United States: Racing – Kimi Räikkönen finds his way back to victory
At the end of a beautiful race, Kimi Räikkönen managed to win! Max Verstappen, who started 18th, managed to finish 2nd, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton. After making another mistake at the start, Sebastian Vettel finishes 4th and remains in contention for the title!

The weather was perfect for this United States Grand Prix, held under the Texan sun. At lights out, Kimi Räikkönen made a perfect start, managing to get the better of Lewis Hamilton on the inside at the first corner. Valtteri Bottas stayed calmly behind his leader.
But once again, Sebastian Vettel made a mistake on his own while attempting to overtake Daniel Ricciardo, in a maneuver that strangely recalls his error at the second chicane in Monza. The German then found himself forced into a new comeback as he rejoined the race in 15th position! At the same time, Romain Grosjean completely missed his braking, sending Charles Leclerc into a spin, which forced the Frenchman to retire. This first lap was decidedly very eventful as Lance Stroll collided heavily with Fernando Alonso’s McLaren.
In the 8th lap, a new major disappointment for Daniel Ricciardo, with another complete shutdown of the Renault engine in the Red Bull, which prompted the activation of the virtual safety car to allow for the car’s removal. This was an opportunity for the strategists to take action: Ferrari chose to keep Kimi Räikkönen on the track while Lewis Hamilton dove into the pit lane to switch to soft tires.
This offered a free pit stop to Lewis Hamilton. The Briton was then able to clock qualifying laps to catch up quickly to Kimi Räikkönen. The Finn managed to keep him behind for three laps before diving into the pits on lap 22. The following lap, Max Verstappen, who started 18th, stopped a lap earlier than Valtteri Bottas. Once again, the Finn from Mercedes did not benefit from the best strategy as he came out behind the Red Bull driver.
For a time, Lewis Hamilton was able to maintain a 17-second lead over Kimi Räikkönen. But the Briton faced severe degradation of his old soft tires. With the inexorable comeback of Kimi Räikkönen and Max Verstappen, Mercedes chose to call him in 20 laps from the end. He then came out in fourth position.
If Valtteri Bottas parked to let his teammate pass, it then became a race against the clock for Hamilton compared to Max Verstappen and Kimi Räikkönen. The battle was very close, with a slow regrouping at the front. Thus, with eight laps to go, the top three were within 2.5 seconds of each other!
Three laps from the end, Lewis Hamilton got into Max Verstappen’s DRS zone to attempt an overtake especially since the Dutchman missed his braking. The two men spent several corners overtaking each other until Lewis Hamilton finally ended up in the run-off areas.
In the meantime, Sebastian Vettel managed to find an opening on Valtteri Bottas, which allowed him to delay the championship decider until Mexico.
These twists allowed Kimi Räikkönen to calmly reach the finish and win his 21st Grand Prix, 113 starts since his last victory in Australia 2013! Far behind the top five, Renault executed a very successful operation in the championship with Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz finishing in 6th and 7th places. Esteban Ocon secured 8th place, ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez.
During the next races, Lewis Hamilton will only need to finish 7th at least once to secure the title.