Bottas victorious in Texas but P2 Hamilton claims sixth Formula 1 Title; Verstappen P3 on bad day for Ferrari
Mercedes’ had another landmark day to punctuate another season full of Silver Arrow excellence. The might German team dominated the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday and took a one-two finish deep in the heart of Texas. While their number two driver Valtteri Bottas rode his pole position and a superior two-stop tire strategy to a dominant win, his teammate Lewis Hamilton came home P2, easily earning enough points to clinch his remarkable sixth F1 Drivers’ Championship. With Bottas the only man left with a minute mathematical shot at this year’s title entering the race, Hamilton put it all on the line in Austin. He committed to a risky one-stop strategy and battled a bumpy and windy race track while declining playing it safe to just come home with the bare minimum points to clinch.
Instead the English bulldog took it to the limit, even dicing with his Finnish wingman and going so far as to push Bottas off the track on lap 51 of this 57-lap contest in a despaired bid to maintain the lead and ring up another championship with a win. In the end, Hamilton could not hold off Bottas’ fresher Medium tires on the same superlative equipment and the Finn was able to get by on Lap 52 and cruise home to victory. But Hamilton did fend off the best attempts of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull to take P2 at the checkers and ring up a remarkable sixth championship, surpassing the great Juan Manual Fangio of Argentina for second all-time. Hamilton trails only Michael Schumacher’s record seven F1 crowns and knowing his personality and relentless pursuit of excellence it will be uppermost in his mind this offseason to match that seventh title next season, especially with major new rules changes looming in 2021. But for now Lewis Hamilton can bask in the glory of achieving what only one other driver in Formula 1 history has ever done before. And team Mercedes should be well satisfied with both their driver lineup and the continued performance of their engine and chassis that has already secured them their own sixth Constructors’ Championship and their sixth in a row to boot.
Mercedes’ day of glory in the Lone Star State came at the expense of arch rival Ferrari who had a fairly dreadful day at the races at COTA. The straight-line advantage that had turned around the famed Scuderia’s fortunes after the summer break vanished on this extremely technical and also very bumpy circuit. And the Prancing Horses had major issues turning on their Medium Pirellis to start the race, as Vettel dropped from P2 all the way down to P6 on the opening lap, including being ignominiously passed by the McLaren of Lando Norris. Something surely was not right with the German four-time champion’s car and on Lap 8 things went from bad to worse. When Vettel ran wide over the curbs his right rear suspension snapped like a carbon fiber twig, ending his race just like that. Meanwhile, Leclerc could never really distinguish himself or fly the flag for Ferrari despite running the preferred Medium-Hard-Medium two-stop strategy that Bottas managed so effectively. He was also undone by a slow pit stop on Lap 21 when an issue with one of the wheel guns left him stationary for a whopping 7.7 seconds, over 5 seconds slower than today’s average mega-fast F1 stops. That saw the Monegasque emerge back in P6 and while he put up a game effort he could do no better than a P4 finish nearly a minute adrift of race-winner Bottas.
Red Bull’s Verstappen ran an effective race and kept it clean, and his mouth shut for the most part after his self-induced fiasco in Mexico City a week ago, taking the last podium spot in P3 even if he could never match the pace of the Mercedes duo. His teammate Alexander Albon survived an early clash with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz that necessitated a first lap pit stop and four stops in all but still fought his way to a P5 finish in a damaged car. It was an impressive drive by young Albon and if his place in the senior Red Bull team as Verstappen’s partner for next year was not already secure it should be now.
Daniel Ricciardo had an excellent result for Renault as the best of the rest in P6, while teammate Nico Hulkenberg also drove well to take points in P9. McLaren continued their strong second half run with Norris driving with increasing maturity and controlled aggression to take P7 and his senior teammate Sainz just behind in P8. And Racing Point’s Sergio Perez had another superb day in the saddle coming all the way back from a pit lane start after being penalized for missing the weigh bridge in practice to battle his way back up into the last points-paying position in P10.
Top 10 finishers of the United States GP:
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | LAPS | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | MERCEDES | 56 | 1:33:55.653 | 25 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | 56 | +4.148s | 18 |
| 3 | 33 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING HONDA | 56 | +5.002s | 15 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | FERRARI | 56 | +52.239s | 13 |
| 5 | 23 | Alexander Albon | RED BULL RACING HONDA | 56 | +78.038s | 10 |
| 6 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RENAULT | 56 | +90.366s | 8 |
| 7 | 4 | Lando Norris | MCLAREN RENAULT | 56 | +90.764s | 6 |
| 8 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | MCLAREN RENAULT | 55 | +1 lap | 4 |
| 9 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | RENAULT | 55 | +1 lap | 2 |
| 10 | 11 | Sergio Perez | RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES | 55 | +1 lap | 1 |
Complete race results available via Formula1.com.
The big 2019 F1 championships may be wrapped up but the season still has two races to go. The penultimate contest is in a fortnights’ times, the classic and unpredictable Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!