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Hello and welcome to ESPN's live coverage of the 2017 United States Grand Prix. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13:58 We are just moments away from lights out. Who will be victorious in Austin? Keep it here with ESPN to find out. ---- 13:57 A reminder too, that Mercedes can seal its fourth consecutive constructors' championship if one of its drivers simply wins the race. Ferrari has to outscore the Silver Arrows by 17 points to stay in title contention. ---- 13:54 Magnussen and Hulkenberg are 17th and 18th, while F1 debutant Hartley completes the back row of the grid alongside Vandoorne, who was hit with a further grid penalty just hours ago after a late engine changes. ---- 13:50 Outside of the top 10 come Kvyat and Grosjean. The Sauber's of Ericsson and Wehrlein are well placed to try and add to the Swiss team's points tally from 13th and 14th respectively, ahead of Stroll and Verstappen, who starts from 16th following his grid penalty for engine changes. ---- 13:46After Raikkonen comes Ocon and Sainz, who impressed on his first qualifying outing for Renault. Alonso made Q3 for the sixth time this season and starts eighth, ahead of Perez and Massa, who round out the top 10. ---- 13:44 Bottas starts from third, ahead of Ricciardo and Raikkonen. The top five are the only drivers to actually start the race from where they qualified. Verstappen, Vandoorne, Hulkenberg and Hartley have all picked up penalties for engine component changes, while Stroll and Magnussen have received grid drops for blocking other drivers in qualifying. ---- 13:39 Hamilton is joined on the front-row by title rival Vettel. Hamilton can win the title today if he outscores the German by 16 points and Bottas fails to claim victory. ---- 13:35 Hamilton starts on pole after claiming his second pole at this circuit. He is going for his fifth win here and his 6th U.S. Grand Prix. His pole yesterday saw Hamilton break another F1 record by surpassing Michael Schumacher's tally of the most front row starts in F1, with the Briton moving onto 117. ---- 13:33 We are all set for for a cracker here at COTA as the championship fight is set to continue -- and possibly conclude -- over the course of the next two hours in Austin. |
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Lap 1 |
Vettel takes the lead from Hamilton with a fantastic start! It's a clean start down the order so far, as Alonso makes a move on Sainz for seventh. |
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Lap 2 |
Vettel has a 1.3s lead over Hamilton. Bottas and Ricciardo go wheel-to-wheel, with Bottas just about holding onto second place. Verstappen has already gained a number of places and sits 11th at the end of lap two. |
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Lap 3 |
Hamilton sets a fastest lap of the race with a 1:40.945s as he looks to close back in on Vettel. "Pace feels pretty good," Hamilton reports. |
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Lap 4 |
Ricciardo makes a late lunge on Bottas into Turn 1 but runs wide, allowing Bottas back through into third place. Hamilton has reduced Vettel's lead down to 0.8s. |
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Lap 5 |
Hulkenberg has retired from the race, while Ricciardo continues to hound Bottas over third place, just 0.5s separating the pair. |
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Lap 6 |
Hamilton and Vettel continue to trade fastest laps as Hamilton closes in on his title rival. Hamilton takes the lead! The Briton dives down the inside of Vettel into Turn 12. |
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Lap 7 |
Hamilton has already extended his gap to over 1s on this lap. That overtake really seemed to catch Vettel out, as Hamilton steamed down the inside with relative ease. |
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Lap 8 |
Wehrlein is the second man to retire from this race, following contact with Magnussen. |
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Lap 9 |
Mercedes tells Hamilton to remain on "Plan A", which we expect will be a one stop strategy. Vettel is quickly falling back from Hamilton, who has moved over 2s clear now that he is running in clean air. |
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Lap 10 |
Bottas and Ricciardo's earlier fight is under investigation by the stewards. |
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Lap 11 |
Raikkonen fell behind Ocon on the opening lap but is now back up to fifth, just behind Ricciardo's Red Bull. Nate Saunders in Austin: Lewis Hamilton in clean air looking as comfortable as he's looked all weekend. Vettel's chances of winning this race hinged on getting ahead -- and staying ahead -- of the championship leader. |
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Lap 12 |
Verstappen has made some serious ground in the opening 12 laps in this race. From 16th on the grid, the Dutchman is already up to sixth, and just 8s behind Raikkonen in fifth. Vettel reports some blistering on his front tyres. He appears to be really struggling at this stage -- he's nearly 3s behind Hamilton now. |
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Lap 13 |
Ricciardo, who has been complaining about his tyres, has pitted from fourth place. Looks like he will be running a two-stop strategy for this race. That stop promotes Raikkonen up to fourth. The Finn is flying at this stage of the race. |
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Lap 14 |
The stewards have opted to take no further action over that lap two, turn one incident between Ricciardo and Bottas. |
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Lap 15 |
Ricciardo makes a rather simple pass on Sainz along the main straight as he moves back through the order following his pitstop. Ricciardo, now running on fresh super-softs, now sets a fastest lap of the race. |
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Lap 16 |
