Hamilton Wins USGP, Clinches World Championship

In his opening race in Australia he finished third, was second in the next four races and then won the sixth and seventh races in Canada and the United States. With Hamilton now first, Rosberg second and Vettel third, the champion was just a matter of minutes away from retaining his title.

Hamilton’s third USA win in four years gave him 21 over two seasons and his 10th this year. By lap 22, Hamilton was all the way down in fourth.

An emotional Hamilton struggled for words inside his crash helmet after he was informed he had seen off Vettel and Rosberg to win this year’s crown.

By that point Vettel had passed Max Verstappen, who had crept into the top three with a solid drive and smart strategy, to take the final place on the podium ahead of the Toro Rosso.

“Qualifying was cut short so I guess we didn’t really get to battle it out”, said Hamilton, who was fastest in Saturday’s final practice and would have been on pole had qualifying been cancelled altogether. His full name is Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton has no burning desire to emulate any other driver in Formula One’s glittering history after he matched Ayrton Senna’s haul of three world championships on Sunday.

Remember, Mercedes-AMG already won the constructor’s title in the previous round – add that to their DTM driver’s and constructor’s title too!

When the race restarted, Ferrari star Sebastian Vettel stormed clear of the Red Bulls of Kvyat and Ricciardo into third placed behind the two Mercedes drivers.

Hamilton secured his third world title in the most dramatic of circumstances. Lewis was nearly faultless this year and the auto didn’t let him down.

A drying track, a bit of a mixed up grid and Red Bull making the most of the weather conditions resulted in a thrilling Sunday afternoon at the Circuit of the Americas. Hamilton overtook Rosberg with eight laps to go when Rosberg locked his brakes in a turn.

It was Rosberg who emerged in the lead when the first pit stops were out the way, while Hamilton set about recovering to second by passing the two Red Bulls again. By the time they were hurtling back down hill, Hamilton had seized the lead.

Hamilton took the checkered flag ahead of Rosberg. That drew a 10-spot grid penalty for Sunday’s start. Rosberg appeared on course to postpone his team-mate’s title celebrations, but the German made an unforced error with seven laps remaining to allow the Briton to take the lead. “The last 10, 15 laps were the tough ones, what an extraordinary race”.

“What a race with all the ups and downs”, said Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff.