American Rossi posts best finish

Racing on U.S. soil for the first time, American Alexander Rossi had his best finish, taking 12th for the Manor Marussia F1 team on Sunday.

“Certainly a good feeling to race at home and hear your own national anthem,” Rossi said. “I’m happy with what we were able to do.”

Racing in the slowest car for a smaller team with a small budget, Rossi entered the race with little outside expectations. This week he said, “we have to keep the car running because we know our best results come at the misfortune of others.”

And that played out Sunday. Eight drivers didn’t finish in the 20-car field, including Rossi’s teammate, Will Stevens. Of 12 cars that finished, Rossi was last, but finishing the race stood as a victory.

Had he finished two spots higher for 10th, Rossi would have secured a championship point, which would have been monumental for an American in F1.

Scott Speed, the last American to drive in F1, failed to record a single point in 28 career starts.

Working extra: Teams and drivers were expecting a busy Sunday after qualifying was pushed back from Saturday.

The Toro Rosso team had to put in even more work after Carlos Sainz crashed in qualifying.

Typically, repairing damages from qualifying isn’t done under the gun, but thanks to the rain, Toro Rosso had four hours to prepare the vehicle.

The team was able to fix the damages and get Sainz onto the starting grid, where he started in last place.

The Spanish driver was able to work his way up the field and finish seventh for the best performance of his rookie season.

Fastest laps: The fastest lap of the day belonged to Germany’s Nico Rosberg, who was clocked at 1 minutes, 40.66 seconds on lap 49. His average speed was a shade over 122 miles per hour.

Rosberg drove his Mercedes to second place behind champion Lewis Hamilton, who posted the race’s second-fastest lap, just 0.072 behind Rosberg.

Sebastian Vettel, who finished third, also had the third-fastest lap (1:41.33).

Rossi was clocked at 1:48.17 for 16th-fastest.

Up and down day: Vettel, who won four consecutive world titles when he drove for Red Bull, had one of his finest races on Sunday, considering he was penalized 10 paces in the opening grid for using a new Ferrari engine that was over the allowed limit. He finished third.

“I started 14th and had an average start, but I had a good opening lap,” Vettel said. “We were very close at the end, but not close enough. I feel a bit mixed about this, but we did a lot better than expectations. The first world championship you win is the most powerful, but it’s not like it gives you a head start the next year. You start at zero again.”

Attendance: COTA reported attendance of 101,667 for Sunday and 224,011 over three days.