As it happened: 2012 United States - The Race

• 18:30

  Hello and welcome to the Factbyte Factbox for the United States Grand Prix!

• 18:30

  It's all kicking off in Austin today, with Ferrari causing a stir before the race has even begun!

• 18:31

  If you were following along yesterday, you'll know that Sebastian Vettel took pole position, as well as leading all the previous sessions as well. He's looking good this weekend!

• 18:31

  Meanwhile, championship challenger Fernando Alonso qualified down in ninth. Grosjean's gearbox penalty moved him up eighth, which you would think was a good thing.

• 18:32

  Except the even numbered grid slots are all on the dirty side of the grid, and as COTA is brand spanking new, it really is a disadvantage on that side.

• 18:32

  So, Ferrari have opted to get Massa a gearbox related penalty as well, shuffling both their drivers back to the clean side. More information here: https://sidepodcast.com/post/ferrari-gearbox-penalty-felipe-massa-alonso-promoted

• 18:33

  Circuit Data

  Circuit of the Americas
  Local timezone	-06:00 GMT
  First race	2012
  Number of laps	56
  Circuit length	5.516km
  Race distance	308.896km
  Start offset	0.000km

• 18:35

  Hard and medium compounds are on offer this weekend. Pirelli gave the drivers an extra set for practice, but there's still plenty of unknowns about the duration and strategies.

• 18:36

  Whilst you're getting settled in for the upcoming race, do have your say with a safety car prediction: https://sidepodcast.com/playground/predict-the-race.php

• 18:36

  You might also want to check out the comments: https://sidepodcast.com/dashboard and get yourself set up with some live timing: http://www.formula1.com/live_timing/live_timing.html

• 18:38

  Grid Position

  1	S Vettel	Red Bull
  2	L Hamilton	McLaren
  3	M Webber	Red Bull
  4	K Räikkönen	Lotus
  5	M Schumacher	Mercedes
  6	N Hülkenberg	Force India
  7	F Alonso	Ferrari
  8	R Grosjean	Lotus
  9	P Maldonado	Williams
  10	B Senna	Williams

• 18:41

  Interview with Mark Webber: "It's pretty greasy. We're just going to have to see how we go. In the first part of the race, getting temperature is going to be really important. We're going to see some twitches and wobbles in the first few laps.

  You just want to get to the apex [of turn 1] as quick as possible, late on the brakes but not too late obviously because there are people ahead."

• 18:43

  Fastest Session Times

  Free Practice 1	S Vettel	1:38.125
  Free Practice 2	S Vettel	1:37.718
  Free Practice 3	S Vettel	1:36.490
  Qualifying	S Vettel	1:35.657

• 18:44

  Interview with Lewis Hamilton: "It's gonna be difficult. It's quite slippery on this side, I don't know if you noticed on that side it's much grippier. Has Alonso moved up? Good for him, good for him. There's a lot of people turned out today, it's fantastic. They're so enthusiastic here, really just genuinely excited to be here."

• 18:45

  Interview with Sebastian Vettel: "We start on the right hand side, it should give us a good start. Not that far to turn one, but then it's quite wide so it should be fine. Hopefully we'll get a good launch, a quick getaway and then we'll see."

• 18:48

  2012 Race Wins

  Pos	Driver	Total
  1	S Vettel	5
  2	F Alonso	3
  3	L Hamilton	3
  4	M Webber	2
  5	J Button	2
  6	N Rosberg	1
  7	P Maldonado	1
  8	K Räikkönen	1

• 18:50

  Marussia had a bit of a mad panic to get Charles Pic to the grid, after they could smell leaking fuel in the cockpit. They made it to the grid though, in the nick of time.

• 18:52

  Felipe Massa on the enforced penalty: "It's difficult to find a driver like me."

• 18:55

  The polls are now closed, and you guys have voted in your masses. 24% say no safety cars this race, whilst 48% think there will be one. 18% say two and 9% say more than two. That would be a hectic race!

• 18:56

  We also had a poll for who will be the championship leader after this race, and 64% say Vettel, with the rest opting for Alonso. That doesn't mean he'll have won it though.

• 18:56

  

  24°C

  Track	31°C
  Humidity	31%
  Wind speed	4mps

• 18:57

  Tweet from @TheFifthDriver: The build-up has been spectacular: there's been a marching band, sky divers, country and western singers - the atmosphere is amazing!

• 18:59

  The tyre data we have right now suggests that all the drivers are on the medium compound except Button in 12th and Rosberg in 17th.

• 19:00

  The tyre blankets are coming off and the grid is clearing for the formation lap.

• 19:01

  Vettel leads the pack away for the formation lap, their last chance to get a feel for the track before the action begins in earnest.

• 19:03

  The pack now lines up, with Vettel waiting at the end for those red lights to come on.

• 19:03

  Race started.

• 19:04 Lap 1

  Vettel gets a great start as Webber also starts well and moves alongside Hamilton.

• 19:04 Lap 1

  Streaming into the first corner, Vettel is through cleanly, whilst Alonso is up to fourth.

• 19:04 Lap 1

  It looked like a reasonably clean first corner, much to our surprise!

• 19:05 Lap 1

  Red Bull lead with a 1-2, Hamilton down to third and Alonso hustling to catch the McLaren.