Ricciardo pulls off the track in the final sector and looks to be out of the U.S. Grand Prix! "Engine's gone, engine's gone," he reports. That's his first retirement here in Austin. What a shame for the Australian, who had enjoyed a competitive start to this race. |
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Lap 17 |
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Lap 18 |
Laurence Edmondson at COTA: It looks like Vettel is going for the one-stop after switching from ultra-softs to softs. The soft tyre when new is 1.7s slower than the ultra-soft, but it has much better durability than the two softer compounds, especially when track temperatures are on the rise. |
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Lap 19 |
Hamilton has reported that his tyres feel good. He reckons he can extend his current stint longer than Mercedes originally planned. Ocon dives up the inside of Vandoorne at Turn 12 to move up to eighth place. |
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Lap 20 |
Vettel sets a new fastest-lap of the race as Bottas pits for softs. That 1:39.702s from Vettel will keep Mercedes interested. Hamilton now pits and switches onto the soft tyre. Hamilton returns to the track only just ahead of Vettel, but he holds onto his lead over Vettel for now. |
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Lap 21 |
Verstappen now leads the race as Raikkonen pits, but the Red Bull driver is yet to stop. |
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Lap 22 |
Hamilton has now moved 1.6s clear of Vettel after that close call following his pit stop. Hamilton went straight on the radio to ask Mercedes how Vettel was able to get so close. Hamilton's 4s lead completely evaporated in the space of a few moments. |
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Lap 23 |
Verstappen continues to lead, with Hamilton less than a second behind him. Hamilton is made to work hard to pass Verstappen, with his first attempt at Turn 12 not coming off. Hamilton kept his car out wide on at turn 17, before switching back up the inside to sneak past Verstappen into Turn 18. Clever stuff from the Briton. |
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Lap 24 |
Hopefully there will be many more battles to come between Hamilton and Verstappen in the future. |
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Lap 25 |
Verstappen finally pits, which releases Vettel into second. "I have a problem," Alonso reports. "I can't believe it. Another six or eight points [lost]". The Spaniard returns to the pits and is wheeled back into the McLaren garage. He will take no further part in this race. |
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Lap 26 |
In the space of just two laps, Hamilton has restored the 4s lead he had over Vettel before the pit stop phase. |
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Lap 27 |
Hartley is enjoying a strong run so far on his F1 debut. The Toro Rosso driver is up to 14th and closing onto the back of Stroll's Williams. Wow! Verstappen sets a new fastest lap on a 1:38.523s. That's blisteringly quick, and over 1s quicker than anything we've seen so far today. |
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Lap 28 |
Four retirements so far, with Alonso, Ricciardo, Wehrlein and Hulkenberg the drivers who are out. |
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Lap 29 |
Perez is catching up to the back of his Force India teammate Ocon. How long before team orders are employed? Perez answers that question by informing his team that he is much faster than Ocon. "Understood", is the reply from Force India. |
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Lap 30 |
Ocon has got caught up behind Massa and that has allowed Perez to close right up to the gearbox of Ocon. This is getting tasty! Massa pulls into the pits, which somewhat ends that squabble. But it will be interesting to see how Force India manages this situation, with Perez visibly the faster driver of the two. |
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Lap 31 |
Nate Saunders in Austin: Another headache for Force India, as its drivers -- who are remarkably closely matched at pretty much every race -- battle for seventh. Esteban Ocon got himself bottled up behind Felipe Massa before the Williams driver pitted. |
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Lap 32 |
Hamilton looks to be cruising at this stage. He is now 5s clear of Vettel. Perez insists he is much quicker than Ocon. The Mexican has Sainz closing in quickly behind, but has already been told to hold position and remain behind Ocon. |
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Lap 33 |
Kvyat is right up there in that scrap over sixth place. An impressive drive so far from the Russian on his return to F1. |
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Lap 34 |
A brilliant move from Sainz, who takes seventh place away from Perez. The Spaniard held his line all the way through Turns 17 and 18 as the pair ran side-by-side for three corners, before Sainz was handed the inside line at Turn 19 to claim the position. |
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Lap 35 |
Raikkonen is closing in on Bottas as he looks to get himself up into a podium spot. |
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Lap 36 |
Nate Saunders in Austin Max Verstappen looks very well placed for a podium here. He has a handful of laps over both Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas owing to his lenghier first stint and he's just had the radio message from Red Bull to push. It's becoming a regular sight seeing Raikkonen and Bottas failing to replicate the pace of their teammates out in front. |
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Lap 37 |
Raikkonen is all over Bottas in the final sector, but cannot quite find a way through into third. Meanwhile his teammate Vettel has suggested moving onto "Plan B" -- a two stop strategy. |
