Hamilton wins 3rd World Title in Austin thriller - US Grand Prix 2015

Lewis Hamilton has been crowned the 2015 Formula 1 World Champion after he took victory at the 2015 US Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg (2nd) and Sebastian Vettel (3rd) did not manage to score enough points to mathematically stay in the championship for the last 3 rounds.

Lewis Hamilton is the 2015 World Drivers Champion!

The race started off in intermediate conditions with Rosberg leading from pole with Hamilton behind in 2nd. Going up to Turn 1 Lewis Hamilton pulled a very risky and arrogant move up the inside by not turning the wheel fully which in turn led his team mate to run wide, dropping him (Rosberg) down to 4th.

However during the first part of the race run in intermediate conditions Mercedes were not the dominant team and Nico Rosberg was dominating Lewis Hamilton. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo briefly led the race and pulled out a huge 9 second lead over the Mercedes. It wasn't to be though as once the switch over to slicks was made on lap 18-19 and Mercedes completely began to dominate to the end.

Red Bull were the strongest in the rain.

Even though when the slicks were on the Mercedes were the fastest on paper, 2 safety cars and 2 Virtual safety cars threatened to ruin the Constructor Champions day. During the first safety car period for Ericsson on lap 24, Sebastian Vettel pitted for mediums to go to the end, whilst Mercedes opted to stay out on softs and do a two stop race to the end. At this point it looked like Ferrari were best suited to win the race, but a VSC period laps later saw Rosberg get a free pit stop and get back ahead of Vettel. Had safety cars and VSC not played a part in pit stops Mercedes would still likely have won, but had only 1 safety car been deployed, Ferrari would have been in the hot seat to win.

There was 8 DNF's throughout the race with crashes and reliability problems. First to retire was Will Stevens on the first few laps and Valtteri Bottas following just laps later, both due to first corner incidents. Grosjean and Raikkonen retired with brake problems whilst Felipe Massa pulled up for an unknown reason. Marcus Ericsson called a safety car out when he lost power on the start of the back straight. Hulkenberg collided with Ricciardo taking him out of the race whilst Daniil Kvyat spun into the wall at the penultimate corner completing the 8 DNF's.

Force India's Nico Hulkenberg retired after colliding with Ricciardo.

The strongest race for me was by far run by Max Verstappen after making smart moves and staying patient. Mistakes from other cars allowed him to move up to a strong 4th place, equaling his best finish in Formula 1. Results like this will only reinforce that fact that Verstappen deserves a drive next season as it looks more likely that Toro Rosso won't exist in 2016.

Also another mention to Sergio Perez who had another strong finish with 5th place for Force India. He took his tires many laps and showed true skill in keeping the car out of trouble and waiting for the perfect time to pass Fernando Alonso for 5th. Perez is definately a driver to watch in 2016 as the new b spec Force India seems to suit Perez more than Hulkenberg.

The start of the race.

Lastly Jenson Button drove a typical Jenson race as he continued to fight and took home a strong and unexpected 6th place finish for McLaren-Honda. The Honda power unit seemed to hold up well on the long straights at COTA and it definately it proved reliable which was the main reason McLaren did so well today. Unlucky for Fernando Alonso to miss out on points.

Here is the order:

1) Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
2) Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
3) Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
4) Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso-Renault
5) Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
6) Jenson Button - McLaren-Honda
7) Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso-Renault
8) Pastor Maldonado - Lotus-Mercedes
9) Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari
10) Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-Renault
11) Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda
12) Alex Rossi - Manor-Ferrari
13) Daniil Kvyat - Red Bull Racing-Renault (DNF)
14) Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes (DNF)
15) Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari (DNF)
16) Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari (DNF)
17) Felipe Massa - Williams (DNF)
18) Romain Grosjean - Lotus-Mercedes (DNF)
19) Valtteri Bottas - Williams-Mercedes (DNF)
20) Will Stevens - Manor-Ferrari (DNF)

So Lewis Hamilton is the World Champion and Mercedes are Constructors Champions leaving the mid field teams to be the most important ones in the championship now. McLaren v Sauber v Toro Rosso and Force India v Red Bull? It was a great race to watch today in the US and every team and driver had ups and downs. The next race will be run in Mexico and its a circuit that will favor a strong power unit. More to follow.

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