Hamilton on brink of F1 title triumph following US GP win, engine failure forces Ricciardo out

Iain Strachan

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Hamilton on brink of F1 title triumph following US GP win, engine failure forces Ricciardo out image

Lewis Hamilton won the United States Grand Prix on Sunday, but must wait until at least next weekend to be crowned Formula One world champion after Sebastian Vettel did enough to prolong their title battle.

MORE: Ricciardo wants to go against Hamilton, may leave Red Bull

Mercedes driver Hamilton started on pole and triumphed with relative comfort in Austin to remain firmly in charge of the destiny of the championship, Vettel finishing second in Texas to keep his own slim hopes alive. 

The Briton now leads by 66 points with a maximum of 75 available to Vettel over the final three races of the season.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo was forced to retire after lap 16 with an engine issue, running off the track with power loss.

“I was racing with a full heart,” he told England’s Channel 4. “I had to try with Valtteri (Bottas), I wasn’t going to sit around in fourth all afternoon and wonder what might have been. I had a lot of hesitation on power — I could tell something was going on.”

Red Bull's Max Verstappen thought he had snatched third from Vettel's Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen on the final lap to complete the podium, but gave the place back after a five-second penalty was imposed for all four of his wheels leaving the track.

Hamilton's colleague Valtteri Bottas, meanwhile, was fifth.

Mercedes can celebrate a fourth successive constructors' title, Ferrari having failed to prevent the German outfit from extending their dominance over the rest of the paddock.

Attention now turns to the Mexican Grand Prix, where Hamilton appears highly likely to wrap up his fourth F1 crown.

The 32-year-old made a slow start at the Circuit of the Americas, allowing Vettel to snatch the lead from second place on the grid going into the first turn.

But the German quickly found himself losing time to Hamilton, who used DRS on the back straight to pass his rival on lap six and regain first place, turning a 1.1 second deficit into a commanding lead of 3.9secs in the subsequent nine laps. 

Ferrari opted to pit Vettel after he found himself under pressure from Bottas and the change to a softer compound helped him to set the fastest lap of the race yet.

The sudden injection of Scuderia pace prompted Mercedes to bring in Hamilton, who then had to fight hard to stay ahead of Vettel when he rejoined the race.   

That brief scare proved to be the closest Hamilton came to finding himself in trouble in the race, as the championship favourite saw out the remaining laps without incident.

There was plenty of late drama behind though, Vettel dropping to fourth after a second pit stop but finishing strongly to claim second.

Verstappen's daring attempt to steal third from Raikkonen ultimately ended in failure after the young Dutchman, who performed superbly after starting 16th, was deemed to have gained an advantage from leaving the track in his final-lap manoeuvre. 

Earlier, Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo suffered a cruel blow when his power unit failed on lap 16 after he had set the fastest times in all three sectors on fresh tyres.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg of Renault and Sauber's Pascal Wehrlein also retired.

Iain Strachan