Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Lewis Hamilton takes 50th F1 win in US Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton secured the 50th victory of his Formula 1 career, leading home championship rival Nico Rosberg in the United States Grand Prix

The reigning world champion, who has won four times at Austin to add to his 2007 US GP success at Indianapolis, finished 4.5s ahead of Mercedes team-mate Rosberg, with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo third.

Rosberg's championship lead has been cut to 26 points over Hamilton, but it could have been more as Ricciardo and team-mate Max Verstappen had a shot at upsetting the Mercedes one-two.

Hamilton and Rosberg made clean starts, although Ricciardo took advantage of the wide first corner to get alongside Rosberg, ultimately completing the pass around the outside through Turn 2.

Verstappen, who passed Kimi Raikkonen on lap 12 to claim fourth, then began to push Rosberg who found himself sandwiched between the Red Bull duo.

But Verstappen's race unravelled from lap 26 when he mistakenly thought he had been called into the pits, with his crew not ready when he arrived.

Three laps later Verstappen suffered a gearbox failure, and he tried to get his car back to the pits rather than stopping trackside.

When he eventually parked up, the virtual safety car was deployed, which gave Mercedes pair Hamilton and Rosberg what Ricciardo described as "a free stop".

Having stopped for a second time on lap 25, before the VSC, Ricciardo therefore found himself third, losing what Red Bull estimated to be 10 seconds to Rosberg thanks to the VSC.

From that point on the top three positions were sealed, with Ricciardo safe in third as Raikkonen was on a three-stop strategy and had another stop to make.

Raikkonen's third stop led to the end of his race though, as he pulled away too quickly, with the right-rear tyre gun yanked off in the process.

As Raikkonen began to climb up the hill out of the pitlane he was forced to pull over after being told to stop, from where he rolled his car back down the slope and out of harm's way.

Raikkonen was the fourth retirement of the race, with Force India's Nico Hulkenberg first out after a Turn 1 collision with Valtteri Bottas in his Williams, sustaining trackrod damage with his car unable to turn left.

Bottas suffered a right-rear puncture that dropped him to the back of the field, and after an early pitstop he could only manage 16th at the end.

Along with Verstappen, Esteban Gutierrez was the other retiree after 18 laps with what appeared to be a brake problem that led to him going off at Turn 11.

Behind the leading trio, Vettel salvaged fourth for Ferrari, with Fernando Alonso fifth for McLaren after passing Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz Jr on the penultimate lap of the 56.

Alonso, though, is under investigation for an incident with Williams's Felipe Massa on lap 54 that led to a front-left puncture for the Brazilian, who managed to hang on to seventh ahead of Sergio Perez.

The Mexican suffered a lap one spin after being hit in the rear by Daniil Kvyat, which led to a 10-second time penalty for the Russian who finished 12th.

Jenson Button and Romain Grosjean were ninth and 10th, the latter claiming a point for Haas at the team's maiden home race.

US GRAND PRIX RESULT

Pos Driver Car Laps Gap
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 56 1h38m12.618s
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 56 4.520s
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 56 19.692s
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 56 43.134s
5 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 56 1m33.953s
6 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso/Ferrari 56 1m36.124s
7 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 55 1 Lap
8 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 55 1 Lap
9 Jenson Button McLaren/Honda 55 1 Lap
10 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 55 1 Lap
11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Ferrari 55 1 Lap
12 Kevin Magnussen Renault 55 1 Lap
13 Jolyon Palmer Renault 55 1 Lap
14 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 55 1 Lap
15 Felipe Nasr Sauber/Ferrari 55 1 Lap
16 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes 55 1 Lap
17 Pascal Wehrlein Manor/Mercedes 55 1 Lap
18 Esteban Ocon Manor/Mercedes 54 2 Laps
- Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 38 Wheel
- Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 28 Gearbox
- Esteban Gutierrez Haas/Ferrari 16 Brakes
- Nico Hulkenberg Force India/Mercedes 1 Collision

DRIVERS' STANDINGS

Pos Driver Points
1 Nico Rosberg 331
2 Lewis Hamilton 305
3 Daniel Ricciardo 227
4 Sebastian Vettel 177
5 Kimi Raikkonen 170
6 Max Verstappen 165
7 Sergio Perez 84
8 Valtteri Bottas 81
9 Nico Hulkenberg 54
10 Fernando Alonso 52
11 Felipe Massa 49
12 Carlos Sainz Jr. 38
13 Romain Grosjean 29
14 Daniil Kvyat 25
15 Jenson Button 21
16 Kevin Magnussen 7
17 Jolyon Palmer 1
18 Pascal Wehrlein 1
19 Stoffel Vandoorne 1
20 Esteban Gutierrez 0
21 Marcus Ericsson 0
22 Felipe Nasr 0
23 Rio Haryanto 0
24 Esteban Ocon 0

CONSTRUCTORS' STANDINGS

Pos Constructor Points
1 Mercedes 636
2 Red Bull/Renault 400
3 Ferrari 347
4 Force India/Mercedes 138
5 Williams/Mercedes 130
6 McLaren/Honda 74
7 Toro Rosso/Ferrari 55
8 Haas/Ferrari 29
9 Renault 8
10 Manor/Mercedes 1
11 Sauber/Ferrari 0


Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article United States GP: How the grid will line up for the race
Next article Palmer disappointed Renault didn't issue team orders to Magnussen

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe