Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton easily won the 2017 United States Grand Prix in Austin with a 10-second victory over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel while Vettel’s Ferrari teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, finished out the podium in third.
Hamilton was the pole-sitter for the race with Vettel sitting alongside him in the first row and after Vettel narrowly beat out Hamilton to the first turn, it took Hamilton only five laps before he returned the favor and the race was over from there as Hamilton gradually pulled away throughout the course of the race. A late race pit stop for Vettel to try to change to softer tires allowed him to somewhat close the gap to Hamilton but not enough to make it close at the end.
The main drama came for third place where Raikkonen on aging tires was attempting to hold off a charging Max Verstappen from Red Bull on fresher tires only to have Verstappen pass him on the last corners. But race stewards stripped Verstappen of the seeming third place finish when it was determined that he had went off track [cut corners] while closing in on Raikkonen and was assessed a five-second penalty – giving the place back to Raikkonen.
With the victory, Hamilton inches even closer to claiming his fourth world title as he leads Vettel in the 2017 Formula One driver’s standings with 331 points to 265 for Vettel with only three races remaining on the schedule. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas is third with 244 points.
2017 United States Grand Prix Results
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:33:50.991
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari +10.143
3 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari +15.779
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull +16.768
5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +34.967
6 Esteban Ocon Force India +90.980
7 Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault +92.944
8 Sergio Pérez Force India +1 Lap
9 Felipe Massa Williams +1 Lap
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso +1 Lap