Lewis Hamilton won the United States Grand Prix from the pole. The Petronas Mercedes driver extended his lead in the Formula 1 Drivers Championship to 66 points over rival Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari in the process. Hamilton has all but clinched the title with only 75 points left to be won while Sebastian Vettel is struggling to be consistent in the second half of the Formula 1 season.
Lewis Hamilton rules the West with an iron fist
Mercedes Petronas came to the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) with Texas-sized confidence. Coming into the weekend, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton had a comfortable lead in the fight for the championship and was heading into one of his favorite tracks.
Hamilton has one five out of his six races at COTA without contention. His talent and affinity for the track are common knowledge. Couple that with his dominance in the second half of the Formula 1 season and Mercedes had every right to be confident heading into the weekend.
From the beginning of the weekend, it was clear Lewis Hamilton was not going to disappoint his team. If anything, he was going to boost their confidence even more. Hamilton was fastest in practice, qualifying, and ultimately the race. He took the pole on Saturday and never looked back, leaving everyone including his teammate Valtteri Bottas, in the dust. Scuderia Ferrari and their drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, were both fast as well but were still unable to match the speed of Hamilton’s Mercedes.
Vettel consistently ran in second place throughout the weekend with Raikkonen bouncing around the top ten with his times.
Lewis Hamilton can almost taste the championship
After taking the checkered flag this weekend, Lewis Hamilton is closer than ever to taking the 2017 Formula 1 Drivers World Championship. Hamilton is currently sitting 66 points ahead of rival Sebastian Vettel with only 75 more points to be won in the season.
Vettel still has a chance to win the championship, but it would take a lot of luck, skill, and mistakes on the part of Mercedes to make that happen for Vettel and Ferrari. Nonetheless, Scuderia Ferrari and Vettel refuse to give up the fight. Both Ferrari cars showed competitive levels of speed, even if they were just short of Hamilton’s blistering pace.
Formula 1 will head to Mexico for the next round of the 2017 season. It is there that, in all likelihood, the 2017 champion will be crowned. Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have battled all season for the title. It is Hamilton, however, that is launching himself past Vettel in points and doing his best to grasp the highest honor in motorsports with unquestionable speed and determination.