other Mercedes.

In the 18th lap, the second Force India, driven by Hülkenberg, is forced to retire. The German driver stops at the side of the track. The following lap sees a double French attack, with Grosjean and Vergne overtaking Gutierrez for the 12th and 13th places. A great tussle between Button and Alonso in the 22nd lap, as they pass and repass each other at every corner. On hard tires, Hamilton manages to close the gap to less than a second behind Rosberg.

On the 24th lap Alonso passes Button at the end of the pit straight. Almost at the same moment, Hamilton surprises Rosberg at the braking zone of the back straight. The Englishman manages to take enough of a lead that his teammate can’t activate his DRS on the straight.

At the 26th lap, Vettel, driving a struggling Red Bull, gets overtaken by Romain Grosjean’s Lotus at the end of the straight and Jean Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso in mid-corner. Massa, catching up to the Mercedes, stops to fit hard tires on the 33rd lap. He loses his 3rd place to Ricciardo. He is followed by Hamilton, who also switches to hard tires. Rosberg then mimics the Englishman, rejoining about 3.5 seconds behind his teammate.

On the 37th lap, Hamilton, still in the lead, sets his personal best time while Rosberg is a second faster with a record time of 1:42.381. The Englishman reacts quickly the following lap while the German worries about the state of his Mercedes after hitting hard on the front left on a curb. Nevertheless, he continues to gain time on Hamilton. On the 41st lap, Maldonado is penalized again with 5 seconds, this time for speeding in the pit lane.

Translate: At the 42nd lap, it’s a battle between Grosjean/Button for 10th place and Magnussen/Vettel for 8th place. The Englishman in the McLaren and the German in the Red Bull easily overtake their opponents. After Räikkönen’s pit stop, then in the top 10, Alonso’s Ferrari comes out of the pits on the 45th lap on soft tires but loses the 6th place to Vettel. The Spaniard on soft tires quickly regains his position thanks to his new tires.

At the end of the race, 4 cars are battling for the 9th place: Button, Grosjean, Vergne, and Maldonado. On the 48th lap, with a clear track ahead, Fernando Alonso sets the fastest provisional time, being half a second quicker than the Mercedes. The gap remains constant between Hamilton and Rosberg, with just under 2 seconds between the top two of the Grand Prix.

Vettel is forced to pit again with 6 laps to go. He finds himself far from the top 10, in 14th position. The following lap, on the 51st lap, there is a big fight for 8th place among Button, Vergne, Maldonado, Grosjean, and Kvyat. They are overtaking each other in all directions. Vergne, sliding all four wheels during braking, emerges victorious from a daring overtaking of Grosjean, who didn’t see it coming.

With 4 laps to go, Vettel closes in on the pack in full battle mode. He goes through all his opponents to climb up to 7th place.

Lewis Hamilton crosses the finish line as the winner on the 56th lap, ahead of Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo. This is Lewis Hamilton’s 5th consecutive win, the 10th victory for the Briton, and also the 10th one-two finish for Mercedes this season.