Hamilton seals win

Lewis Hamilton’s father always told him to ‘drive like you stole it’ but there was never any question about who owned Sunday’s US Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver did not start on pole, that honour denied him by team-mate and title rival Nico Rosberg in Saturday qualifying, but the Briton knew he had something special going on.

Hamilton feels at home in the United States, where he spends time with singer girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger and friends in Los Angeles, and won the inaugural race at the Circuit of the Americas in 2012.

As he took the chequered flag for his 10th win of the season, and fifth in succession, the championship leader entered the record books as the British driver with most Formula One wins – his 32 now one more than 1992 champion Nigel Mansell.

“Once I got past Nico it was really just about controlling it,” he told the crowd in a podium interview with 1978 champion Mario Andretti, the last US driver to take the title.

Later, once he had tried Andretti’s black Stetson sheriff’s hat for size, he told reporters: “Before the race there’s a lot you can do to really understand what opportunities could come up and in different scenarios, how you approach it, and I felt very much on top of that as I have done for quite some time.

“I just went into the race with the belief that I could win it,” he added.

“I went into the race thinking I need another race just like 2012 and it was just like that. I was catching him through exactly the same points at which I was catching Sebastian (Vettel in 2012).

“There wasn’t a moment in the race when I didn’t think that I would get him. Once I was past, as I said, I was able to relax for a second and really try to manage the tyres.”

The move, when it came, was on the 24th lap – a fitting number since the win sent him 24 points clear of Rosberg with two races remaining and a maximum of 75 points available.

It could still be that he ends up with 11 wins and no title, a casualty of the new rules that allow double points for the final round in Abu Dhabi, but on Sunday he was not thinking of that.

Instead, Hamilton was fizzing with the excitement of another win on the continent where he took his first two victories during his debut 2007 season.

The manner in which he took the lead, an aggressive swashbuckling pass through the inside as Rosberg braked early and went slightly wide into turn 12, was the mark of a true champion.

“I had been planning that for many laps and just never really got close enough,” said Hamilton.

“The opportunity was there and I knew there was a big head wind into that corner. All weekend there’s been a head wind into turn 11 and today it turned around, so it was a head wind into 12. So braking there was really strong.

“I felt really confident going into there, I had the slipstream and I pulled out, out-braked him. But it was really important that I didn’t lock up and out-brake myself and go wide,” he added. “It felt good.”

Driver and Constructor standings

Drivers
1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 316 points
2. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 292
3. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Red Bull 214
4. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams 155
5. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Red Bull 149
6. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 149
7. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 94
8. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams 83
9. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India 76
10. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark) McLaren 53
11. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India 47
12. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 47
13. Jean-Eric Vergne (France) Toro Rosso 22
14. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus 8
15. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) Toro Rosso 8
16. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Lotus 2
17. Jules Bianchi (France) Marussia 2
18. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Sauber 0
19. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Caterham 0
20. Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico) Sauber 0
21. Max Chilton (Britain) Marussia 0
22. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Caterham 0
Constructors
1. Mercedes 608 points
2. RedBull - Renault 363
3. Williams-Mercedes 238
4. Ferrari 196
5. McLaren 147
6. Force India - Mercedes 123
7. Toro Rosso - Renault 30
8. Lotus - Renault 10
9. Marussia - Ferrari 2
10. Sauber - Ferrari 0
11. Caterham - Renault 0

Team by team analysis (listed in championship order)

MERCEDES (Lewis Hamilton 1, Nico Rosberg 2): Hamilton’s 10th win of the season, fifth in a row and 32nd of his career. He is now 24 points clear of Rosberg, which means the title will not be decided until the final race even if Hamilton need not win again. Mercedes are sure of both titles now. They also equalled McLaren’s 1988 record of 10 one-two finishes in a season. Rosberg started on pole.

RED BULL (Daniel Ricciardo 3, Sebastian Vettel 7): Ricciardo’s title hopes are mathematically over. The Australian jumped both Williams drivers in the pitstops but also made some fine overtaking moves. Vettel started from the pitlane after exceeding his engine allocation, passed seven cars in the last seven laps and claimed the fastest lap of the race.

WILLIAMS (Felipe Massa 4, Valtteri Bottas 5): A disappointment for the team even if they increased their advantage over Ferrari to 42 points. Massa and Bottas had started third and fourth. Massa made a strong start but missed the podium after a slow pitstop.

FERRARI (Fernando Alonso 6, Kimi Raikkonen 13): Alonso finished where he started. Raikkonen suffered high degradation with the medium tyres and ended up having to make three stops. His car may also have been damaged after he was hit by Perez on the opening lap.

MCLAREN (Kevin Magnussen 8, Jenson Button 12): Button started 12th due to a five-place penalty for a replacement gearbox. He had a good early battle with Alonso but was then overtaken by a string of cars towards the end as his tyres went. Magnussen lost out to Vettel on the penultimate lap.

FORCE INDIA (Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg retired): Perez hit Sutil on lap one and retired. He has a seven-place grid penalty for Brazil. Hulkenberg retired with an engine failure after 16 laps.

TORO ROSSO (Jean-Eric Vergne 10, Daniil Kvyat 15): Kvyat started last picking up a 10-place penalty for using a seventh power unit element. Vergne collected a five-second penalty for forcing Lotus’s Romain Grosjean off the track.

LOTUS (Pastor Maldonado 9, Romain Grosjean 11): Maldonado scored his first points of the season. Grosjean was forced off while in eighth place in a move that damaged his car’s floor and front wing.

MARUSSIA (Did not race): Absent from Austin after going into administration.
SAUBER (Esteban Gutierrez 14, Adrian Sutil retired): Sutil started ninth but hopes of the team’s first points of the year vanished when he was hit by Perez. Gutierrez made up one place from the start.

CATERHAM (Did not race): Also absent for same reasons as Marussia.