Hamilton extends championship lead with fifth consecutive

Lewis Hamilton

Austin (US), Nov 3 (IANS/CMC)

Lewis Hamilton snatched victory at the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, to reel off his fifth straight win, tenth of the season, and extend his lead at the top of the Formula One drivers standings.

The Briton took the chequered flag in an hour, 40:04.785 minutes to beat Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg into second, with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo completing the podium on Sunday, reports CMC.

It was, however, a poor day for Force India with both Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez having to retire early into the race.

Damage from an accident ended Perez's race in the first lap while Hulkenberg retired due to an engine problem in the 16th lap.

With the win, Hamilton moved to 316 points, 24 clear of Rosberg with two events in Sao Paulo and Abu Dhabi remaining.

"I have an incredible team and an incredible car and I had a great opponent," Hamilton said afterward.

"It is such a privilege to represent my country and to be top of the driver wins is quite special. The car was great."

Hamilton seemed to be facing a huge challenge at the Circuit of the Americas when Rosberg proved fastest in Saturday's final qualifying to grab pole.

However, the 29-year-old Hamilton stayed with his teammate from the start before producing a daring overtaking move on lap 24.

Trailing by almost three seconds on lap 15, Hamilton had cut that advantage down to under a second by lap 20, enabling him to pull off the superb passing move.

He surprised Rosberg by taking to the inside of the hairpin at Turn 12, grabbing the lead and speeding away to build an advantage of nearly two seconds, en route to the chequered flag on lap 56.

Hamilton's victory came six years to the day he won his only World title with victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix back in 2008.