The 2016 American Grand Prix was another race which delivered some great action. As the season slowly comes to a close with only 3 more races left, and the championship still up for grabs, all the drivers tried to deliver their best, most notably, Max Verstappen. Even though he had retired from the race, he still delivered some fantastic racing. Let’s have a walk through of the race.
It was not a great afternoon for everybody. Nico Hülkenberg was soon out of the race after being hit from behind by Valtteri Bottas. And later there were high-profile retirements in Max Verstappen (gearbox) and Kimi Raikkonen, who was told to pull over following a mishap in the pits.
There were no such dramas at the head of the field. Hamilton completed his most difficult work of the afternoon within the opening seconds of the race; he got off to a fine start. Five times this season – in Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Italy and Japan – Hamilton has made poor starts and that has cost him more dearly than his various engine failures.
But here he climbed up the steep hill towards the first corner keeping Rosberg behind him. Rosberg did have a run on his team-mate, on the outside, and at one point made a small gain on him.
But his ambitions backfired when he found himself running wide into the opening bend, allowing Daniel Ricciardo, on faster, super-soft tyres, to pass him on the inside.
By the end of the opening lap Hamilton’s lead was already 0.8sec as he maintained his fine form of the previous, pole-winning day. After that he began to stretch away, while Rosberg struggled to get past Ricciardo.
The Australian managed to get eight laps out of his extra-soft rubber before coming for a set of softs.
He returned to the field in eighth place and finished third, missing out on the chance to beat Rosberg because of the deployment of the virtual safety car when Verstappen broke down.
Despite Hamilton’s serene progress up front there were signs of confusion on the Mercedes pitwall. They told Rosberg: “We are going for the long game, push hard now Nico” to which the championship leader replied: “Pushing hard is not the long game.” Precisely.
Mercedes were also going to bring Hamilton in for an early pit stop but changed their minds and brought Rosberg in instead, closely followed by Hamilton.
Nothing, however, could disrupt the composure of the world champion who produced one of his most commanding performances of the year at a time when knew he had to.
This was another showing of the summer form Hamilton displayed when he won six races out of seven. He made a second pit stop but at the end of the race his winning margin was 4.5sec.
It was a result that maintains interest in the destination of the world championship with three races to go, but to make it really compelling needs a non-finish by Rosberg.
Race Classification from the American Grand Prix:
Now it’s on to Mexico this weekend, where Lewis and Nico will both be trying their best to somehow get an advantage over each other and the Red Bulls will try to chase the Merc’s.
Source: The Guardian
Just a 23-year old who likes to write, and maybe drive my heart out on Forza too.