2018 United States Grand Prix

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton entered the round with a 67-point lead over Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in the World Drivers' Championship, having widened his lead in the championship considerably by winning the previous four races. Hamilton's team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, sat third, 57 points behind Vettel.^[4] In the World Constructors' Championship, Mercedes held a lead of 78 points over Ferrari, with Red Bull Racing a further 141 points behind in third place.^[5]

Hamilton was eligible to secure the Drivers' Championship at this race if he outscored Vettel by a minimum of eight points.^[6]

Lando Norris and Sean Gelael drove in the first practice session instead of Stoffel Vandoorne and Brendon Hartley for McLaren and Toro Rosso respectively. Nicholas Latifi was supposed to drive in the same session in place of Esteban Ocon at Force India, but this was reversed ahead of the session.^[7][8]

Tyre supplier Pirelli selected the soft, supersoft and ultrasoft tyres for the Grand Prix weekend.^[9]

Notes

• ^1 – Sebastian Vettel received a three-place grid penalty for failing to slow sufficiently during a red flag period in Free Practice 1.^[11]
• ^2 – Pierre Gasly received a 35-place grid penalty for exceeding his quota of power unit elements.^[12]
• ^3 – Brendon Hartley received a 40-place grid penalty: 35 places for exceeding his quota of power unit elements and 5 places for an unscheduled gearbox change.^[12]
• ^4 – Max Verstappen received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.^[13]

The race began at 13:10 local time on October 21 and lasted for 56 laps.^[14] Lewis Hamilton started the race on pole position, but was overtaken before the first corner by Kimi Räikkönen, who was on softer tyres. A chaotic start saw multiple early collisions, with yellow flags waved for a first-lap incident between Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, the latter of whom was forced to retire with chassis damage. Stroll was handed a five-second drive-through penalty for causing the crash.^[15] Further up the grid, Romain Grosjean braked early while challenging Esteban Ocon, locking up and driving into Charles Leclerc. Grosjean retired his car, and was later handed one penalty point and a three-place grid drop at the next race for his role in the incident.^[16]

Sebastian Vettel was also impacted on lap one, being spun by Daniel Ricciardo while competing for fourth position. His spin dropped him to fifteenth, boosting Hamilton's chances of securing the Drivers' Championship at the end of the race. Räikkönen was able to maintain his lead over Hamilton through the first lap; the first time he had gained a position on the opening lap of a Grand Prix since the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.^[17]

On lap eight, Ricciardo retired with a power unit failure, causing the Virtual Safety Car to be deployed. Hamilton pitted under the safety car on lap 11, allowing him to swap tyres with less time lost to Räikkönen, who was instructed by the Ferrari pit wall to stay out. Räikkönen led the race from the resumption of racing until he entered the pit lane on lap 21, giving Hamilton the lead and rejoining the race in second. Max Verstappen, having fought his way up the field after starting eighteenth, undercut Valtteri Bottas for third position with a stop on lap 23; Bottas pitted a lap later. Following his early spin, Vettel had managed to return to the top of the order and pitted on lap 27, emerging fifth behind Bottas, Verstappen, Räikkönen, and Hamilton. Leclerc retired to the pits on lap 31, due to the damage sustained from his earlier collision with Grosjean.^[17]

Hamilton was eventually forced to make a second stop on lap 38 due to his tyre wear, surrendering his lead and rejoining the race in fourth, ahead of Vettel. He overtook Bottas soon after his stop, but was unable to find a way past Verstappen, who defended strongly. By lap 54, Hamilton was side-by-side with Verstappen but ran wide at turn 18, with just over one lap left. On the penultimate lap, Vettel capitalised on Bottas' tyre wear, taking fourth position as the Mercedes driver ran wide of turn 12.^[18]

Räikkönen crossed the line first, having successfully orchestrated a one-stop strategy. Hamilton was unable to complete his overtake and finished behind Verstappen, who took second. Vettel and Bottas finished fourth and fifth, followed by the Renaults of Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz over a minute behind.^[17]

By winning, Räikkönen ended his record 114-race winless streak which had lasted since the 2013 Australian Grand Prix and included 14 second place finishes.^[19][20] On his cooldown lap, Räikkönen thanked his engineers over the radio, noting his wait for the win with "fucking finally". In the post-race media conference, he was characteristically reserved, remarking "it doesn't change my life one bit" and that the victory "hadn't really been a big deal", but that he was pleased to have improved the record of his second Ferrari stint and delivered a win for the team.^[21]

Hamilton expressed his surprise and frustration at Mercedes' performance, saying they "made it so hard for [them]selves", and that he did not fully understand the team's race strategy.^[22] He pointed to the early first pit stop as being the source of his difficulties and that "once we had done a stop on [lap] 11, we knew that we would be doing a two stop", but praised Räikkönen's winning drive.^[23] Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was also skeptical of the team's strategy and said it required them to "rethink whether [they] could have done something better".^[22]

Vettel was also disappointed with his race, apologising for "letting the team down" and saying he "had the speed to win", but that he did not blame Ricciardo for the first-lap collision, which was later deemed a racing incident by the stewards.^[24] Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle was critical of Vettel's performance and said he "seems to be on the receiving end of contact every single time he gets into a squabble" and that he had "forgotten how to do wheel-to-wheel combat". Vettel's recovery and finish meant that Hamilton only outscored him by three points (out of a necessary eight), extending the fight for the Drivers' Championship to the next race, the Mexican Grand Prix, where Hamilton eventually secured his fifth title with a fourth place finish.^[25]

Two hours after the race had ended, Esteban Ocon and Kevin Magnussen were disqualified for fuel-related breaches of the technical regulations. Ocon's car was found to have exceeded the maximum fuel flow rate on the first lap, and Magnussen had exceeded the 105 kg fuel limit. Their disqualifications meant all drivers finishing below them were promoted two places; Sergio Pérez was classified eighth, and Brendon Hartley and Marcus Ericsson were ninth and tenth, moving into the points after originally finishing outside them.^[26]

Notes

• ^1 – Esteban Ocon originally finished eighth, but was disqualified for exceeding fuel flow limits on lap 1.^[28]
• ^2 – Kevin Magnussen originally finished ninth, but was disqualified for consuming more than 105 kg of fuel during the race.^[29]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
• Bold text and an asterisk indicates competitors who still had a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.