Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (44) of Great Britain during practice for the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.
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A win for Rosberg or a runner-up finish for Vettel would have kept the championship alive going into the next Grand Prix, but with Rosberg unable to pass Hamilton again and more than capable of holding back Vettel’s Ferrari, the World Driver’s Championship has already been won.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel took third place a mere 0.5 of a second behind. “Thank you so much guys for everything you do”. “I owe it all to my dad and family who sacrificed it all to see me here”.
Hamilton needed to outscore Vettel and Rosberg by nine and two points respectively to win the title here in Austin – but the Briton appeared to have his work cut out after Rosberg secured pole in Sunday’s rearranged qualifying session.
The former McLaren driver now joins his hero Ayrton Senna, Sir Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda in F1’s record books as a three time World Champion. Meanwhile, Hamilton was the fastest driver on the field on 1m59.393s leading the two Red Bulls of Ricciardo and Kvyat.
Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher won 91 Grands Prix, Alain Prost won 51 and Hamilton has now won 43 races, one more than Vettel’s total of 42. Vettel said. “I’ve been in this seat before”.
In the end, though, Lewis Hamilton emerged victorious-both in the race and in claiming his second-straight Formula One driver’s championship.
(L – R) Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull Racing celebrat … “I can’t explain it. Just need to look into it. That was really really tough at the time to lose the lead like that and to lose the win because I was feeling really good at that point”.
“In these conditions there is always a fine line, but you’re better off being more on the side of risk, because if you don’t drive in these conditions with confidence then you don’t get far”, said Ricciardo.
Those woes would soon be put to rest when Nico Rosberg surged back up into first spot – that after the German had impressed on the wet tyres to overtake Hamilton.
He also played down the significance of an incident in the post-race podium room, in which he tossed a cap back in Hamilton’s direction after the Briton had thrown it onto his lap. “This is the greatest moment of my life”.
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He also defended his move on Rosberg at the first corner – one the latter described as “very aggressive”.
