Sebastian Vettel achieved his eighth consecutive victory in Formula 1 with a dominant drive at the Circuit of the Americas.
The Red Bull driver has now passed Michael Schumacher’s 2004 achievement with eight wins in a single season.
While Vettel quickly established a comfortable lead and kept it between six and ten seconds for most of the race, Romain Grosjean denied Red Bull a one-two by keeping his Lotus ahead of Mark Webber with second place.
Webber’s start was arguably slightly better than Vettel’s, but he ran out of space trying to pass his team-mate into the uphill Turn 1 and was overtaken around the outside by both Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton.
The Red Bull dismissed the Mercedes down the outside into the hairpin at the end of the back straight on lap 13, then began a race-long chase after Grosjean.
A change of position seemed inevitable as Webber rapidly caught the Lotus, but the Australian’s tyres faded in the final laps and he had to settle for third.
Hamilton retained fourth position despite a challenge from Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.
Alonso had jumped Sergio Perez’s McLaren at their sole pitstops, then hunted down and passed Nico Hulkenberg.
The Ferrari and Sauber both gained on Hamilton in the final laps before Alonso began to run out of tyre grip.
Hulkenberg dived back ahead of him into Turn 1 starting the final lap, but Alonso cut back inside and reclaimed the position.
Behind Perez, Valtteri Bottas scored the first points of his Formula 1 career with an excellent drive to eighth for Williams.
The Finn stayed safely ahead of Nico Rosberg as the Mercedes put on a series of mid-race overtaking moves to grab ninth after Rosberg’s poor qualifying result.
Jenson Button grabbed the final championship point from Daniel Ricciardo late on. Jean-Eric Vergne and Esteban Gutierrez clashed on the last lap, while Felipe Massa had to make an extra pitstop and finished only P13.
Heikki Kovalainen’s first appearance as a substitute for Kimi Raikkonen proved very disappointing. He lost ground at the start, had to make an extra pitstop for a new front wing, then struggled with KERS issues on the way to P15 for Lotus.
The only retirement was Adrian Sutil, who clashed with Pastor Maldonado’s Williams on the back straight on the opening lap. The Force India slammed into the barriers, prompting a safety car.
Race results after 56 laps at the Circuit of the Americas:
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h39;17.148
2. Grosjean Lotus-Renault +6.2
3. Webber Red Bull-Renault +8.3
4. Hamilton Mercedes +27.3
5. Alonso Ferrari +29.5
6. Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari +30.4
7. Perez McLaren-Mercedes +46.6
8. Bottas Williams-Renault +54.5
9. Rosberg Mercedes +59.1
10. Button McLaren-Mercedes +1:17.2
11. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1:21.0
12. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1:24.5
13. Massa Ferrari +1:26.9
14. Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari +1:31.7
15. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault +1:35.0
16. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes +1:36.8
17. Maldonado Williams-Renault +1 lap
18. Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth +1 lap
19. van der Garde Caterham-Renault +1 lap
20. Pic Caterham-Renault +1 lap
21. Chilton Marussia-Cosworth +1 lap
Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:39.856
Not classified/retirements:
Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1 lap
World Championship standings, round 18:
Drivers:
1. Vettel 372
2. Alonso 227
3. Hamilton 187
4. Raikkonen 183
5. Webber 171
6. Rosberg 161
7. Grosjean 132
8. Massa 106
9. Button 61
10. Di Resta 48
11. Hulkenberg 47
12. Perez 41
13. Sutil 29
14. Ricciardo 19
15. Vergne 13
16. Gutierrez 6
17. Bottas 4
18. Maldonado 1
Constructors:
1. Red Bull-Renault 553
2. Mercedes 348
3. Ferrari 333
4. Lotus-Renault 315
5. McLaren-Mercedes 102
6. Force India-Mercedes 77
7. Sauber-Ferrari 53
8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 32
9. Williams-Renault 5
Next race: Brazilian Grand Prix, Interlagos. November 22-24.
After winning his eighth consecutive race, Sebastian Vettel has said he is not getting bored and the best is yet to come. Autosport.com has the news story.
Sebastian Vettel says he is “not getting bored” of winning after scoring a record-breaking eighth consecutive Formula 1 victory in the United States Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver took another commanding win to become the first driver in history to win eight straight races during the same season.
Vettel has been undefeated since the Belgian GP in August.
Despite the ease with which he is winning races this year, the four-time champion insists he still has plenty to keep him busy.
“It is not as if I am getting bored,” said Vettel. “I have quite a lot to do, looking at the gaps, I have to match their pace. When they come closer it is not the best feeling. you want the gap to increase always, you don’t want it to become smaller.
“It was clear this weekend that we have a very, very good package, especially on the long-run pace. We might have compromised the pace yesterday, but today I was happier with the balance.
“The car was similar to Friday so I was very happy. You do tend to have quite a lot of work in the car. It is a Sunday afternoon drive but not in that regard.”
The Germany said he was very proud of having added his name to the record books, and labelled his run of victories as incredible.
“It makes us very proud of that moment,” he said. “I think it is very difficult for all of us to realise what it means.
“One day people might look back and talk about our time and what we have done as a team. Everybody is happy to just turn up and give it everything.
“If there is one thing, that is the secret. Yes, the car has been mostly very reliable but it is the mindset we have, trying to give it everything we have, not miss a single step.
“People tend to forget that every single weekend is a challenge on its own. To have such an incredible run is very difficult to realise.”
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton admitted that a new chassis made a difference for his race at Austin. Autosport.com has the details.
Lewis Hamilton said the new Mercedes chassis he had for the United States Grand Prix completely transformed his competitiveness.
The 2008 Formula 1 world champion had struggled to match team-mate Nico Rosberg in India and Abu Dhabi.
Mercedes discovered a crack in Hamilton’s chassis after the latter race and provided a new one for Austin.
Hamilton qualified fifth and finished fourth in America, to his delight.
“The car was night and day different compared to where it was in Abu Dhabi, so I’m sure the new tub helped,” he said.
“I’m really just so happy that I could contribute and get some points for the guys. They’ve been working so hard all year and they’ve had so many difficult races in this half of the season.
“To finally have a half decent qualifying, move forward, utilise the tyres and have life left in them, makes me really, really happy.”
Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari closed in on Hamilton late in the race, but the Briton was able to respond.
“I could see Fernando was catching, so I was just looking after the tyres and waiting until he started to push,” he said.
“He started to push, so I reacted a little bit.
“When he was going to bring out a tenth, I was going to bring two tenths. When he was going to bring three, I was going to bring four.
“I’m really, really happy I could do that today.”
Hamilton result moved him past the sidelined Kimi Raikkonen to take third in the drivers’ championship, though he could still be beaten to the place by Mark Webber in Brazil next week.
The Mercedes driver said he was not too fussed about a top-three points position anyway.
“That doesn’t mean anything, plus the guy that was in third wasn’t even racing,” said Hamilton.