@LewisHamilton champion for sixth time despite @ValtteriBottas snatching #USGP win. #F1

Hamilton six-time World Champion despite Bottas snatching US GP victory

Lewis Hamilton became World Driver’s Champion for a sixth time despite being overtaken late on by Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the United States Grand Prix as the Finn snatched the victory.

Hamilton made short work of the two Ferrari drivers on the opening lap to grab third and was the sole runner among the leaders to take on a one-stop strategy, which put the Briton above Bottas and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.

But pole-sitter Bottas caught and passed Hamilton with five laps remaining to snatch the victory.

Hamilton’s sixth world title, his fifth with the Silver Arrows, appeared to be reality before the start of the race as the Briton only needed to finish eighth to mathematically wipe team-mate Bottas out of the equation.

A sixth victory for Hamilton in Texas seemed less likely after a difficult qualifying meant he started behind Bottas, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton was in-front of both Ferrari’s at the midway point of the opening lap, clearing Leclerc rapidly then executing a brilliant move around the outside of Vettel into the sweeping turn eight after the esses sequence – which gave the Mercedes driver the inside line into the ninth corner.

Once in third place, Hamilton slowly started to put pressure on Verstappen, who had sustained front wing damage at turn one.

Verstappen passed Vettel around the outside into the first corner on the opening lap and though the Dutchman backed off as leader Bottas moved wide at the exit, there was slight contact between the duo.

This gave Verstappen a balanced offset throughout the race, meaning by the time he pitted his Honda-powered RB15 racer on lap 13 – committing to a two-stop strategy – as Bottas was comfortably clear and Hamilton was on the rear of the Red Bull.

Mercedes reacted by stopping Bottas a lap later to hold track position against the undercut threat, which was successful, while Hamilton remained out longer until lap 24.

That set a split of race strategies that gave Hamilton track position once Bottas and Verstappen pitted for their final time, as the top three converged for the closing stages.

Bottas got within DRS range of team-mate Hamilton with six laps to go and next time round the latter ran slightly wide into the hairpin, giving the former a better run on the long back straight.

Hamilton covered the inside line as Bottas got alongside the Briton and briefly in-front on the outside, but Hamilton braked later, making Bottas take to the run-off area on the exit of the corner.

On the next lap, Bottas was able to the inside of Hamilton with DRS assistance at the same place, passing his Mercedes team-mate without no problems.

With no chance at fighting Bottas back, Hamilton turned to keeping Red Bull’s Verstappen at bay.

Verstappen’s front wing damage meant he never quite got back on terms with race leader Bottas after dropping back in the initial race stint, but he caught the struggling Hamilton with three laps remaining and was given “full power” in an attempt to snatch second place.

But yellow flags at the end of the back straight – caused by a brake failure from Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who ended up in the gravel, meant a key overtaking opportunity for the Dutchman was removed.

Behind race winner Bottas and second-placed Hamilton (Champion) as the Silver Arrows wrapped up a one-two, Verstappen had to settle for third.

Leclerc finished a distant fourth place after Ferrari’s strong run of form was dashed in a dismal Grand Prix for the Maranello squad.

Leclerc had a slow 7.7 stop and ended up 52.239 seconds behind winner Bottas in fourth, but team-mate Vettel retired from the Grand Prix after a left-rear suspension failure in the early stages.

Vettel already fell to seventh from his front-row start after struggling with no grip and understeer in the opening laps, then his SF90 racer broke on the eighth lap.

The second Red Bull of Alexander Albon finished fifth despite a tangle with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz on lap one, having squeezed Leclerc’s Ferrari and the McLaren.

Albon had to pit at the end of the opening lap because of damage his RB15 racer suffered but the Thai-Briton driver charged back with two impressive stints.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo ended the Grand Prix best-of-the-rest in sixth after overhauling the two McLaren MCL34’s.

Lando Norris took a late second stop that allowed the youngster to make short work of his midfield rivals and claim seventh, ahead of team-mate Sainz – who lost ground in the early stages thanks to his opening lap collision.

The other Renault of Nico Hulkenberg made a late-great charge to snatch ninth whilst Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat passed Racing Point’s Sergio Perez for the final point’s place on the last lap but was demoted to 12^th after being immediately hit with a five-second timed penalty for his collision with the Mexican.

This promoted Perez to take the final point position and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen to 11^th.

Racing Point’s Lance Stroll finished 13^th and in-front of the second Alfa of Antonio Giovinazzi who was 14^th and Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean who took 15^th.

Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly was 15^th and did not finish whilst ROKiT Williams Racing’s George Russell brought up the rear and two laps down.

Russell’s team-mate Robert Kubica was the other casualty in the Grand Prix retiring due to a hydraulics failure on lap 31.

The Top Three

Winner – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “It’s a nice win, feels good. It was the only thing I could focus on this week, obviously it wasn’t enough, and Lewis has the title… Big congrats to him. He deserves it, he had a strong season.”

2^nd – Lewis Hamilton (Champion), #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “It’s just overwhelming. It was such a tough race today, Valtteri did a great job. As an athlete I feel as fresh as can be. We’ll keep pushing for the rest of the season.”

3^rd – Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “I tried to stay close in case something happened, it was a very good race and it was fun – I could see the cars ahead of me. There was a yellow flag on the back straight, so we couldn’t use DRS…”

Formula 1 Emirates United States Grand Prix 2019 Race Results Classification (56 Laps)

Formula 1 2019 World Driver’s Championship Standings – Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton “Champion” – 381 Points.
2. Valtteri Bottas – 314 Points.
3. Charles Leclerc – 249 Points.
4. Max Verstappen – 235 Points.
5. Sebastian Vettel – 230 Points.
6. Alexander Albon – 84 Points.
7. Carlos Sainz – 80 Points.
8. Pierre Gasly – 77 Points.
9. Daniel Ricciardo – 46 Points.
10. Sergio Perez – 43 Points.

You can see the rest of the 2019 World Driver’s Championship standings at the following link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/drivers.html

Formula 1 2019 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 695 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 479 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda – 366 Points.
4. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 121 Points.
5. Renault F1 Team – 83 Points.
6. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 65 Points.
7. SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team – 64 Points.
8. Alfa Romeo Racing – 35 Points.
9. Rich Energy Haas F1 Team – 28 Points.
10. ROKiT Williams Racing – 1 Point.

The penultimate round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the Formula 1 Heineken Grande Premio Do Brasil 2019 from November 15-17.

You can catch up on everything that happened on the Formula 1 Emirates United States Grand Prix weekend at the following links:

@MercedesAMGF1’s @ValtteriBottas clinches crucial #UnitedStatesGP pole. #F1 #USGP

@LewisHamilton tops #UnitedStatesGP FP2 ahead of @Charles_Leclerc. #F1 #USGP

@Max33Verstappen pips #Vettel in #UnitedStatesGP FP1. #F1 #USGP

#F1 Newsbites – 2021 Rules & Regulations Edition. #F12021 @F1