Hamilton Wins USGP, Haas F1 Scores Points At Home
At 33 points back, Lewis Hamilton came into today's race weekend knowing that, if he wants to win his third consecutive World Driver's Championship, he would realistically need to win each of the season's final four races. After the first of those, he's doing everything he can to do just that.
Hamilton's dominant win today, his fourth in the five-race history of the Circuit of the Americas, looked easy, but a strong runner-up finish by teammate Nico Rosberg and struggles for the two Red Bull Racing cars that could have potentially gotten between the two leaves the reigning taking just seven more points from the weekend than the championship leader. His battle only gets harder from here, and if Rosberg can hold back the rest of the field, even three wins won't be enough for Hamilton to win the title.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen looked to have the pace to at least compete for second with Rosberg, but their race began to unwind when Verstappen tried to stop before his team instructed him to, entering his pit stall before tires were set out, and only got worse when an engine issue ended Verstappen's race, bringing out a virtual safety car that would also derail Ricciardo's strategy. The Australian, who was running second throughout the race, recovered to round out the podium in a disappointing third. Though it wasn't the result he hoped for, Ricciardo still made headlines post-race, being joined in his now-traditional "Shoey" celebration by Gerard Butler.
Ferrari's day would prove to be equally disastrous, with Kimi Raikkonen retiring from the top six after leaving the pits with a wheel gun still attached and Sebastian Vettel settling for fourth after an unsuccessful tire strategy forced him to stop with two laps left in the race. All these issues opened the door for Fernando Alonso, who came from 12th on the grid to finish an impressive fifth for the struggling Honda-powered McLaren team.
Rounding out the top ten were Scuderia Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz, Williams driver Felipe Massa, Force India's Sergio Perez, McLaren's Jenson Button and Haas F1's Romain Grosjean. The points-scoring finish for Grosjean is the first for the American Haas F1 team since a seventh in the Austrian Grand Prix in early July, marking the first time an American team has scored points in a Formula 1 race since Elio de Angelis finished fourth for Shadow Racing Cars at Watkins Glen in 1979.
Notable finishers outside of the points include Renault's Kevin Magnussen, whose late charge to catch Romain Grosjean came up short, and Daniil Kvyat, who recently re-signed with Scuderia Toro Rosso despite his demotion from Red Bull Racing earlier this season. Esteban Gutierrez and Nico Hulkenburg would join Raikkonen and Verstappen as the race's retirees.
Formula 1 stays in North America for the Mexican Grand Prix next weekend, the second Formula 1 race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez since 1992.
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