2014 United States Grand Prix - Race

USPA NEWS - Lewis Hamilton took his third United States Grand Prix victory by less than five seconds from team-mate Nico Rosberg after a tense battle at the Circuit of the Americas. Lewis and Nico achieved the team´s tenth one-two finish of the season to equal the record set by McLaren in 1988.

The result now means that only a MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS driver can now win the 2014 World Drivers´ Championship In claiming his 10th victory of 2014, Lewis has now won more Formula One races than any other British driver. Both drivers employed a two-stop strategy, starting on the soft tyre and switching to mediums twice during the race. This further reinforces the positive step that has been made with the 2014 Hybrid Power Units, delivering better performance with a 35% improvement in fuel efficiency over the previous engine format.

Lewis Hamilton -
What an incredible place this is to go racing. We have such great support here and I have to say a massive thanks to the fans who have been awesome all weekend. I´m really grateful to have had the opportunity to be out front here. It´s a very special feeling to have such an amazing car, an amazing team and to be on this incredible run. It´s been an unbelievable job from the team all year so a big thanks to everyone here at the track and at the factories back home.

We managed to correct the problems from qualifying today which was great and I pushed as hard as I could. For the overtake, I just stayed as close as possible to Nico and waited for the moment to be just close enough to throw it up the inside. This is a good circuit to be able to follow another car but it´s still not easy. You have to judge the risk“Ž in these situations but I felt confident I could pull it off. Once I got past Nico, it was just about controlling the race. I´m very, very proud to now hold the record for the most Formula One wins for a British driver. I have to say, though, it´s all thanks to the team and the car we have this year that I´ve been able to reach that landmark so quickly. Ten wins in a season is just“¦ well, wow!

Nico Rosberg -
It was a tough day for me and it feels horrible to finish second after starting from pole. The conditions were very different compared to yesterday and it took me too long to find my rhythm at the beginning. In Formula One it is all about adapting quickly, but it just took me too long. Only 10 laps after Lewis passed me, I got it right and was able to push much more. Lewis just did a better job today, so congratulations to him. It´s getting tougher but there is still a chance for the title and everything can happen. I´m still going to be pushing flat out just as I always have. I never give up.

Toto Wolff -
Today, we ensured that only a Mercedes-Benz driver can win the 2014 Drivers´ title, and that is an incredible achievement for the whole team ““ regardless of whether Lewis or Nico comes out on top in Abu Dhabi. It was a very strong race from both of them: each had the pace to win and the decisive laps came at the start of the second stint, when Nico was suffering of too much understeer on the prime tyre and Lewis was able to catch and then overtake him on lap 24.

After that, both cars were very evenly matched and it was fantastic to see the tenth one-two finish for the team; that is record-equalling and shows the amazing job everybody in this team has done this year. Now we need to get our heads down and work to ensure two clean races on the sporting and reliability front in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. There has been a lot of talk about the momentum between the drivers in recent weeks but the reality is that we´re watching an equal fight at the very highest level ““ and this is a great thing for Formula One.

Paddy Lowe -
It´s brilliant to secure the front row after this morning´s practice session proved rather problematic ““ especially on Nico´s side of the garage ““ so congratulations to him for two successive laps good enough for pole position in Q3. Well done also to Lewis, who had some problems with front locking but still delivered some impressive laps. As the pressure mounts and we home in on the final races of the Championship, it´s great to see this fascinating battle between our two drivers and we´re looking forward to a good race tomorrow. Tyre endurance will be a much more significant factor than it was last year and we may see a variety of strategies and variations in pace during the race.

Daren Frankish media | © 2014 Daimler AG.