Practice proves to be perfect for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton continued his imperious form by posting a recordbreaking lap of the Circuit of the Americas en route to completing a practice double for the United States Grand Prix.

Hamilton, who will secure his fourth world championship this weekend if he wins and Sebastian Vettel fails to finish inside the top five, dominated both sessions yesterday.

His best time of one minute and 34.668 seconds saw him finish comfortably clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who earlier announced he was staying at Red Bull for a further three years.

Vettel was third in the order, half a second down on his championship rival.

Vettel looked on course to take Hamilton down to the wire this year following a string of impressive performances in the first half of the season, but his challenge has imploded since the summer break and he has failed to finish two of the last three grands prix.

The Ferrari driver, now 59 points behind Hamilton with only four rounds remaining, crashed out in Singapore before technical gremlins forced him to retire last time in Japan.

And while the four-time F1 champion avoided any mechanical glitches yesterday, he completed only 11 laps – 15 fewer than Hamilton – in the day’s second session following a high-speed spin.

Vettel lost control of his Ferrari at the penultimate corner before ending up in the gravel. The German avoided any contact with the barriers, but following the detour, he complained his car felt like jelly.

Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas finished fourth in the order, 0.6 seconds adrift of the Briton, with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo fifth and Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen sixth.

Fernando Alonso, who will remain at McLaren next season, failed to complete one lap in the opening session following a hydraulics issue, but the two-time world champion finished seventh later in the day.

Brendon Hartley, the New Zealander making his grand prix debut this weekend, finished 17th for Toro Rosso, more than three seconds off the pace.

Picture: Getty. Lewis Hamilton is on track for a fourth world championship.