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| Lewis Hamilton wins the inaugural 2012 United States Grand Prix, and was closely followed by Sebastian Vettel in second and Fernando Alonso in third |
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton won the 2012 United States Grand Prix, at the Circuit of
the Americas in Austin Texas. He was followed by championship leader and Red Bull Racing
driver Sebastian Vettel in second and title contender Fernando Alonso in third. It
was another race with three world champions securing podium places, but the added delight
was Pirelli’s Stetson hats.
Hamilton was the driver to win the last United States Grand Prix in 2007 at
Indianapolis and won it again to highlight his 23rd Grand Prix win in the 109th race of
his career. He had started the race second on grid and kept closing in on Vettel
throughout the race. On lap 42 into turn 12 he got his one chance to overtake the reigning
champion by enabling DRS just in time to make a move on Vettel who had to slow down
because of back marker and HRT driver, Narain Karthikeyan. The manoeuver was a quick one
and from thereon Hamilton led the race to win by a 0.6 second lead over Vettel.
Vettel finished second and sealed Red Bull Racing team’s Constructors
Championship title. He now leads the championship by 13 points over Alonso. The result in
Austin has further pushed the championship game to the last race in Brazil.
Ferrari had made a clever decision earlier in the day where they deliberately broke the
seal in Felipe Massa’s gear box to elevate Alonso a place up on the grid. Massa had
qualified sixth and the grid penalty made him drop five places down to start eleventh and
elevate Alonso to start seventh. That decision definitely worked knowing the fact that at
P8 Alonso would have been on the dusty side of the track where surface was
slippery and had lesser grip as compared to the racing line which was relatively cleaner
side.
The smart decision played to Alonso’s advantage accompanied by a
sensational start where he climbed up from seventh to fourth. Mark Webber’s
retirement at lap 17 due to an alternator failure further promoted him to third
place.
Team-mate Massa lost five positions on the grid, fought his way up to fourth
place and managed defending Jenson Button took fifth place to the chequer. This was one of
Massa’s best performances in the season where he outperformed Alonso throughout the
weekend.
Button drove a wonderful race after a disappointing 12th position in qualifying. He
fought wheel to wheel with Kimi Raikkonen at lap 45 and went round the outside to pass him
at the double apex right hander at Turn 12, to take the position.
Kimi Raikkonen who started fourth was slow on the hard tyres and lost a position
to Massa, and later to Button to finish the race sixth ahead of team-mate Romain Grosjean.
Sahara Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg finished eighth followed by Pastor Maldonado
and Bruno Senna to complete the top ten of the grid.
With a thirteen point difference in the championship, Alonso needs to win the
Brazilian Grand Prix with Vettel finishing lower than fourth for him to win the
championship. The title decider in Brazil also has rain on the forecast to add to the
excitement of the race.
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