It was another familiar 1-2 Mercedes snoozefest as Valtteri Bottas easily won the 2019 USA Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, in front of his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, who won the 2019 Formula One World Championship. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed the third and final podium position.
It was all too easy for Bottas, who was the pole-sitter and nearly lead from start to finish. Starting alongside Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, Bottas survived the first corner while Vettel suffered from an unspecified steering issue and dropped to seventh and ultimately exited the race eight laps later when his rear suspension gave way. That cleared the way for a two-way race between Hamilton and Verstappen for the final podium positions as Vettel’s Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc, was a non-factor in a distant fourth position.
Electing to go with a one-stop pit strategy as he did the prior week in the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix, Hamilton was almost able to fend off the charging Bottas, but Bottas passed him rather easily on Lap 52 of the 56-lap race and Hamilton spent the final four laps fending off Verstappen, who never got close enough to make a serious effort at second place.
Bottas wins the USA Grand Prix for the first time ever in his career and clinches second place in the driver’s championship while Hamilton clinches his sixth world title with the second-place finish. Meanwhile, the race for third remains tight with Leclerc with 248 points, Verstappen with 235 and Vettel with 230.
2019 USA Grand Prix Top 10
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes·#77
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes·#44
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull·#33
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari·#16
5 Alexander Albon Red Bull·#23
6 Daniel Ricciardo Renault·#3
7 Lando Norris McLaren·#4
8 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren·#55
9 Nico Hülkenberg Renault·#27
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso·#26