Post-race Statistics of the United States GP

A pretty good first race at the Circuit of the Americas, with some clever tactics from Ferrari before the race start to get both Alonso and Massa on the clean side of the grid. Red Bull suffered from their third alternator failure of the season, it previous failed at Valencia and Monza.

Vettel has increased his Championship lead by 3 points, making the gap now 13 points, the same as it was after the Indian Grand Prix. For the first time ever Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso all finished on the podium, even though Alonso was a massive 40 seconds down on Hamilton, had Webber’s alternator not failed I don’t think Alonso would have been on the podium.

Red Bull only needed 4 points in the race to win their third Consecutive Constructors’ Championship so Vettel’s 2nd place was more than enough to do so making them the fourth constructor to win three consecutively behind Ferrari (75-77, 99-04), McLaren (88-91) and Williams (92-94). However Red Bull are the first constructor to win their first three Constructors’ Championships in consecutive years, a feat which may be matched by Sebastian Vettel in the Drivers’ Championship next weekend, another potential first.

Vettel’s 2nd place at the Circuit of the Americas was the 400th podium for Renault Sport engines, their first being at the incredible 1979 French Grand Prix with the fantastic battle between Gilles Villeneuve and Rene Arnoux for 2nd place. Vettel’s 2nd was also enough to give him 1005 total points while driving for Red Bull, the only driver on the grid to have over 1000 at their current team.  Hamilton’s win was the 225th for Great British drivers, 95 wins ahead of the Germans with 130 wins.

Still very close in the Championship, both Vettel and Alonso have been on the podium at every race since Korea, but if both are on the podium in Brazil then Vettel will win the Championship. Hamilton has re-passed Webber for 4th place, Jenson Button has closed in a lot on Webber too, now just 4 points down and has a very good chance of passing him for 5th in Brazil.

Romain Grosjean has also slightly moved up in the standings, passing Nico Rosberg for 8th and since Rosberg’s 2nd in Monaco he hasn’t moved up a place in the standings at all, only dropping a few.