• Life Through a Lens

Coming to America

F1 photographer Mark Sutton walks ESPN through his favourite shots from the United States Grand Prix.

Stars and Stripes

Camera model: Nikon D4 | Exposure time: 1/100s | Aperture: F20 | ISO speed: 400 Lens: 24-70mm zoom © Getty Images

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Camera model: Nikon D4 | Exposure time: 1/100s | Aperture: F20 | ISO speed: 400 Lens: 24-70mm zoom © Sutton Images

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This is a good one because usually the girl holding the flag is on her own; the shot works better if another girl is holding it out so you can see it. Originally she held it up and it was the wrong way. I knew the stars had to be on the left so we changed it around. This is a shot from down low to the ground to get more of the sky in. You lay the camera on the ground and shoot up - it's nothing naughty or anything like that, it's just to get a better shot. The Vettel one was first thing on Sunday morning. I was coming in for the morning and all the girls were lined up in the pit lane by Red Bull, who were doing some team shots. Eventually Vettel came out to do some shots with the girls. I wanted one of the girls to put a cowboy hat on his head, but his put his helmet on instead which looks a bit stupid! But he has a habit of doing that in the garage so I suppose he's used to doing that.

It's all about Speed

Camera model: Nikon D4 | Exposure time: 1/125s | Aperture: F6.3 | ISO speed: 400 Lens: 24-70mm zoom © Getty Images

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This was quite lucky, as I was taking some shots of the Porsche Cup practice - as it was the championship decider - and just wandered back into the pit lane. I saw a photographer from another agency shooting and that's when I noticed Keanu Reeves in the pits with Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel. I did my first shots behind the barrier but realised they wouldn't be much good, so I just went to the outside of the pit lane. As I did that Daniel went behind the car and gave him the steering wheel; there's was a bit of humour going on about it all so it made a nice set of pictures. Eventually they said 'enough's enough' and escorted me out of the pits because they were still working on the car. He's not been in a film for about eight years so I think he appreciated the extra publicity he got from being at COTA.

Three-wide

Camera model : Nikon D4 | Exposure time: 1/1000s | Aperture: F6.3 | ISO speed: 200 | Lens: 500mm telephoto © Sutton Images

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This is a good sequence of shots. I was doing a rear shot as I waited for the finish. I wandered down to a gap where the marshals were and it gave me a good view up the hill with all the braking boards. The marsals were interacting with us, telling me who was coming, which was really helpful. We were getting a running commentary so I knew there was a bit of a tasty battle going on behind Jenson Button. What everyone was doing was going up into the corner and then starting it down the inside, trying it on under braking basically, hoping the guy on the outside wouldn't have the traction to battle back. In this case, they were very close and the reason I followed it round was because one of them was going to flip into the air - that's how close it was. There were about ten laps left so I got to see quite a lot of the action taking place.

The main man

Camera model: Nikon D4 Exposure time: 1/1000s | Aperture: F10 |ISO speed: 400 | Lens: 500mm telephoto © Sutton Images

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I wasn't too sure what to do on the finish, I had a couple of options - go closer to the flag and do a 7200, a smaller zoom, and panned it through, but it was still in the shade. So I thought I would shoot it long for a change on the 500. There was a really big hole with nobody else in it - I could almost put my whole body through the hole with the 500, hand-holding it. I don't do it a lot to be honest because it's quite a heavy lens with just the muscles. The problem was there were a few cars in front, backmarkers, so there was too much heat haze. He was weaving from side to side and those pictures were rubbish. Luckily as he got towards me he had an arm in the air and carried it on for a bit, so that was a bit lucky that I was able to create that picture.

Lapping it up

Camera model: Nikon D4 | Exposure time: 1/250s | Aperture: F22 | ISO speed: 400 | Lens: 24-70mm zoom © Sutton Images

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In this one you've got to be one step ahead of the game, think about where he's going to be and what he's going to do. I saw the crowd by the fence so had an idea he would be there. Usually Mercedes has the celebrations out in the pit lane so there was a lot of activity going down there. Lewis jumping up there is a good picture, this being the day he beat Nigel Mansell's British record and ties for fifth in the all-time standings with Fernando Alonso.

Battleground

© Getty Images

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I like the shot of the two Williams' side-by-side because it was a dramatic moment from the restart. It's right on the crest of the hill and you get a great image of the cars pushing the limit through this corner without touching each other. On this one you can see that when they made this circuit the first corner was designed to encourage overtaking and it's great from a photographer's perspective. The picture also shows you just how steep that hill is because I think it can be misleading from TV sometimes.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

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