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In a pulsating race in Austin which saw many twists and turns, Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari won his first race in over 5 years and put the brakes on Lewis Hamilton's eventual coronation as World Champion. Mercedes' strategy to delay a second pit stop cost Hamilton the victory, and although it may seem insignificant in the title race, Hamilton was never the less disappointed with the outcome of the race.
Hamilton's nearest rival Sebastian Vettel looked to have handed Hamilton the title when he clashed with the Red Bull of Daniel Riccardo, but it wasn't Hamilton's night as he was pipped by Max Verstappen to second. With a total of 75 points to race for over the remaining 3 Grand Prix races, Hamilton has a healthy lead of 70 points over Vettel and will look to seal the title next week in Mexico.
With 3 laps to go, the top 3 drivers were battling it out in a neck-to-neck race, and Hamilton had an opportunity to overtake Verstappen which he squandered. But as things panned out, overtaking Verstappen also wouldn't have helped Hamilton seal the title as Vettel overtook Bottas to take the 4th place. Despite losing the lead early on, Hamilton and Mercedes took a gamble to pit early during the deployment of the virtual safety car in lap 11, and it proved dividends with Hamilton closing the gap over race leader Raikkonen.
But it was quite evident that Hamilton had to stop again as his rear tyres were in need of being replaced. Mercedes' decision to delay his second pit stop cost Hamilton a chance to take the chequered flag. A visibly upset Hamilton queried his Team over the Team Radio about the pit stop and the choice of soft rear tyres expressing his displeasure.
The driver of the race was undoubtedly Finn Kimi Raikkonen who drove spectacularly to take the lead initially and fend off Hamilton and Verstappen. Raikkonen overtook fellow Finn legend Mika Hakkinen as the driver with the most wins in F1 from Finland. This was Kimi's 21st F1 Grand Prix win, and his win set the record for the biggest number of races between victories for any driver in the sport's history. Dutchman Verstappen drove an equally good race considering that he had to start from 18th due to penalty accrued due to a gearbox change.
Verstappen quickly moved to 9th at the end of the first lap and made his way higher up eventually as the race went on. Usually reserved Kimi Raikkonen had an awkward post-race question for Lewis Hamilton - In the podium green room, where conversations between drivers are heard by everyone, Kimi quipped - 'Did you win the championship or not?'. Hamilton said no, and there was a burst of laughter in the room with Kimi later saying ' I didn't know'. Hamilton took it in good humour and later congratulated Kimi for his race win.
As the drivers head to Mexico next week, Hamilton needs just a 7th place finish to seal the Drivers' Championship and level Argentine racing great's tally of 5 Drivers' Championship titles.
