IT’S HAMILTON AGAIN IN F1 RACE
British racer takes third straight U.S. Grand Prix title in Austin.
Austin isn’t Lewis Hamilton’s second home, but it ought to be.
The Brit turned Sunday’s United States Grand Prix into a personal 56- lap victory parade. Because of the timing of pit stops, Hamilton didn’t technically win wireto-wire, but he thoroughly dominated the fifield.
Not even Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, who still leaves town with a commanding lead for the world championship, could mount a single serious challenge, although he eventually pulled within 4.5 seconds of the reigning world champion and his winning time of 1 hour, 38 minutes, 12.618 seconds for the 192 miles.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the raucous podium, which was cheered by a flflag-waving throng of country and team supporters who made the scene look more like a European race than one in the heart of Texas. The announced crowd for the three-day weekend, including
Saturday’s Taylor Swift concert, was a U.S. Grand Prix record 269,889.
“It’s you guys that make the race so special,” Hamilton said.
He has said he loves racing in the United States. Small wonder. He has won four of the five F1 races at Circuit of the Americas, with Sebastian Vettel’s triumph in 2013 the only break in that string. Hamilton also won in 2007, the last time the race was contested in Indianapolis.
He has five U.S. Grand Prix wins, tying him for the most ever with Michael Schumacher.
It was also the 50th Grand Prix win of Hamilton’s career. Only two drivers have won more. Schumacher amassed 91 wins, and Alain Prost had 51.
“I’d completely forgotten it was the 50th,” Hamilton said. “Very surreal, for sure. Can’t believe there’s only three of us who’ve done that.”
In spite of his win totals, Hamilton still has a tall order if he wants to catch Rosberg in this season’s race for a world championship. With Sunday’s win, Hamilton cut Rosberg’s lead from 33 to 26 points, but there are only three races left, each awarding 25 points to the winner and 18 to the second-place finisher.
Although he spent most of the week saying he would be going pedal to the metal for the win and not considering the runner-up spot, Rosberg said, “Second place is OK.”
Ricciardo had promised to make things interesting at the start, and he did use the grip of his super-soft tires to get a good jump off the line. He was able to slide by Rosberg, who had qualified in second place, but couldn’t threaten Hamilton, and eventually Rosberg was back in second. The German was, however, aided when the virtual safety car was used after Ricciardo’s teammate Max Verstappen suffered an engine failure on the 31st lap.
“There is something hitting the engine. The faster I drive, the harder it hits,” Verstappen reported to his crew.
“I thought, ‘Aw, hell, my boy’s done it again,’” Ricciardo said.
Counting Verstappen, three of the top seven qualifiers were knocked out of the race with mechanical problems.
Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg had a collision in the very first turn that caused a puncture and worse, some structural damage that ended his day.
On the 40th lap, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen pulled out the pits and began the climb up to Turn One, only to stop and then drift slowly back to the edge of the paddock and begin walking toward his team’s garage. The problem was a wheel gun that was still attached to his car. After the race, his team was fined 5,000 euros for that safety problem.
Esteban Gutierrez was another early casualty, but his Haas F1 Team, the first American-owned F1 team in 30 years, did pick up a point when Roman Grosjean finished 10th.
The next stop for F1’s traveling circuit is the Mexican Grand Prix, which was revived last year. Then it will be on to Brazil before the season finale in Abu Dhabi on Nov 27.
“The battle will continue,” Hamilton said.