Oman Air team sign off with second spot in San Diego
AUSTIN, Texas: Mercedes won the Formula One constructors’ title for the fourth year in a row on Sunday but Lewis Hamilton was made to wait despite cruising to a US Grand Prix victory at one of his favourite circuits.
Hamilton, presented with the winner’s trophy by former US president Bill Clinton, now looks sure to finish off the job and become Britain’s first four times world champion in Mexico next weekend.
The Mercedes driver’s fifth victory in six years at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas extended his lead over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who finished second, to 66 points.
There are a maximum of 75 points still to be won from the three races remaining.
“I love this track, I think this track is now my favourite to be honest,” said Hamilton, interviewed by Usain Bolt on MUSCAT: The Oman Air Extreme Sailing Series team signed-off in San Diego secure in second place overall in the season and with their sights set on the finale in Mexico.
After four days of intense competition in southern California, the veteran crew of the foiling GC32 catamaran know that the unique double points scoring format in Los Cabos at the end of next month will leave the destination of the 2017 title in doubt right to the end.
In San Diego, Oman Air’s intense, close-quarter competition for the final place on the podium with Red Bull Sailing Team continued into the fourth and final day, the two teams trading the podium and joining the Olympic sprint champion’s signature victory pose.
“A big congratulations to the team. They work so hard back at the factory and here.”
The victory was the 62nd of Hamilton’s career and his ninth of the season.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen took third, despite finishing fourth at the flag, after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen — who had passed the Finn with a great overtaking move — was hit with a five second post-race penalty that dropped him to fourth.
“It is an appalling decision. They have robbed all of the fans here,” raged Red Bull principal Christian Horner as Verstappen left the pre-podium room.
“It was a great grand prix and they have screwed it up.” places around the course.
Going into the 25th and final race the two were tied on points, setting up a winner-takes-all contest in front of thousands of spectators out on the water and lining San Diego’s Harbor Island shoreline.
Phil Robertson’s crew of Pete Greenhalgh, Nasser Al Mashari, Ed Smyth and James Wierzbowski led at one point but could not ultimately keep Red Bull behind them and finished the San Diego Act in fourth place.
“It has been a very, very hard event in San Diego. The whole fleet is sailing at a very high level,” said Oman Air bowman Al Mashari.
Hamilton had started on pole position, waved away for the formation lap by Bolt after an extended pre-race presentation reflecting the sport’s new US ownership and desire to jazz things up.
Celebrity boxing title fight announcer Michael Buffer gave his long and resonant call of ‘Let’s get ready to rumble’, after announcing the drivers to the crowd one by one, and the battle was on.
But it was Vettel who struck the first blow from second place on the grid, beating Hamilton into the first corner as the Briton moved across and squeezed him as tight as he could without making contact.
Six laps later and Hamilton was back in front and this time he stayed there.
“At the start it was looking good, we got past Lewis, but we had to realise we couldn’t go at his pace,” said Vettel.
“We were then in no-man’s land and were not quite sure. We decided to pit again, with a fresh set of tyres, and it was a bit more exciting but overall it was not the result we needed.”
The German dropped down to fourth after his second stop but passed Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas with five laps to go and team mate Raikkonen obligingly let him pass.
Bottas finished fifth with French driver Esteban Ocon sixth for Force India and Carlos Sainz, on his Renault debut after leaving Toro Rosso, seventh.
Mexican Sergio Perez was eighth for Force India with Brazilian Felipe Massa ninth in a Williams and Russian Daniil Kvyat taking a point for Toro Rosso.
“We tried to do our best on the water and it didn’t quite work as we hoped, but we have one more event in Mexico so we will push as hard as we can to have a better event and be on the podium.”
Act winners SAP Extreme Sailing Team had taken the lead at the halfway point in San Diego, and were able to fend off a determined Alinghi team to win and consolidate their overall season lead. The Danish-flagged SAP now has a season total of 78 points, a five point advantage over Oman Sail with 73. Going into the Mexican final third place Alinghi are close behind with 72 points, with Red Bull back in fourth on 66. Al Mashari added: “We will go to Mexico prepared for a hard battle with SAP and Alinghi. We will go there determined to fight our way back to the top of the table.
“We have come from behind a few times this season. We had back-toback wins in Barcelona and Hamburg, so we know we can beat anyone in the fleet.” Though by their high standards perhaps a disappointing regatta in San Diego, the Oman Air team can leave the US West Coast venue with one record – they hit the top recorded speed of the Act with 29.25 knots.
In the accompanying Extreme San Diego Foil Kiteboarding racing, France’s Alex Mazella maintained his lead in the invitational event.