Kimi Raikkonen produced a perfect race to claim his first win since Australia 2013 at the United States Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Finn made the most of his Ultrasoft tyres to get ahead of Lewis Hamilton at the start and a key decision not to pit under an early Virtual Safety Car proved the right one by Ferrari but only after a thrilling battle in the closing laps.
Max Verstappen started 18th after a gearbox penalty added to his woes in qualifying but like Sochi, he avoided the chaos on the opening lap and then showed great pace in his Red Bull to undercut Valtteri Bottas through the pit-stop phase and go on to claim second, just holding off Hamilton in third.
For the Mercedes driver, it all appeared to be going well as he showed great pace after deciding to stop on Lap 11 during the VSC but a few laps of defensive driving from Raikkonen would effectively undo the Briton’s good work.
Then with blistered rear tyres, Lewis would be forced onto a two-stop strategy and though again he set incredible times, breaking the lap record on multiple occasions, he didn’t quite have the grip to pass the two in front.
For the briefest of moments, his fifth world title was in sight as he and Verstappen went wheel-to-wheel through the Turn 12-18 sequence but the Dutchman would hold on meaning Hamilton will have to wait until Mexico to pop the champagne.
The man missing from this equation was Sebastian Vettel and on Lap 1 it felt like Suzuka all over again as he spun around at Turn 13 following the slightest bit of contact with Daniel Ricciardo.
He would regroup, however, and on a longer one-stop strategy used his newer tyres at the end to catch and pass Bottas for fourth with the second Mercedes in fifth.
Ricciardo would be the cause of the early VSC after his Red Bull shut down exiting the Turn 11 hairpin and that would allow the midfield to battle for P6.
After Romain Grosjean and Charles Leclerc wiped themselves out at Turn 12 on Lap 1, it left the path clear for the two Renault’s to score their best race in quite some time with Nico Hulkenberg taking sixth and Carlos Sainz moving up to seventh, despite being penalised for running off track at Turn 1 at the start.
The Spaniard would hold off Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez in a great fight for the final points places, all ending in that order.
Brendon Hartley enjoyed a strong run from the back to P11 for Toro Rosso, comfortably beating teammate Pierre Gasly in 14th.
Marcus Ericsson and Stoffel Vandoorne were sandwiched between in 12th and 13th as the two Williams’ completed the finishers with Sergey Sirotkin ahead of Lance Stroll, the Canadian losing out after being involved in a first lap collision with Fernando Alonso through the Esses.
The full result from the Circuit of the Americas can be seen below:
