High track temperatures taking the tyres past their optimum, fast gusting winds that varied in intensity from lap to lap qualifying around the Circuit of the Americas was plenty of a challenge this year – and the two starring performers were the title challengers. A little too thrilling in fact, for the race stewards, who docked him 5sec of race time, giving the final podium spot officially to Kimi Räikkönen. It was a thrilling climax to a great drive from a penalised 16th grid spot. New overtaking spots were invented around the Circuit of Americas, none of them more outrageous than that of Max Verstappen on the last lap at Turn 17 on Kimi Räikkönen. It saw drives of the highest calibre from the three stars of the season, a pivot point of strategic uncertainty that the outcome could have hinged upon, a mix of strategies that put recovering new-tyred cars among those staying out defending, forcing them wheel-to-wheel. Vettel’s second place simply delayed the formality of the driver’s crown.īeneath all the razzmatazz and rumble, there was actually a great deal of substance to this race. They are operating in rarefied air right now, riding atop a very high wave and the sealing of a fourth consecutive constructors title for Mercedes was just a rubber-stamping of that fact. But perhaps not maybe the Mercedes-Hamilton combination would have been too strong regardless. In other words, Ferrari’s continuing mechanical woes may have contributed to Vettel’s defeat here. He may have discovered that the car was over-working the left-front on the ultra-soft and been able to make suitable adjustments into Saturday – the sort of changes Hamilton and Mercedes had made Friday to Saturday to refine the balance for the necessary tyre durability for a one-stop.
COTA F1 2017 CRACKED
It may have been different had Seb not missed much of Friday afternoon practice to a suspected cracked chassis. Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel fought briefly after the latter had won the drag race to Turn 1, but there wasn’t really a contest the Mercedes comfortably had the legs of the Ferrari on a circuit where passing is easy if your car is faster. Mark Hughes provides his comprehensive take on the 2017 United States Grand Prix
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