It was another snoozer in Formula One racing this weekend as Mercedes won yet another race – the only difference this time being the field was lighter than usual at the 2014 United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas with only 18 cars starting the race due to the absence of the financially-troubled Caterham and Marussia teams. It took only one lap for the race to be decimated to 16 cars when Sergio Perez first nicked Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen then t-boned Adrian Sutil to knock both Perez and Sutil out of the race. A few laps later, on Lap 18, Nico Hulkenberg was out of the race due to a mechanical failure, making it a 15-car race.
As for that race, it went in the same predictable fashion as most of the races this year with Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg winning the pole position, then giving up the lead early in the race to teammate Lewis Hamilton, who then goes on to cruise to victory with Rosberg comfortably in second. The USA Grand Prix was no different as that scenario played out exactly and, as usual, the battle was for a distant third place podium spot and, as usual, that went to Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. Meanwhile, newly-Ferrarized four time defending champion Sebastian Vettel started in pit lane due to a power unit rules violation and worked his way through the field to eventually finish seventh. Only 10 cars finished on the lead lap.
In the season point standings, Hamilton adds to his lead over Rosberg with 316 points to Rosberg’s 292 followed by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo in third with 214 points.
The 2014 Formula One racing season continues with the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlaken in Brazil on November 9, 2014.
2014 United States Grand Prix Results
Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 56 1:40:04.785 2 25
2 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 56 +4.3 secs 1 18
3 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 56 +25.5 secs 5 15
4 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 56 +26.9 secs 4 12
5 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 56 +30.9 secs 3 10
6 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 56 +95.2 secs 6 8
7 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 56 +95.7 secs 18 6
8 20 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 56 +100.68 secs 7 4
9 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 56 +107.87 secs 10 2
10 25 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault 56 +108.86 secs 14 1
11 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 55 +1 Lap 16
12 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 55 +1 Lap 12
13 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 55 +1 Lap 8
14 21 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 55 +1 Lap 15
15 26 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault 55 +1 Lap 17
Ret 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 16 Engine 13
Ret 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1 Accident damage 11
Ret 99 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 0 Accident 9