After Lewis Hamilton edged ever closer to his fifth World Driver’s Championship in Japan and taking his ninth victory of the season, round 18 of the 2018 FIA Formula 1 World Championship returns to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas for the Formula 1 2018 Pirelli United States Grand Prix. This marks the 40^th time that the United States Grand Prix has been run as a round of the World Championship since its inception in 1950 and the seventh time being held in Austin, Texas.

 

 

A look at the Circuit of the Americas

 

 

Circuit of the Americas is a permanent racing circuit located in Elroy, Travis County on the south-eastern periphery of Austin city limits in Central Texas. The circuit and Grand Prix were proposed in 2010 and was the first in the United States to be purposely built for Formula 1. The layout was conceived by Tavo Hellmund and 1993 World Motorcycle Champion Kevin Schwantz with assistance from circuit designer and architect Hermann Tilke. The circuit was opened on October 21, 2012. The Circuit of the Americas is also used for MotoGP, the FIA World Endurance Championship and the Tudor United SportsCar Championship.

 

The circuit draws inspiration from some of the best circuits in the world, as well as taking advantage of the site’s natural contours which features dramatic elevation changes of up to 40 metres.

 

There is a steep, uphill run into the first corner hairpin, which quickly became the track’s signature corner. Turns three to six looks nearly similar to Silverstone’s high-speed Maggotts/Becketts/Chapel complex; turns 12 through 15 is similar to Hockenheim’s stadium section; and turns 16 through 18 mirrors the popular turn eight at Turkey’s Istanbul Park Circuit.

 

Support buildings include a medical facility, 14 executive meeting suites, a conference centre, a banquet hall, as well as an outdoor live music space.

 

The Circuit of the Americas is 5.513km (3.427 miles) in length with 20 corners and runs in an anti-clockwise direction.

 

Race distance is 308.405km (191.634 miles) in length with 56 laps in total.

 

Sebastian Vettel holds the fastest lap record at the circuit with a 1:37.766 set at last year’s event in his Scuderia Ferrari SF70H.

 

Lewis Hamilton holds the record for most United States Grand Prix victories with six.

 

Scuderia Ferrari are the most successful constructor at the United States Grand Prix with nine victories.

 

The last five United States Grand Prix winners

 

 

2017: Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes AMG F1. 2016: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2015: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2014: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2013: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing.

 

Tyres

 

 

Pirelli will be bringing with them to Texas the purple-marked Ultra Soft rubber, the red-branded Super Soft compounds and the yellow-marked Soft tyres due to the Circuit of the America’s combination of fast corners and more technical sections along with the green-branded Intermediate and blue-marked Full Wet tyre compounds in case of rain.

 

McLaren have gone the most conservative with their tyre choices for the United States Grand Prix. The Woking-based outfit were at a disadvantage last time at Suzuka, selecting less sets of the softest tyre available and were denying claims that the unusual allocations were a result of forgetting to nominate its tyre choices properly.

 

In Austin, McLaren once again will have fewer sets of the softest compound available with five sets of ultrasofts each for Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne.

 

Alonso has taken six sets of the softs (the hardest compound available for the weekend), a set more than team-mate Vandoorne and twice as many as his rivals.

 

Renault’s other customer team Red Bull Racing have also gone the conservative route with duo Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen selecting six sets of the ultrasofts, four sets of supersofts and two sets of the softs each.

 

Championship leaders Mercedes have given both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas seven sets of the ultrasoft compounds while Ferrari have given Kimi Raikkonen the same set amount as the two Mercedes drivers while Sebastian Vettel will have one more set of the purple-marked tyre at his disposal.

 

Force India, Sauber and Williams have all opted for nine sets of the ultrasoft rubber for each of their drivers.

 

DRS Zones

There will be two DRS Zones at the Circuit of the Americas with the first detection point 150 metres after turn 10 with the activation point 320 metres after turn 11. The second detection point is 65 metres after turn 18 with the activation point 80 metres after the final corner on the main-straight.

 

Pitlane Speed Limits

Pitlane speed limits will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

 

ICYMI: Japanese GP Rewind – Hamilton edges closer to fifth title with comfortable victory

 

 

Lewis Hamilton drew ever closer to his fifth World Driver’s Championship crown by claiming a comfortable victory at the Japanese Grand Prix whilst title-rival Sebastian Vettel collided with Max Verstappen.

 

Hamilton’s ninth win of the season and Vettel’s sixth place finish at Suzuka, after spinning to the back of the field, gives Hamilton a 67-point advantage heading into the final four rounds of the championship.

 

This means that Hamilton just needs to outscore Vettel by eight points at next round’s United States Grand Prix to claim his fifth world title.

 

At the start of the Japanese Grand Prix, pole sitter Hamilton kept his lead at the start and held Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas with a small gap throughout the first stint, which was interrupted by the safety car.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen suffered a puncture when he moved right down the main straight defending from Sauber’s Charles Leclerc who ran into the rear of the Haas VF-18.

 

The Haas eventually lost its shredding tyre, and the VF-18 racer’s bodywork scattered thanks to the flapping rubber and the safety car was deployed to clear the debris.

 

At this point a brilliant start from Ferrari’s Vettel catapulted him from eighth to fourth, assisted by Verstappen’s clash with the German’s team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

 

Verstappen locked up entering the Casio Triangle chicane on the opening lap and ran off track, tumbled over the grass and kerb as the Dutchman re-joined the circuit at the second part of the chicane.

