8 Memorable Moments From The United States Grand Prix

After the bore-fest that was the last race in Russia, F1 returned with a bang in Texas with Lewis Hamilton winning a thrilling United States Grand Prix. He started behind his team-mate Nico Rosberg in second place but moved into the lead with a stunning pass at turn 12.

He controlled the rest of the race to take his 10th victory of the season. Rosberg came home in second place, with Daniel Ricciardo charging to third after a poor start. Here are 8 memorable moments from the race:

1. Hamilton has a look

The start of the race saw a rather empty grid, with no Marussia or Caterham and Sebastian Vettel starting in the pit lane due to a power-unit penalty. Rosberg had a strong launch from the line and Hamilton had a look into turn one, before settling for second.

Bottas dropped behind Massa, while Ricciardo fell two positions. It was a close but clean first corner.

A clumsy lunge from Sergio Perez at turn 15 almost took out Kimi Raikkonen. The Mexican made contact with the Finn’s rear wing, before collecting Adrian Sutil and taking both drivers out of the race.

Following the safety car period and first pit stops, Hamilton found some more speed and closed in on his team-mate. He was just a few tenths behind on the run down to turn 12 on lap 24 and with the help of DRS, he made an ambitious but well-timed move to take the lead from Rosberg.

4. Some great battles

Despite a smaller field, we still saw some great action and battles. Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso’s mid-race fight was close but fair, while Ricciardo put in some strong overtakes as he recovered from his poor start.

Button’s slow pace late in the race caused a train of cars to develop behind the McLaren driver. He quickly dropped down the pack, while Jean-Eric Vergne made a brave and late move on Romain Grosjean to take ninth. It involved some hefty contact and Grosjean could barely stay on the track afterwards. The Frenchman was eventually handed a time penalty.

6. Hamilton makes history

The 2008 world champion took the chequered flag 4.6 seconds clear of Rosberg, after he was delayed by traffic on the final lap, to win his third US Grand Prix and 10th race of the season. It was also his 32nd career victory, meaning he is now the most successful British F1 driver.

7. Ricciardo holds on to third

Despite being closed down by the Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas in the final laps, Ricciardo managed to hold on to third and take his eighth podium of the year. Alonso came home in sixth, with Vettel recovering to seventh after his pit lane start.

Kevin Magnussen was eighth, while Pastor Maldonado finally scored his first points of the season with ninth. He briefly dropped to 10th due to a five-second penalty being added to his time for speeding in the pit lane, but a post-race penalty for Vergne promoted him a position.

8. Championship lead increases

Hamilton has now increased his lead in the drivers’ championship to 24 points, meaning it will definitely go down to the season finale in Abu Dhabi and he cannot wrap it up in Brazil this weekend - a lead of 25 points or more would have been required for this to be possible. Meanwhile Ricciardo is now officially out of the running.