There was no stopping the boys
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes AMG Petronas as they continued
their winning streak in the 2014 Formula One US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. With this win, Lewis
Hamilton has extended his title lead and is now 24 points clear of his teammate
Rosberg with three races to go. Daniel Ricciardo finished third for Red Bull
Racing.
It was Hamilton's fifth
straight victory, his 10th of the season and the 32nd of his career - putting
him ahead of Nigel Mansell's previous British record of 31 Grand Prix wins.
A day earlier, Rosberg had claimed
his ninth pole position of the season. On Sunday he led the race through the
opening stint, but when the Mercedes duo made their first visit to the pit lane
for medium tyres, Hamilton found more pace than his team-mate on the prime
rubber and on lap 24 completed a bold move on the German into Turn 12 to steal
the lead. From here onward, Hamilton kept up the pace and eventually took a a
comfortable 10th win of the season.
Williams pair Felipe Massa and
Valtteri Bottas camein fourth and fifth respectively, followed by Ferrari’s
Fernando Alonso who came in sixth. The rest of the top ten table was made up of
Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing who came in seventh, followed by Kevin
Magnussen of McLaren (8th), Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso (9th)
and Pastor Maldonado of Lotus who came in tenth. Maldonado had shouldered his
way to ninth on the final lap but the Venezuelan was later dropped back to
tenth after picking up a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane
Unfortunately for Sahara Force
India boys Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio
Perez, both had to retire early in the race. Adrian Sutil of Sauber too retired
midway.
In fact, Sergio Perez got it
wrong into the corner on the first lap and hit Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari and
then slammed into Sutil’s Sauber car, ending the German’s race. This was truly
disappointing as on the previous day Sutil had claimed the first top 10
qualifying position of the season for Sauber and put the team in a good
position to claim its first points of the year.
For his reckless driving Sergio
Perez was handed a seven-place grid drop for next race in Brazil after the
stewards in Austin adjudged him to have caused the first-lap collision that
took both him and Sauber’s Adrian Sutil out of the 2014 Formula 1 United States
Grand Prix.
“The driver of car 11 (Perez)
could not reasonably have expected to complete the manoeuvre,” read a statement
issued by the stewards. “His collision with car 99 (Sutil) was reckless.”
Perez was also issued with two
penalty points for the incident, which will stay on his licence for a period of
12 months.
As for the winners, Rosberg
was taken by surprise at Turn 12 on the 24th lap when Hamilton came from a long
way back, and drove down the inside to take the lead.
Felipe Massa almost took a podium
but a slow stop on the 32nd lap dropped him behind hard-charging Daniel
Ricciardo.
Jenson Button also ran over
debris at the start and eventually fell back steadily to 12th as his McLaren
lacked grip and pace. Kimi Raikkonen finished 13th for Ferrari, ahead of
Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez and Daniil Kvyat in the second Toro Rosso.
With his win in Austin, Hamilton
now has 316 points to Rosberg's 292, which effectively means he can clinch the
2014 title by finishing second to Rosberg over the remaining two Grands Prix.
Ricciardo strengthened his grip on third place, on 214.
In the constructors' title
race, Mercedes has 608 points to Red Bull's 363, with Williams third on 238.
Ferrari is fourth with 196, 49 points ahead of McLaren.