Second place was more than enough for Lewis Hamilton to claim his sixth Formula 1 title despite Valtteri Bottas’ victory at the United States Grand Prix.
The Briton came close to marking his historic achievement with a victory but an inferior strategy compared to his Mercedes teammate saw the Finn reclaim the lead with five laps to go.
Max Verstappen rounded out the podium for the Red Bull.
Story of the Race
Bottas keeps the lead into Turn 1 as Hamilton emerges unscathed and jumps Leclerc into fourth before passing Vettel for third.
The German drops three more places to seventh as he reports major understeer issues in his Ferrari.
Albon and Sainz have the only major contact in the first corner with the Red Bull damaging his wing and requiring an early pit-stop.
Vettel suffers a dramatic rear suspension failure after running wide at Turn 9, epitomising a bad first 10 laps for Ferrari as Leclerc can’t keep pace with the leading trio in fourth.
After the controversy of Mexico, Hamilton sets his sights on attacking Verstappen for P2, but Red Bull respond by pitting the Dutchman for hard tyres.
That triggers Mercedes to react with Bottas to avoid the undercut, but the gap is much closer after the Finn emerges.
The nett leaders blow past Leclerc on their fresher tyres as Hamilton continues in the lead.
Indeed, it is only after Valtteri passes Lewis to reclaim the lead that the Briton pits, using a one-stop strategy compared to his teammate on two.
In the midfield, an early move by Ricciardo on Norris put the Australian in fifth with Sainz recovering from the Turn 1 clash with Albon in seventh.
Nico Hulkenberg opted to start on the hard tyre from 11th on the grid and appeared to bring himself into play as the other midfield runners pitted.
His first stop would leave the German down in 15th, however, with plenty to do to make the alternate strategy work.
Albon also brought himself back into play after his Lap 1 pit-stop to run eighth as the bid to complete a long final stint to the finish began.
Verstappen and Bottas pit for the second time in consecutive laps, putting Hamilton back into the lead but setting up a grandstand finish as the Finn aims to deprive his teammate a victory to go along with his sixth world title.
Behind, Leclerc fell to over a minute behind the leaders compounding a miserable day for Ferrari, but would switch to the soft tyre to post the fastest lap.
Indeed, the Monegasque was one of several cars to go for a late charge on the red-striped compound with Albon using it to good effect to move upto fifth.
As expected though, the final laps were all about the two Mercedes’, as Bottas reached the gearbox of Hamilton but was gently ushered wide at Turn 12 after his first attack.
There was no mistake on the second time around, however, as the Finn eased ahead with DRS and had too much grip in the braking zone.
Next up it was Verstappen quickly gaining on the world champion in waiting…
But a brake failure for Kevin Magnussen at Turn 12 effectively ruled out the best overtaking area on the circuit leaving the Dutchman to settle for third.
Leclerc ended the race 52 seconds behind the race winner in fourth, with Albon only 26 seconds behind despite three pit stops and a comeback through the field to fifth.
Ricciardo held off a late charge from Norris to lead the midfield in sixth, crossing the line just 0.4s clear of the Briton in seventh.
Sainz followed in eighth in the second McLaren as late drama between Kvyat and Perez promoted Hulkenberg to ninth.
The Russian is under investigation for the incident with the Racing Point driver, who had produced a brilliant recovery from the pit-lane to run in the points before slipping to 11th in the initial classification.
Pierre Gasly had also run in the top 10 throughout but suddenly retired on the penultimate lap in the Toro Rosso.
Full results from Sunday’s race in Austin can be seen below:
