• United States Grand Prix

Hamilton delighted to beat Vettel

Lewis Hamilton beat Sebastian Vettel by 0.6s to take his fourth win of the season © Press Association

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• Report:
• Hamilton wins as title battle goes down to Brazil
  

• Race:
• United States Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Lewis Hamilton

• Teams:
• McLaren

Lewis Hamilton described his victory in the United States Grand Prix as the culmination of "a great weekend" as he beat Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel had been quickest in all three practice sessions and similarly so in qualifying as he took pole with Hamilton close behind. In the race, however, Hamilton appeared to be a match for Vettel and having followed closely for 42 laps he used DRS to pass and become the first winner at the new Circuit of the Americas.

Hamilton had said that he was desperate to "fight" with Vettel and Fernando Alonso this weekend, and he said that he was delighted to succeed in beating Red Bull.

"It's been a great weekend," Hamilton said. "To be able to beat Red Bull and Sebastian is definitely a tough challenge but we managed to do it. We weren't so bad in the first stint but it was very difficult to follow and make the pass and my tyres went off. We pitted two laps before Sebastian and the traffic really worked out quite well because the traffic usually catches me out, but it worked slightly in my favour at some points. What a great feeling to win the first grand prix here and I won the last one in the USA as well."

Hamilton admitted that passing the Red Bull was very tough, but that the COTA layout gave him a chance in to turn 12.

"He was pretty strong everywhere. The first sector was very difficult to follow through turns four, five six and seven so the place where you really need to close the gap was through nine and then in the most important part there was nearly a second gap so I couldn't really remain close. But the track all worked out really well and I knew that that was going to be the lap where I had a chance. So I turned the engine up and got close."

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