United States Grand Prix 2015: Winners and Losers from Austin Race
Lewis Hamilton claimed his 10th win of the 2015 Formula One season in Sunday's United States Grand Prix to secure his third world championship.
For the third weekend in a row, the British driver won the race from second on the grid.
But after marching to victory in Japan and Russia, Hamilton was made to work for his success at the Circuit of the Americas after Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel both challenged for victory at various stages of the race.
On a day when Rosberg again failed to convert pole position into a prize for first place, Daniil Kvyat lost the plot and the Scuderia Toro Rosso rookies impressed, here are the winners and losers from the United States.
Winner: Lewis Hamilton
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It was a race that not only encapsulated Lewis Hamilton's 2015 season, but his entire Formula One career.
An afternoon of unrelenting drama, ups and downs, potential pit-related blunders, feelings of utter deflation quickly followed by moments of renewed hope and, as ever with Lewis, a happy ending.
Without a pole position in four races, Hamilton continued to make a non-issue of qualifying by again taking the lead at the earliest possible opportunity, nudging Nico Rosberg off the track—and down the order—at the first corner.
At this point, the coast would normally be clear for him to sail away into the distance. But on the day he would have craved the chance to build an early, insurmountable lead, he was unable to pull away from the Red Bulls and a retaliating Rosberg on a drying track.
Mercedes' later decision to pit Rosberg under virtual safety-car conditions—leaving Hamilton with no option but to remain on ageing tyres as the race resumed—appeared to end his chances of wrapping up the title in the Unites States.
But when the real safety car appeared, gifting Hamilton a "free" pit stop of his own and creating a short sprint to the finish, he sensed the opportunity to become a hero and took it, inheriting first place when Rosberg ran off the track.
It was a lead he was never going to concede, coasting to the chequered flag to secure his third world championship, matching the tally of his boyhood inspiration, Ayrton Senna.
The perpetual problem with Hamilton, however, is that the good always tends to come with the bad.
And after winning such a thrilling grand prix, weeping tears of joy and embracing his Mercedes colleagues, he tried his best to mar his achievement by throwing the second-placed podium cap at Rosberg in the cool-down room, provoking a reaction from his team-mate.
It was a classless, undignified way to mark "the greatest moment of my life," as he put it over team radio (h/t the official F1 website), and although his record is now comparable to those of F1's finest-ever drivers, he will never stand truly alongside its most cherished champions.
Loser: Nico Rosberg
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When will he ever learn?
For the third race in succession, Nico Rosberg started on pole position and, for the third race in succession, threw it all away. And after being outwitted by Hamilton at Suzuka and suffering cruel luck at Sochi, this was his most concerning performance yet.
Sitting on the first semi-wet grid since the revised race-start procedure was implemented in August, Rosberg was always bound to be vulnerable to his team-mate off the line.
But rather than conceding the lead to Hamilton at Turn 1 in the hope of repassing him later in the lap, Nico tried to force his way around the outside of the No. 44 car, giving Lewis—as was the case in Japan—an open invitation to run him off the track.
As usual, Rosberg recovered through the pack with the decisiveness he employs against non-Mercedes cars—his opportunistic move on Daniel Ricciardo at the end of the first virtual safety-car period was particularly impressive—but rarely against Hamilton himself.
He did, though, manage to overtake Hamilton on track for the first time since Mercedes' rise to prominence at the beginning of 2014—albeit when his team-mate was struggling badly with ageing intermediate tyres—and his pace was such that Rosberg appeared to be the favourite for victory for a long time.
Yet the final safety car period saw Hamilton and Rosberg become the hunter and the hunted, with the German unable to withstand the pressure of his team-mate breathing down his neck.
After suffering an attack of the yips—making an unforced error on the exit of Turn 15 on Lap 48 of 56 to gift the race, and the championship, to Hamilton—Rosberg is well and truly a beaten man.
Without a victory since June, it is difficult to envisage when his next win will come.
Winner: Sebastian Vettel
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Ferrari's decision to pit for medium-compound tyres during the first safety-car period, when their fellow front-runners all remained on the softs, revealed much about the strength of their relationship with Sebastian Vettel.
After claiming three victories and a pole position in their first season together, Vettel and his Ferrari team are no longer willing to settle for second. They are not stimulated by merely standing on the podium, and they are not remotely interested in racking up points without prizes.