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Lap 38 |
Verstappen has pitted onto the super-softs, as it looks like he is switching onto a two-stopper. |
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Lap 39 |
Vettel pits from second place and switches onto the super-softs. Vettel returns to the action just ahead of Verstappen. |
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Lap 40 |
Hamilton asks Mercedes to keep him informed on what he needs to do. Verstappen sets a new outright fastest lap on a 1:38.060s. How will Mercedes now respond? |
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Lap 41 |
The top three remain out, as Vettel and Verstappen continue to lap at a faster pace than those ahead. |
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Lap 42 |
Nate Saunders in Austin: Ferrari's pit stop has put Hamilton and Mercedes in a tricky situation now. In doing so when they did, they've put Hamilton into the danger zone if he wanted to pit again. The situation is complicated further by the charging Max Verstappen, who is just 2s down on Vettel. The Ferrari driver is about one pit stop behind Hamilton, so it's likely the race leader will try and stretch this stint to the end of the race if necessary. Some fascinating 16 laps coming up. |
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Lap 43 |
Raikkonen dives up the inside of Bottas with a bold move at Turn 12 to snatch second place. |
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Lap 44 |
Hamilton stays out and leads Raikkonen by 9.4s. He is around 21s clear of Vettel, who is lapping around 1s quicker than Hamilton at this stage. |
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Lap 45 |
Vettel is now 7.6s off Bottas, who in turn is 2s behind Raikkonen. Hamilton eeks out his advantage over Raikkonen to over the 10s mark. |
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Lap 46 |
Hamilton continues to extend his lead -- which now stands at 11.5s. He looks to have a big enough lead and should be on for his 5th win at COTA. |
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Lap 47 |
Verstappen is closing in on Vettel, who is catching Bottas. We should be in for an exciting final 10 laps or so here. |
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Lap 48 |
Magnussen and Ericsson come together at Turn 12, moments after Vettel had cleared both backmarkers. That was very clumsy indeed. Both drivers are able to continue without too much further driver, however. |
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Lap 49 |
Sainz is just 0.5s behind Ocon as they scrap over sixth place. The incident between Ericsson and Magnussen is being investigated by the stewards. |
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Lap 50 |
Vettel sets a new race lap record -- a 1:37.957s -- as he closes to within 1.5s of Bottas. Ericsson has been handed a five second time penalty for that collision with Magnussen. |
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Lap 51 |
Vettel is now right on the tail of Bottas as he tries to get back into third. Vettel sweeps around the outside of Bottas at Turn 1, narrowly avoiding a backmarker in the process. What a move by the German. He's back up to third place. |
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Lap 52 |
Vettel makes an easy move on Raikkonen as he moves up to second place, he is still some way off Hamilton. |
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Lap 53 |
Nate Saunders in Austin: Ferrari and Vettel rolled the dice in this one and it has back-fired. In pitting when they did, the hope was to put Hamilton under pressure to do the same thing -- the looming presence of Max Verstappen probably hindered its cause, too. In pitting Vettel when they did, Ferrari ensured he lost track position to Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas. Mercedes thought about covering off the stop with one for Hamilton but it soon lost the chance to do so. Effectively, it's given Hamilton a calm drive to victory out in front, unchallenged by anyone, while Vettel has had to use up most of his tyres catching the cars further up the track. Good to see Ferrari taking a chance on strategy, but it was a bold choice and it hasn't worked. |
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Lap 54 |
Verstappen is the next man to pass Bottas -- who pits after dropping to fifth. |
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Lap 55 |
Vettel is now 14.5s behind Hamilton with the battle for the lead seemingly now over. Verstappen is flying and closing onto the back of Raikkonen. Can the Dutchman get himself onto the podium? |
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Lap 56 |
Hamilton begins his final lap -- the Briton can afford to cruise home to the flag with Vettel over 12s behind. Verstappen passes Raikkonen in the final sector to move up to third.
Vettel was very slow on that final lap but manages to come home second, ahead of Verstappen, who finishes on the podium despite starting 16th. Verstappen just continues to amaze -- another superb drive from the Dutchman. Raikkonen finishes fourth, ahead of Bottas in fifth. Ocon takes a solid sixth, with Sainz scoring points on his first race for Renault in seventh. Perez, Massa and Kvyat round out the top 10. |
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That result means Mercedes has claimed its fourth consecutive constructors' championship. Hamilton can now win the drivers' title at next weekend's Mexican Grand Prix. Thanks for following the action with us this weekend, and we hope to see you back here next this time next weekend. |
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Lights out!
yellow flags in the final sector, but Ricciardo's car is well out of harm's way, so there should be no need for a Safety Car.
Hamilton crosses the line to claim his fifth win at COTA. He moves 66 points clear of Vettel in the title race.
