After the Mexico GP it was time for a back-to-back race on Texan soil in the USA. In qualifying the single-lap pace of Ferrari and Mercedes was very evenly matched. These two teams opted for a similar tyre strategy as well, as all four drivers came out on the medium compound. Familiarly, Red Bull sent Verstappen out on the medium tyre wear, whilst Albon came out on the soft rubber. After the first runs the Silver Arrows had the upper hand on the Red Team, but tables turned on the second attempts. Charles clocked the fastest lap time, but Sebastian was only 0.022s shy of his teammate. However, a cold statistic detail stood, that during the modern turbo hybrid era pole position has always been claimed by a Mercedes driver. And this year proved no exception.
Bottas stepped up in the last segment. The Finn took provisional pole, but the margin to Sebastian was as tiny as 0.012s. Verstappen was third and Charles fourth, only two tenths down on Bottas' benchmark. Although Hamilton, the champion-to-be, had always enjoyed driving at the Circuit of the Americas, he was now left fifth. Surprisingly, the track conditions saw no improvement towards the end of the session. This meant, that Bottas claimed his 11th career pole, which was his fifth one this season. In spite of Hamilton's big lead in the championship standings, Bottas has scored more poles than his teammate this season. Sebastian missed out on pole by irritating 0.012s! Verstappen made it extremely close to pole as well; the flying Dutchman was only 0.067s off the Finnish Mercedes ace. Charles qualified fourth, and Hamilton was really left fifth. Albon brought his Red Bull to P6, and the Thai driver was followed by the McLaren duo of Sainz and Norris.
Unfortunately the Red Team were in trouble already at the start. Pole-setter Bottas accelerated into a firm lead, and aggressive Verstappen made his way up to second. Hamilton took a fantastic start from P5, moving to third. Sebastian had a close fight with his teammate, which ended up in Charles' favor. Sebastian had clearly no pace at all! On the second lap McLaren's Norris made it easily past Sebastian, who complained on the team radio about massive under steer. A lap later also Renault's Ricciardo made a successful overtaking move on the struggling German. Something was clearly wrong with Sebastian's Lina, although he hadn't had contact with anyone on the opening laps. Charles, too was missing pace badly, and the gap to Hamilton had already increased into over six seconds.
On lap 8 Sebastian's Lina suddenly broke down; after hitting the kerb the rear suspension failed completely, and the German was cruelly out of the race! What a bitter moment, although Sebastian's race had proved nothing but a continuous struggle with missing pace and badly-behaving car.
Red Bull made the call to try, if an undercut strategy would work for Verstappen. He was called in on lap 14 already. Max re-joined the track in P4. Mercedes reacted to Red Bull's strategy, calling race leader Bottas in on the sequential lap. The Finn re-joined the track ahead of Verstappen. They had both opted for a fresh set of hard Pirellis. Bottas' pace was absolutely brilliant after the pit stop, and the Finn had no difficulties to pass Charles, who pitted not until on lap 21. Unfortunately the Monegasque's pit stop didn't go to plan, as the pit crew had trouble attaching one of the tyres, and the pit stop lasted 7.7 seconds! A podium finish was slipping through Charles' fingers...
On lap 24 Bottas was within DRS distance from his race-leading teammate, who hadn't stopped yet. The team gave Valtteri a permission to attack, and the Finn didn't need to be urged twice. He made a classy overtaking move on Hamilton, claiming back his lead. Hamilton pitted on the following lap, for a fresh set of hard tyres. One-stop strategy meant a long second stint on the hard compound. The strategy had it controversies; on one hand, Hamilton was expected to bang excellent lap times to fight for the victory, but on the other hand, he was advised to save tyres. Would this be a possible equation?
The Mercedes drivers were on a differing strategies, as Bottas pitted for the second time on lap 36. He re-joined the track on fresh medium tyres, 8.8s behind his teammate, who wasn't to stop anymore. But Bottas had victory shining in his eyes and he began his chase with huge determination. Hamilton seemed uncertain, whether his tyres were going to last till the end, but he decided to stay out. Bottas approached his teammate second by second, until he was at the very tail of his teammate. I'm sure Hamilton was able to feel Valtteri's heavy breath in his neck. And the Finn was "blood-thirsty"! With five laps to go, he made it alongside Hamilton, but the Briton forced Valtteri off track, which was a questionable move. But giving up was no option for the Finn, who just waited for another chance to strike back. And his chance came already on the following lap; Valtteri snatched the lead from Hamilton, who was struggling badly with his dying tyres. And after Valtteri there was another threat coming from behind... Max Verstappen.
Hamilton turned out lucky in his battle against storming Verstappen. Haas' Magnussen was hit with a brake failure on the second last lap; the Dane got stuck on the gravel, which brought out the yellow flags in sector two. Verstappen lost his best chance to try a move at the back straight. Bottas made it to the chequered flag as the race winner, for the first time on Texan soil. Hamilton crossed the finish line as the runner-up in spite of his totally outworn tyres, with Verstappen completing the podium. Hamilton didn't only make it a 1-2 for Mercedes, but he also clinched his sixth world championship title! So congratulations to him! Charles in fourth was over 50 seconds behind Bottas, followed by Red Bull's Albon and Renault's Ricciardo. Charles' result left a lot of questions in the air. Where had Ferrari's race pace mystically disappeared? Some rival teams have alleged, that Ferrari had made use of a loophole in the rules, in terms of engine performance. Now that FIA have clogged this loophole, the rival teams think, that's the reason for the lacking race pace. Naturally all these talks are just rumors and speculation... One thing is for sure: there is definitely much more to come, when the F1 circus moves to Brazil for the second last round of the season! Forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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