Eighteen cars started in the US Grand Prix, but they made an interesting competition. Despite the fact that the Nico Rosberg was the fastest during qualify, Lewis Hamilton won the race.
This time «Formula 1» lost two teams — Marussia and Caterham. Circuit of the Americas race track was not full of sports cars. There was no competition for the championship because «Silver Arrows» broke away from its pursuers. Everyone expected to see a competition between the teammates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.
Circuit of the Americas racetrack was built in 2012. This is the first US racing circuit, which was designed especially for the «Formula 1». In the year 2012 it already hosted the US Grand Prix, where Lewis Hamilton won. Last year Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) was the winner.
Since the two teams could not take part in the race, the stewards decided to revise the format of the qualify. The first and second session four cars came out instead of usual six.
During free practice the Mercedes pilots dominated. The length of the track is 5513 m and it has 20 turns. The track is not flat, the altitude difference is about 41 meter.
Some pilots had to spend a lot of time in the pits. Sebastian Vettel got the sixth engine. He had to start from the pit lane, and qualify was a great formality for him. By the way, Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) had to replace the seventh engine that’s why he also lost starting positions. Jenson Button (McLaren) lost points because of “extra” gearbox change.
In qualify Nico Rosberg showed the best time — 1: 36,067. He said: “We have a great car and we applied correct settings that are very nice. Pole position is very inspiring but we should give full attention to the coming race. "
Lewis Hamilton was 0.4 seconds slower. Then the Williams pilots — Bottas and Massa, Riccardo (Red Bull) and Alonso (Ferrari). Daniil Kvyat passed in 1:38.69, but because of engine replacement he started from the seventeenth position.
So the race. Nico Rosberg kept the leadership. In a series of overtaking pilots became a bit inaccurate and few of them had crashes. Sergio Perez (Force India) hit the car of Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) and immediately hit also the car driven by Adrian Sutil (Sauber): «Today was extremely annoying situation: I tried to overtake Adrian Sutil in the fifteenth turn — he left the place for my maneuver, and I began to pass through the inner radius. Then Adrian „closed the gate“, and I had to brake behind him, so I could not avoid contact with Kimi Raikkonen after which I hit Adrian. »
Safety car appeared on track. Sutil and Perez left their cars in the pits, «Unfortunately, my race was short today. I had a good start, a promising position but Perez crashed into my car, and this was definitely not necessary. We missed the best chance of the season to get points because of this maneuver. »
Few pilots got five-second penalty for speeding behind the safety car. On the fifth lap the restart was announced and Rosberg again kept the leadership.
One second was between «Silver Arrows» pilots. After a while Hulkenberg (Force India) finished its race due to engine problems. Meanwhile, on 24th lap, Hamilton overtook Rosberg while slowing down in the twelfth turn.
Pilots were constantly fighting for their positions. Button had worn tires, he was anxious to return to boxing, but the engineer left him on the track. When Jenson was finally invited to the pits he was surprised and even asked, «Really?»
Engineers at this time were active despite the fact that censorship is introduced in communication with the pilot. Rosberg was offered to attack his partner. There was a struggle. But the race was led by Lewis Hamilton and it was clear that he would not surrender.
Daniil Kvyat also fought, but this time luck was not faced to him. Once he was forced to visit the pits earlier than it was scheduled because of problems with the handling.
At the end of the race Jean-Eric Vergne and Romain Grosjean had a hit, but nothing serious happened, and both drivers were able to finish.
Fifth time Lewis Hamilton won: «Today we managed to fix the problem we faced in qualify. That's great — I was able to drive very fast. As for overtaking Nico, I just tried to stay to him as close as possible and I waited for the moment to overtake through the inner radius. Here is a great track to pursue the opponent, but it still was not very easy. »
Then was Nico Rosberg. It was quite sad: «It was a tough day. I feel awful, finishing second after starting from pole position. Conditions were very different from the qualify and it took me a long time to find a rhythm. »
And Daniel Ricardo simply accepted the loss of the last chance to earn the title this season and tried to be neutral: «Start was unsuccessful, this is my fault, but I managed to keep my position and we have not lost anything. Red Bull Racing is known for his brilliant work in the pit stops and the guys confirmed it once again. »
Russian driver Daniil Kvyat took the last place: «The race was great, but all ended with disappointment when something went wrong. We were not able to perform more successfully, but sometimes it happens.»
Now the pilots are ready to go to the Brazilian Grand Prix.
