Hamilton rules over Vettel in USGP

Lewis Hamilton moved to within nine points of the drivers' championship with victory in the United States Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel finished second to delay the title.

Having secured pole position, Hamilton was beaten into Turn 1 by Vettel and had to overtake his closest rival on track, diving down the inside at Turn 12 on lap six. From there, Hamilton rarely looked troubled, extending his first stint and only having to defend from Vettel after his one and only pit stop before easing home to take his fifth win in six years at Circuit of The Americas.

In contrast to Hamilton's serene progress up front, there was a thrilling battle for second place as Vettel dropped backed into the clutches of Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen, with the recovering Max Verstappen putting pressure on the trio ahead of him. Red Bull opted to pit Verstappen for a second time as he had a huge margin behind, and Vettel reacted a lap later to cover the Dutchman, with the pair then chasing down the podium positions.

Raikkonen pulled a strong pass on Bottas to take second place with 14 laps remaining, but with the two Finns struggling on their old soft tires, Vettel and Verstappen quickly honed in. Vettel made a stunning move stick around the outside of Turn 1 to take third place from Bottas, squeezing through an ever-closing gap as they lapped Stoffel Vandoorne.

Verstappen – who started form 16th due to power unit penalties – then swept his way past Bottas at Turn 13 having muscled the Mercedes wide one corner earlier, setting off after Raikkonen who had already yielded to Vettel.

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With Verstappen told he would get one shot, the 20-year-old orchestrated a chance out of Turn 16 on the final lap and tried to force his way through on the inside of the high-speed Turn 17. However, Verstappen cut the inside of the corner in getting the spectacular move done and was quickly hit by a five-second time penalty after the race.

Raikkonen had slowed out of the final corner but the penalty promoted him to third by just 0.9s, with Verstappen fourth and Bottas finishing a distant fifth after a late pit stop. Esteban Ocon impressed to finish sixth ahead of an excellent Renault debut for Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard was quick throughout and pulled a stunning move on Sergio Perez. Having got the Force India out of position at Turn 12, Sainz continued to hassle Perez before going around the outside of Turn 17 and completing the move into the penultimate corner.

Perez came home eighth for Force India ahead of Felipe Massa in ninth and a solid drive to 10th for Daniil Kvyat in what looks likely to be his final race for Toro Rosso. Kvyat's teammate Brendon Hartley had an encouraging debut to finish 13th from the back of the grid, showing good pace throughout.