Lewis Hamilton wins United States Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton stylishly won his fifth United States Grand Prix, as he comfortably headed Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg all the way through and led him home by 4.5s. It was also the 50^th victory of Hamilton F1 career, putting him one behind Alain Prost for second place in all-time list, and wiped seven points off Rosberg 33-point title lead with three races to go.

Daniel Ricciardo took the final podium place for Red Bull, with team mate Max Verstappen having retired mid-race with suspected transmission issues. Sebastian Vettel finished fourth for Ferrari, whose second car also failed to make the flag as Kimi Raikkonen was the victim of a botched pit stop. Fernando Alonso was a fighting fifth for McLaren, ahead of Toro Rosso Carlos Sainz and Williams’ Felipe Massa. Force India’s Sergio Perez, McLaren’s Jenson Button and Haas’s Romain Grosjean completed the top ten.

Ricciardo kept Hamilton honest in the early laps on his softer tyres, but stopped as early as the eighth lap for softs. Curiously Mercedes brought their drivers in on their softs on the 10th (Rosberg) and 11th (Hamilton) laps. That momentarily put Vettel supersoft-shod Ferrari into the lead as he ran the longest of all of the top runners on the red-banded rubber, but when he pitted for softs on the 14th lap he fell to sixth behind Hamilton, Ricciardo, Rosberg, Verstappen and Raikkonen.

Three-stopping Kevin Magnussen had a strong battle with two-stopping Renault team mate Jolyon Palmer and eventually finished 11th on the road for Renault, ahead of Kvyat. However, that became 12th - behind Kvyat - once stewards had decided post-race that the Dane had gained an advantage in running off track when passing the Toro Rosso and handed him a 5-second time penalty. Behind 13th placed Palmer, Marcus Ericsson raised Sauber hopes of a point as he ran 11th at one stage before his final pit stop but had to settle for 14th ahead of team mate Felipe Nasr who had a pass and repass fight with Bottas at the end. Behind them, Pascal Wehrlein led home Manor team mate Esteban Ocon.