Lewis Hamilton won the 2017 United States Grand Prix in what was an entertaining race. Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen completed the podium. With Hamilton's win and Bottas' 5th-place finish, Mercedes have won the 2017 Constructors' Championship, making it their fourth consecutive constructors' title. At the start, Vettel got away better than polesitter Hamilton (it was to be fair a brilliant getaway by the German) and led going into turn 1. Esteban Ocon did move up into fifth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, however, it didn't last very long and Raikkonen soon moved back up into fifth place. On lap 3, Nico Hulkenberg retired with some issue. A couple of laps later Pascal Wehrlein retired from the race as well, seemingly due to accident damage after he made contact with Haas driver Kevin Magnussen. On lap 6, Hamilton re-passed Vettel for the lead of the race. At this point, the order was: Hamilton, Vettel, Bottas, Ricciardo, Raikkonen. Max Verstappen was charging up through the field and by lap 9 was up into 7th place, before quickly overtaking Ocon for sixth place. On lap 12, Ricciardo was the first of the frontrunners to pit and re-emerged in ninth place. He quickly managed to move up in front of Sainz for eighth place. However, on lap 14, he retired from the race with what looked like an engine failure. On lap 16, Vettel pitted for soft tyres. Hamilton waited until lap 19 to pit for soft tyres and re-emerged only just ahead of the German in what was quite a key moment in the race (Bottas meanwhile had pitted just a lap before). On lap 21, Raikkonen pitted which left Max Verstappen in the lead of the race. Yes, he had not stopped (though he started on super-soft tyres rather than ultra-softs), but it was quite remarkable considering he started all the way down in 16th. Hamilton overtook Verstappen on lap 22 with a nice, clean move. It was critical for Hamilton as if he got held up, an opportunity for Vettel could have been there. On lap 24, Fernando Alonso retired with an engine issue as is very often the case. Verstappen eventually pitted for a set of soft tyres himself. At this point, the order was: Hamilton, Vettel, Bottas, Raikkonen, Verstappen, Massa (who had not stopped yet), Ocon, Perez and Sainz. Ocon and Perez came quite close to hitting each other but fortunately didn't. However, on lap 35, Sainz got past Perez for seventh in a very brave move by the Spaniard who was making his Renault debut (Massa stopped and dropped to 12th). On lap 38, interestingly, Verstappen pitted for a set of super-soft tyres. A lap later, slightly unexpectedly, Vettel came in and crucially re-emerged ahead of Verstappen. (I say unexpectedly because it was more likely Raikkonen would pit). Hamilton, Bottas and Raikkonen all made their bet on staying until the end on their soft tyres. Raikkonen did get past Bottas during these few laps. On lap 48, Marcus Ericsson and Kevin Magnussen made contact, and Ericsson was handed a 5-second penalty for causing a collision. On lap 51, Vettel overtook Bottas for third place before getting past Kimi Raikkonen a couple of laps later. On lap 53, Verstappen overtook Bottas and was closing in on Kimi Raikkonen for the podium. On the final lap, with just a few corners remaining, Verstappen managed to get past Raikkonen for third place, however, in what was a total joke (I repeat, joke!) of a decision he was given a 5-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an unfair advantage and was thus demoted to fourth. However, at the front, there was just no stopping Hamilton, who crossed the line to seal Mercedes' fourth consecutive constructors' title, with Vettel finishing in second and Raikkonen completing the podium. Hamilton will be world champion next time out in Mexico if he finishes fifth or better (even if Vettel were to win the race). The rest of the points scorers (from fifth downwards) were: Bottas, Ocon, Sainz, Perez, Massa and Kvyat.
(Note: Mercedes 2017 champions - here are them celebrating winning in Russia early in the year)
Classification:
Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
Esteban Ocon - Force India-Mercedes
Carlos Sainz - Renault
Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes
Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso
Lance Stroll - Williams-Mercedes
Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren-Honda
Brendon Hartley - Toro Rosso
Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari
Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari
Retired: Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg, Pascal Wehrlein
World Championship classification:
Lewis Hamilton - 331 points
Sebastian Vettel - 265 points
Valtteri Bottas - 244 points
Daniel Ricciardo - 192 points
Kimi Raikkonen - 163 points
Max Verstappen - 123 points
Sergio Perez - 86 points
Esteban Ocon - 73 points
Carlos Sainz - 54 points
Felipe Massa - 36 points
Nico Hulkenberg - 34 points
Lance Stroll - 32 points
Romain Grosjean - 28 points
Kevin Magnussen - 15 points
Stoffel Vandoorne - 13 points
Fernando Alonso - 10 points
Jolyon Palmer - 8 points
Pascal Wehrlein - 5 points
Daniil Kvyat - 5 points
Marcus Ericsson - 0 points
Antonio Giovinazzi - 0 points
Pierre Gasly - 0 points
Brendon Hartley - 0 points
Constructors' Championship classification:
Mercedes - 575 points
Ferrari - 428 points
Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer - 315 points
Force India-Mercedes - 159 points
Williams-Mercedes - 68 points
Toro Rosso - 53 points
Renault - 48 points
Haas-Ferrari - 43 points
McLaren-Honda - 23 points
Sauber-Ferrari - 5 points