US GP: Hamilton wins by beating Vettel, Alonso third

Lewis Hamilton won the US GP beating Sebastian Vettel. The McLaren driver, who had been behind the German for a long time, managed to overtake him and went on to win in Austin. Third place for Fernando Alonso who limited the damage with Ferrari and postponed the verdict on the drivers' championship until the last race in Brazil. Red Bull Racing celebrates the constructors' championship despite Webber's retirement due to an alternator problem when he was third. Fourth place for Felipe Massa (Ferrari) ahead of Jenson Button (McLaren) and the two Lotuses of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India), Pastor Maldonado (Williams) and Bruno Senna round out the top 10.

US F1 GP Report
Ferrari chose to penalize Felipe Massa by breaking the seals on his car's gearbox to favor Alonso who thus gained a position on the grid. By moving into seventh position the Spaniard gained the right side of the grid, which is more rubberised.
Only Rosberg and Button decided to start on hard tyres.
At the start Vettel maintained first position while Webber entered behind him followed by Hamilton, Alonso, Hulkenberg and Raikkonen. The Finn touched the Force India German but both continued.
Eighth position for Grosjean ahead of Di Resta and Massa. On the second lap Hulkenberg overtook Schumacher in fifth place. Shortly afterwards Raikkonen also overtook the Mercedes driver at the hairpin but the Finn, after a series of errors, lost two positions to Grosjean and Schumacher. The Frenchman took advantage of the brawl to overtake both!
Hamilton managed to keep up with the Red Bulls in the first laps while Alonso was more than five seconds behind at the end of the third lap. Hamilton immediately broke the deadlock by attacking and overtaking Webber but ended up wide and was overtaken again.
On the following lap, at the same point, at the end of the straight and using the DRS, Hamilton got rid of the Australian by chasing Vettel. Schumacher meanwhile was overtaken by Raikkonen and di Resta while Button at the back overtook Maldonado in 13th position.
On lap seven Grosjean ended up spinning, losing several positions to Schumacher, Massa, Perez and Senna. The Ferrari driver took advantage of this to overtake the German in eighth place.
On the eighth lap the Frenchman also lost 12th position to Button. Meanwhile, Perez overtook Schumacher in ninth place, followed shortly afterwards by Senna.
Hamilton closed in on Vettel with fast laps. On lap ten Grosjean came in for his first stop on hard tyres.
Schumacher, having trouble with his tyres, also suffered attacks from Button and Ricciardo, dropping to 13th position while Massa overtook Di Resta on lap 12 in seventh position.
On lap 13, at the end of a good battle, Raikkonen overtook Hulkenberg in fifth place. On lap 14 Hamilton moved within 1 seconds of Vettel who came to a standstill.
On lap 15 Vergne was forced to retire after a duel with Schumacher due to a suspension problem. Meanwhile, Massa overtook Hulkenberg in sixth place. On lap 17 Webber was forced to retire due to a KERS failure, and Alonso then gained third position.
Vettel regained a good lead over Hamilton (3"2) on lap 19, with Alonso further behind (14"7).
Stop for Hamilton and Alonso on lap 20. The Spaniard was slowed down by a problem fixing the right rear. Vettel also stops on lap 22.
Button overtook Senna and Perez to climb to seventh place behind Alonso while Hamilton returned to the track in third place. Button attacked Alonso but the Spaniard defended himself.
On lap 23, however, the Englishman succeeded in his aim at turn 12. On lap 24, Hamilton overtook Raikkonen to move into second position. Shortly afterwards the Finn stopped for his break and upon returning to the track he was overtaken by Alonso who took fifth position.
Nice fight between Massa, Ricciardo and Raikkonen. The Australian passed the Ferrari driver in fifth position while awaiting his stop. On lap 28 Raikkonen also overtook Massa. Ricciardo returned on lap 30, leaving sixth position to Massa.

Lap 33: Hamilton again in pursuit of Vettel between lapped laps. The Englishman fell within a second of the German. Button came in for his stop on lap 35 and returned to the track in eighth place, behind Grosjean, after fitting medium tyres. The Englishman overtook the Frenchman on lap 39 to move into sixth position.

On lap 40, Massa made a nice overtaking move on Raikkonen which earned the Brazilian fourth position. Hamilton kept the gap to Vettel under second while Alonso was 31 seconds behind.

On lap 42, Hamilton chased Vettel: taking advantage of a lapped lap, he approached and using the DRS he overtook the German to take the lead of the race!

On lap 46 Button overtook Raikkonen after a good duel to take fifth place. Internal struggle within Williams: on lap 53 Maldonado overtook Senna in ninth position.

Vettel remained close to Hamilton but the Englishman went on to win with authority. With third place Alonso will still be able to challenge for the title at the last race while Red Bull has won the constructors' championship.

F1 GP USA – Race results and order of arrival

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1h35:55.269 2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 0.600 3. Alonso Ferrari + 39.200 4. Massa Ferrari + 46.000 5. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 56.400 6. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault + 1 :04.400 7. Grosjean Lotus-Renault + 1:10.300 8. Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes + 1:13.700 9. Maldonado Williams-Renault + 1:14.500 10. Senna Williams-Renault + 1:15.100 11. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1:24.300 12. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:24.800 13. Rosberg Mercedes + 1:25.500 14. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap 15. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap 16. Schumacher Mercedes + 1 lap 17 Petrov Caterham-Renault + 1 lap 18. Kovalainen Caterham-Renault + 1 lap 19. Glock Marussia-Cosworth + 1 lap 20. Pic Marussia-Cosworth + 2 laps 21. De la Rosa HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps 22. Karthikeyan HRT -Cosworth + 2 laps Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:39.347 Not classified/Retired: Team driver per lap Webber Red Bull-Renault 17 Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 15 World rankings, after the 19th race: Drivers: Constructors: 1. Vettel 273 1. Red Bull-Renault 440 2. Alonso 260 2. Ferrari 367 3. Raikkonen 206 3. McLaren-Mercedes 353 4. Hamilton 190 4. Lotus-Renault 302 5. Webber 167 5. Mercedes 136 6. Button 163 6. Sauber-Ferrari 124 7. Massa 107 7. Force India-Mercedes 99 8. Grosjean 96 8. Williams-Renault 76 9. Rosberg 93 9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 22 10. Perez 66 11. Kobayashi 58 12. Hulkenberg 53 13. Di Resta 46 14. Maldonado 45 15. Schumacher 43 16. Senna 31 17. Vergne 12 18. Ricciardo 10