LEWIS HAMILTON MOVED a step closer to his fourth world championship on Sunday when he won the United States Grand Prix, coming home ahead of his nearest title rival Sebastian Vettel.
The 32-year-old Briton, who started from a record 72nd pole position, recovered after losing his advantage at the start to regain the lead and steer his Mercedes to his ninth win this year, his fifth in Texas and the 62nd of his career.
Four-time champion Vettel came home second for Ferrari and with three races remaining trails Hamilton by 66 points in the drivers’ title race.
Hamilton now needs just to finish only fifth in Mexico next weekend to claim a fourth world title.
“We had a beautiful day. I love this track. I think this track is now my favourite,” said Hamilton.
Hamilton’s victory, with Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas finishing fifth, confirmed the team as constructors champions for 2017 and for the fourth consecutive season.
“At the start it was looking good but quickly we realised we couldn’t do the same pace as Lewis. Overall not the result we wanted,” said Vettel.
Dutchman Max Verstappen crossed the line in third place after a controversial final corner passing move that saw his Red Bull car run off track as he swept beyond Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari.
The move was investigated immediately by the stewards who gave Verstappen, who had already gone to the podium ceremony waiting room, a five seconds penalty that cost him third and lifted Raikkonen back to third for Ferrari.
All this meant that Verstappen finished fourth ahead of Bottas, Frenchman Esteban Ocon of Force India and Spaniard Carlos Sainz who finished seventh on his debut with Renault following his move from Toro Rosso.
Brazilian Felipe Massa finished ninth for Williams and Russian Daniil Kvyat 10th in the second Toro Rosso.
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The title was lost in Singapore really for Sebastian.
Plus the fact that practice means sweet f-all if you can’t bring it to qualifying.
Overall, a crap season that was only better than the last 3.
#HamiltonsFault
@Conor Cahill: Have to agree with you. For a season that promised so much, Ferrari really let everyone down with such a catalogue of cock-ups, and Vettel has to be included in that for Singapore, which was entirely on him.
Great race Verstappen really unlucky at the end but bottas pace is awful when hamilton is first in the same car
@Conor: Not sure if Verstappen was unlucky. He cut a corner to get the overtake done. It was only the matter of a few inches, but when it comes to a podium place position overtake, he can’t really expect to get away with that kind of carry on. It’s the stuff of Playstation racing. A fantastic drive by him nonetheless today. And yes Bottas is being exposed badly this year.
@Andrew Eager: He did cut the corner but a number of drivers cut the same corner during the race but weren’t penalised. You can’t penalise Max for cutting it and then give everyone else a free pass.
@Dan Smith: agreed, however, I do think that the modern race tracks with the massive run off areas are boring because if a driver makes a mistake, there is no major penalty for him. Much preferred the old tracks where they ended up in a gravel trap and had to retire
@Dan Smith: The Monaco comparison is always telling in these situations: Would he have managed the overtake had he been in Monaco? Nope, he’d be extracting himself from the armco. And even if other drivers were using that line during the weekend, I don’t know od anyone else who used it to overtake someone.
@Andrew Eager: Yes Vettel overtook Hamilton in the first corner with 4 wheels of the track.
Ever since bottas was given new contract,his form has nose dived.most be very embarrased at the way hamilton is totally destroying him every wkend!roll on 2018&hoping ferrari&red bull come up with cars to challenge hamilton.
Anyway, the really big story this weekend is Danny Ric getting the bums rush from Red Bull with regard to not being told that Verstappen got an upgraded engine worth .2 seconds a lap. It does not pay to be an Australian in the Red Bull team.
@Andrew Eager: Ricciardo will have the same engine update in Mexico. And don’t forget that Ric outqualified Verstappen on Saturday. Makes also sense for Red Bull: it’s not worth it to have grid penalties for both drivers at the same time. Unlucky for Daniel, Renault failed him again.
@Stephan Antuma: That’s no doubt true about getting the same engine, but the fact that they chose not to tell him that that was happening is pretty shocking stuff from a man-management perspective. To have to find out from a journalist is not the stuff that happy homes are made of.