 

The outcome resulted in light contact with Raikkonen’s Ferrari, who was forced wide as he tried to overtake the Red Bull around the outside and allowed Vettel to jump past his team-mate.

 

When the race resumed on the eighth lap, Vettel charged at Verstappen, who had been hit with a five-second time penalty for his collision with Raikkonen.

 

Vettel tried to slip by Verstappen at Spoon curve, but disaster struck when the German carried too much speed and made slight contact with the RB14 and spun into the runoff area.

 

Verstappen survived and was able to continue on without dropping track position to Raikkonen, but Vettel fell to the rear – the stewards investigated the incident and no further action was taken.

 

Despite being slapped with the time penalty, Verstappen was able to keep third place ahead of Raikkonen thanks to Ferrari stopping first and releasing the Finn into traffic.

 

This also allowed Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull, who started 15^th on the grid after an engine problem in qualifying, to slip ahead of Raikkonen as he flew through the field in a thrilling first stint.

 

The leading order settled from then onwards with Hamilton continuing to extend his lead as Bottas fell under threat in the later stages from Verstappen in a battle for second.

 

Bottas survived after locking up at the Casio Triangle with six laps remaining, which saw the Finn skate across the chicane, to give the Silver Arrows a one-two finish for the second consecutive race.

 

Raikkonen fell further away from the two Red Bull RB14’s to finish in fifth place, whilst Ferrari team-mate Vettel eventually made his way to settle home for sixth.

 

By the time Vettel cleared the rest of the pack, the German was already a minute behind rival Hamilton and 40 seconds behind team-mate Raikkonen.

 

The gap slipped to 18.8 seconds at the end of the Grand Prix as Ferrari decided to not switch positions, denying Vettel a crucial two points.

 

Racing Point Force India’s Sergio Perez finished in seventh place after getting the best of the Haas and Toro Rosso with a better strategy.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly were running in seventh and eighth respectively early on, but Force India opted to pit Perez and Esteban Ocon earlier than their midfield rivals.

 

The fresher rubber allowed the VJM11 racers to jump past Gasly before Perez caught and overtook Grosjean after the Virtual Safety Car was deployed due to Charles Leclerc’s Sauber stopping near the hairpin.

 

Ocon was unable to replicate his team-mate and came home in ninth place with Renault’s Carlos Sainz snatching the final point position off Gasly in the closing stages.

 

This meant Toro Rosso failed to score any points at power-train supplier Honda’s home Grand Prix after qualifying in sixth and seventh respectively.

 

Brendon Hartley crossed the line in 13^th place at the end of a tough race after plunging from sixth to tenth on the opening lap due to a bad start.

 

Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson split the Toro Rosso pairing in 12^th while the two McLaren MCL33’s of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne finished in 14^th and 15^th respectively.

 

The two Williams of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin were brought up the rear.

 

Three cars retired from the Japanese Grand Prix with Magnussen and Leclerc (who also got rear ended by team-mate Ericsson at the race restart) and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg.

 

The Situation

 

 

Lewis Hamilton returns to Austin on top of the World Driver’s Championship with 331 points and a 67-point advantage over title-rival Sebastian Vettel who is second on 264 points while Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas is a further 124 behind the Briton in third on 207 points.

 

Mercedes returns to Texas sitting on top of the World Constructors Championship with 538 points and a 78-point lead over nearest rival Ferrari who are second on 460 points while Red Bull Racing is a further 219 points behind the Silver Arrows in third on 319 points.

 

 

How Hamilton can secure the title in Texas

 

 

Lewis Hamilton is currently 67 points ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and needs to be 75 ahead of the German to secure his fifth World Driver’s Championship crown.

If Hamilton wins in Austin	Vettel must finish second to take the battle to Mexico
If Hamilton finishes second	Vettel must finish fourth
If Hamilton finishes third	Vettel must finish sixth
If Hamilton finishes fourth	Vettel must finish seventh
If Hamilton finishes fifth	Vettel must finish eighth
If Hamilton finishes sixth	Vettel must finish tenth
If Hamilton finishes seventh or lower	The title fight continues at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez

 

In the event of a tie-breaker, Lewis Hamilton is guaranteed to finish ahead of Sebastian Vettel if both finish level on points at the end of the season.

 

Although Vettel can still match Hamilton’s nine race victories this season by winning the final four rounds (the German currently has five victories), Hamilton would still need another second place finish to his name (currently three to two).

 

2018 Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship Standings

1. Lewis Hamilton – 331 Points.
2. Sebastian Vettel – 264 Points.
3. Valtteri Bottas – 207 Points.
4. Kimi Raikkonen – 196 Points.
5. Max Verstappen – 173 Points.
6. Daniel Ricciardo – 146 Points.
7. Sergio Perez – 53 Points.
8. Kevin Magnussen – 53 Points.
9. Nico Hulkenberg – 53 Points.
10. Fernando Alonso – 50 Points.

2018 Formula 1 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 538 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 460 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 319 Points.
4. Renault Sport F1 Team – 92 Points.
5. Haas F1 Team – 84 Points.
6. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 58 Points.
7. Racing Point Force India F1 Team – 43 Points.
8. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 30 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 27 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 7 Points.

 

The Formula 1 2018 Pirelli United States Grand Prix weekend begins Friday October 19 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday October 20 and the 56 lap Race Sunday October 21.