Instead, they compete solely to win and are willing to do everything and anything in their efforts to do so.
Switching to mediums, on a weekend of limited dry running, was the kind of brave, bold, out-of-the-box thinking that suggests Ferrari are now ready to fight for major honours in 2016 and beyond.
The gamble in trying to finish the race on one set of tyres, in the knowledge the cars with softs would be forced to make an extra stop, ultimately failed to pay off as Vettel later changed onto the yellow-striped compound behind the safety car.
Yet a third-placed finish was still an outstanding result after Seb's 10-place grid penalty forced him to start as low as 14th—as well as his adventures in wet conditions in practice and qualifying, when he hit the wall after aquaplaning on the exit of Turn 10.
In every area, Vettel and Ferrari are eager to push to the limits.
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Loser: Daniil Kvyat
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Daniil Kvyat appeared to be in such a promising position as he hounded Hamilton in the early stages of the race, leading Red Bull's charge in the uncertain conditions.
Yet the speed with which his afternoon faded away was alarming, especially when his team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo, wasted no time and showed greater conviction in overtaking the Mercedes driver when a similar opportunity came his way.
After his chance to take the lead passed him by, Kvyat shrouded himself in self-pity, resorting to reckless lunges—such as his wild attempted pass on Rosberg at the final corner, where he rejoined the track in dangerous fashion—and overcompensating for Red Bull's lack of pace in dry conditions.
His multiple off-track excursions, culminating in his race-ending crash at Turn 19, where he ran wide on exit and spun into the wall, were the signs of someone who, as Kvyat told the team's official website, was "driving a bit over my limit," highlighting his naivety.
On a day when Scuderia Toro Rosso's youngsters both finished in the top 10, and Ricciardo fought a losing battle to salvage a point, Kvyat offered yet more evidence that he's currently the weakest link in Red Bull's F1 driver program.
Winner: Toro Rosso
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For the second consecutive weekend, a heavy crash for Carlos Sainz Jr raised doubts over the Spaniard's participation in the race.
And after being released from hospital to start the race in Russia, the Scuderia Toro Rosso mechanics were forced to stitch his STR10 back together after Sainz's shunt in the rain-affected qualifying session, which occurred just hours ahead of the grand prix.
The hard work, though, was worth it, as Sainz—an accomplished performer in wet and changeable conditions—surged from the rear of the field to cross the finish line in sixth place.
Although a five-second time penalty dropped him to seventh in the final classification, the result was his third points finish in the last four races and his best result in F1 to date.
For once it was Sainz, not Max Verstappen, left to embark on a comeback drive, and while the Spaniard carved his way through the pack, the Dutchman was finally able to show what he could achieve on a relatively trouble-free, clean weekend.
Verstappen was typically aggressive in wheel-to-wheel combat—so much so, in fact, that Kimi Raikkonen was heard complaining over his conduct over team radio at one stage—yet the true beauty of his afternoon was found in his approach to the race.
Verstappen equalled his best finish of the season, fourth place, on a day when an inexperienced teenager—making his first appearance at the Circuit of the Americas and driving in difficult conditions—should have been destined to fail.
The result has elevated him to 10th in the drivers' championship, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean.
Toro Rosso's ability to extract 18 points from the United States GP has suddenly propelled them back into contention for sixth place in the constructors' standings, with the team now just seven points behind Lotus.
Loser: Williams
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At last year's United States Grand Prix, Williams had the second-fastest car at their disposal yet somehow managed to beat themselves, handing third place to Ricciardo.
And they were their own worst enemies again on Sunday, with the team suffering their first double-retirement in almost three years.
The wet conditions at the Circuit of the Americas hindered the FW37's pace in qualifying, leaving both Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas stuck in the midfield and highly vulnerable at one of the tightest first corners on the calendar.
Massa reverted to his 2014 habits by making contact with Fernando Alonso's McLaren at Turn 1, spinning to the back of the field, while Bottas was forced to pit for a new front wing at the end of the opening lap after a collision of his own before retiring on Lap 7.
According to Williams' official website, a "damper failure" saw Massa join his team-mate in the garage after 24 laps, ending a miserable weekend for the team.
Williams, however, could take solace from the fact that Red Bull were unable to take advantage of their downfall, with Ricciardo's 10th-place finish leaving the four-time world champions 70 points adrift of the Grove-based outfit in the constructors' standings with just three rounds remaining.
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