Both race winner Lewis Hamilton and second-placed Sebastian Vettel admit they were surprised at the lack of pace the German was able to extract from his Ferrari, with the latter conceding the Briton was simply too fast.

Another major battle between the two championship contenders appeared on the cards at the United States Grand Prix, particularly when Vettel would take the lead from the Mercedes into Turn 1 at the start.

But the recent superiority of the Silver Arrows allied to Hamilton's own incredible pace around the Circuit of the Americas meant the Scuderia driver's lead would last a handful of laps before the triple world champion made his move into Turn 12 and went on to take a relatively comfortable win.

"One of the most fun races I've had for a while," Hamilton, who is now on the brink to securing a fourth Formula 1 title this weekend in Mexico, declared afterwards. "I didn't get away to a great start, Seb got a great start but I was chilled about it as I know you can overtake here.

"It was great having that battle, trying to keep up, stay close, get within DRS. It was very reminiscent of 2012 here, seeing Seb up ahead and wanting to have that real battle.

"That is what I looked for and that is what I enjoyed the most. I was a bit surprised Seb didn't defend more, but it was still fair."

Vettel too claimed the inability to maintain a stronger fight was a larger disappointment than the further damage to his title aspirations, with him needing to outscore Hamilton by 17 points to carry the fight on to Brazil.

“I'm not really thinking so far ahead, but it's clear it doesn't really look good, especially if you finish behind,” he commented. “I guess right now I'm just disappointed we didn't have the pace.

“I was expecting to be more competitive, especially in the first stint with the first set of tyres. After that, I think it was not so bad, but then we had a different race on our plate where it was more defensive and trying to do something different, also defending against Max in the end and cover him, cover for an eventual Safety Car.

“Obviously we were far away from winning at that point.”

Though Vettel would try several ideas to try and at least keep Hamilton guessing, he conceded nothing could have put him in a position to win.

“There was no real secret other than they were quicker than us so I think we have to admit that today in the race we couldn't go their pace," he said. "I don't think it's down to strategy, whoever is fastest usually has a good chance of winning.

“Obviously it was close after the first stop again (after trying the undercut) but then I was stuck behind again and obviously towards the end we decided to pit again, to get a fresh set of tyres which yeah, was a bit more exciting the last couple of laps.

‘Overall, not the result that we wanted.”