(Pirelli Motorsport Media)
Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team's Lewis Hamilton took his ninth win of the season following a fantastic fight with team mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas as the Formula One season builds up to a sensational conclusion.
The 2008 world champion started the race from the second place alongside pole sitter Rosberg and fought the German tooth and nail and to take victory by 4.3s on a new set of the Pirelli P-Zero white walled Medium compound tyre. Hamilton made a two strategy work and made his first stop of the 56 lap race on lap 16, one lap later then pole sitter Rosberg.
Hamilton went stopped again on lap 33 for a second set of the new Medium compound tyre, The top three finishers of the race Hamilton, Rosberg and Ricciardo all started on used Soft tyre's and stopped twice for Brand new Medium tyre's while Williams Martini Racing Team's Felipe Massa who came home in fourth place opted for two stints on the Soft tyre, completing 14 laps on it before making his first stop for a second set of used Soft rubber and then going to lap 32 for a new set of Medium tyre's which he finished the race on.
After starting the race from the pit-lane, reigning world champion Infiniti Red Bull Racig's Sebastian Vettel was the only driver in the field to make four stops on lap 1, 2, 26 and 48 and finished the race in seventh place just behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso who was on a two stop strategy.
Speaking following the race Pirelli Motorsport Director Paul Hembery commented saying:
'We’ve seen some very close racing all the way from the front to the back of the grid, putting on a great show for the crowd here in the United States.
That’s been helped by the tyre choice, which has been exactly right in terms of degradation and grip, allowing a wide range of strategies and plenty of entertainment from the start all the way to the very end. Tyre performance obviously changed compared to yesterday because of the warmer temperatures, which led to some quick calls on the pit wall.
Lewis Hamilton was able to use his tyres perfectly to gain an advantage when it mattered most over a very strong team mate. Congratulations to Mercedes for winning the drivers’ championship – now we just have to wait and see with which driver!'
© Ben Johnston 2014
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