In his penultimate race before ending a 14-year stint at McLaren, Lewis Hamilton bid the team a fond farewell with a fine victory at the returning United States Grand Prix.
The Briton, whose title bid had been derailed by a combination of unreliability and inconsistency, defeated eventual champion Sebastian Vettel in an entertaining race which saw the magnificent Circuit of the Americas immediately win a place in fans’ hearts.
It was a long-awaited return to the top step for Hamilton after a nightmare run following his Italian Grand Prix triumph, with mechanical retirements in Singapore and Abu Dhabi and further woe in Korea, and a taste of the quality McLaren would surely miss in the coming years.
Elsewhere, Vettel’s second place not only handed him a commanding 13-point advantage heading into the epic finale at Interlagos but also saw Red Bull clinch their third consecutive Constructors’ Championship – the latest chapter in what would prove to be a remarkable ‘quadruple double’.
Amidst his stunning resurgence in the flyaway races, Vettel established himself as the hot favourite in practice, ominously topping FP1 and FP2 by 1.5 seconds and seventh tenths respectively. Hamilton, though, slashed his advantage to just two tenths in the third and final session, setting the stage for a qualifying duel between two of the sport’s most talented drivers.
It was the German who edged out his rival by just over a tenth of a second, with Mark Webber and the much-maligned Romain Grosjean taking third and fourth on the grid. The main headline from qualifying, though, was the struggles for Fernando Alonso, who could only manage ninth on the grid – a seemingly disastrous result for the title contender.
Much of the pre-race discussion had centred around the prediction that those starting on the ‘dirtier’ left-hand side of the grid would struggle for grip off the line, compounding Alonso’s misery. Ferrari proceeded to hatch a controversial plan. In a commendable demonstration of loyalty, Felipe Massa allowed the team to cut a seal on his gearbox, demoting the Brazilian to 11th on the grid, but crucially promoting teammate Alonso to seventh, onto the ‘grippier’ tarmac.
The pressure was on Alonso to make a vintage lightning start, and indeed he did, climbing to fourth place on the ascent into Turn 1. As expected, Webber enjoyed a much better getaway than Hamilton in 2nd and made it a Red Bull 1-2 on the first lap.
Three laps later, Hamilton, who had the distinct air of a man on a mission, passed Webber on the DRS straight and set his sights on race leader Vettel, who had opened up a lead early on. Webber, so often the victim of misfortune during his time at Red Bull, went on to retire on Lap 17 following a KERS failure, pushing Alonso up into the podium places.
The fight for victory was off limits for the Spaniard, with Vettel three seconds clear of Hamilton as the pair made their one and only pit-stops. The Englishman began to reel in the championship leader, but frustratingly teetered on the edge of his DRS zone for a number of laps before traffic in the form of Narain Karthikeyan in the first sector cost Vettel valuable time and allowed Hamilton to sweep past on the run towards Turn 12, to the delight of the capacity crowd.
Vettel remained on Hamilton’s tale until the chequered flag but was ultimately powerless to prevent the McLaren man clinching a morale-boosting victory.
Alonso completed the podium places, though he claimed the result felt like a victory after his qualifying woes, while Massa fought back to fourth place, leading home Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen.
Hamilton would retire from the finale in Brazil after a collision with Nico Hulkenberg, though his Austin heroics ensured his topsy-turvy but successful spell at McLaren, which yielded 21 victories and a world title, did not end on a sour note.
The FIA had ambitiously looked to challenge the established dominance of IndyCar and NASCAR in the United States, and the sport was welcomed back with open arms, putting on a fantastic show for both domestic and global audiences. Since its return to the calendar, the USGP has become somewhat of a fan favourite, second only to the elite quadrumvirate of Silverstone, Spa, Monza and Suzuka in terms of its popularity.
So, to put matters in perspective, Vettel, having outperformed Alonso once again, knew that fourth or better would be enough to wrap up his third F1 crown in Interlagos, regardless of where the Spaniard finished. If only it had proven as simple as that…
The German, then, took a step closer to completing a sensational turnaround after finding himself more than forty points adrift heading into the summer break, and Hamilton, who has won two of the three Grands Prix at Austin since his victory upon the circuit’s inauguration, will need to deliver a Lazarus-esque comeback if he is to deny Nico Rosberg a maiden F1 crown, starting this weekend.
