22/10/2017
NEWS STORY
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won the United States Grand Prix on a one-stop strategy, while Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel used a two-stop strategy and kept the championship battle alive after finishing second.
Despite higher degradation than yesterday and warm track temperatures close to 40 degrees, most drivers finished the race with a one-stop ultrasoft-soft strategy.
However, some drivers chose alternative strategies: notably Vettel, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who started from 16th on the grid with the supersoft tyre. The Dutchman also stopped twice, switching to the soft compound and then the supersoft, to finally claim a podium place on the final lap, before losing it due to a penalty.
While two stops were predicted as theoretically the quickest strategy, we also said that a one-stopper could be interesting. Hamilton made his sole stop on lap 19 (after Vettel's first stop), adopting the same tyre choice, and emerged effectively in the lead of the race, having started from pole.
Mario Isola: "With quite warm track and air temperatures during the race, this was another set of parameters for the drivers to get used to after an inconsistent weekend in terms of track conditions. Nonetheless, the one-stop strategy came into play with the soft tyre, even though there wasn't a lot of running on this compound in free practice.
"Strategy was crucial to this grand prix, with the teams having to react to changing circumstances and read the track as well as rivals' tactics as they saw them, adapting their strategies appropriately. This was exemplified by Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel, who were both extremely quick in the closing stages of the race after a bold call on final pit stops. Finally, on behalf of all of us, congratulations to Mercedes for another constructors' title."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Austin, here.