• 19:05 Lap 1

  Further back, Button has fallen way down the order to 16th behind Vergne.

• 19:06 Lap 2

  Hülkenberg sweeps past Schumacher on the home straight and keeps the position into turn one.

• 19:07 Lap 3

  Now it's Räikkönen who is going at it with Schumacher, the pair battling corner after corner. Kimi passed into turn one but Michael has retaken the place before the end of the lap.

• 19:07 Lap 3

  Race Control: DRS enabled.

• 19:09 Lap 3

  Hamilton was trying to make a move on Webber but ran off track in doing so. He jinked back on track and Webber moved aside but kept the place.

• 19:09 Lap 3

  Hamilton is super fast though, it doesn't look like Webber can keep that place for long.

• 19:09 Lap 3

  We've got replays of the first corner now, it was absolutely incredible driving from everyone to get through there cleanly.

• 19:11 Lap 5

  Hamilton has made the pass on Webber, and he'll be up into second, chasing after Vettel now.

• 19:12 Lap 5

  Gap Analysis

  Pos	Driver	Gap
  1st	VET	1:45.592
  2nd	HAM	+2.6
  3rd	WEB	+3.3
  4th	ALO	+6.4
  5th	HUL	+10.2

• 19:12 Lap 6

  There's a ten car train building up behind Paul di Resta in 8th place. He's holding up both Schumacher and Massa, and many more besides!

• 19:14 Lap 6

  Driver Positions

  Pos		Driver
  1	0	S Vettel
  2	0	L Hamilton
  3	0	M Webber
  4	3	F Alonso
  5	1	N Hülkenberg
  6	2	R Grosjean
  7	-3	K Räikkönen
  8	5	P Di Resta
  9	-4	M Schumacher
  10	1	F Massa

• 19:14 Lap 7

  Jenson Button is now up behind Pastor Maldonado, the gap between the two just 0.2 seconds as he tries to make his way back through the field.

• 19:14 Lap 7

  Yellow flags for Romain Grosjean as he spins and drops down to tenth place.

• 19:14 Lap 7

  Track is clear.

• 19:15 Lap 7

  Felipe Massa makes the move on Schumacher and keeps the place into turn one. Grosjean is behind the Mercedes now.

• 19:17 Lap 8

  Pretty much everyone is getting past Grosjean now, with Jenson Button making his way through. Button is now up to 12th, Grosjean down to 13th.

• 19:17 Lap 8

  The replays of Romain's spin at turn 19 show that he was incredibly lucky not to be any further in the gravel, else his race would have been over.

• 19:18 Lap 9

  Towards the back, Petrov heads up the "new" teams, with three seconds between him and Kamui Kobayashi in front.

• 19:20 Lap 10

  Grosjean comes into the pitlane, the first stop of the afternoon.

• 19:20 Lap 10

  Team radio to Hamilton: "Purple every sector. Six tenths faster than Vettel."

• 19:21 Lap 10

  It's Button's turn on Schumacher now, with Jenson taking the inside, cutting across the pit exit and just squeezing his way through.

• 19:22 Lap 11

  One to Watch

  Hülkenberg	vs.	Räikkönen
  5th	+0.3s	6th

• 19:23 Lap 11

  Massa has passed Di Resta to move up to seventh place, not bad for the Ferrari driver who was thrust down the grid!

• 19:25 Lap 12

  It's wheel to wheel action between Kimi and Nico, they're both giving each other just enough space to keep on track but Kimi can't quite make the move!

• 19:25 Lap 13

  Massa is instructed that Kimi is being held up in front of him, and as they round the corner, Massa's onboard shows the two scrapping ahead of him.

• 19:26 Lap 13

  Kimi has finally made the move up past Hülkenberg at turn one, keeping his foot down round the next few corners, determined to take that fifth place.

• 19:27 Lap 14

  Button has put in the fastest first sector of the race so far, and he's closing in on a battle between Di Resta, Pérez and Senna ahead of him.

• 19:27 Lap 14

  Kamui Kobayashi comes into the pitlane.

• 19:28 Lap 15

  Vettel is now under serious pressure from Hamilton, he locks up his tyres as the McLaren bears down on him with increasing pace.

• 19:29 Lap 15

  Schumacher pits, it's about time really, he's been dropping further and further back from an excellent qualifying position.

• 19:29 Lap 15

  Yellow flags.

• 19:30 Lap 15

  Jean-Éric Vergne has parked off track.

• 19:31 Lap 16

  He jammed on the brakes in a manner that looked like something broke on the car, and he's out of the race.

• 19:32 Lap 17

  Track is clear.

• 19:32 Lap 17

  Gap Analysis

  Pos	Driver	Gap
  1st	VET	1:43.944
  2nd	HAM	+1.0
  3rd	WEB	+9.6
  4th	ALO	+13.0
  5th	RAI	+22.8

• 19:33 Lap 17

  Team radio to Webber informs him his KERS has failed again, as we look at the Australian pulled over to the side of the track.

• 19:34 Lap 17

  He was sitting in third place, so Webber's retirement has now moved Alonso up to third.

• 19:34 Lap 18

  Hülkenberg has pitted, we've had just four drivers visit the pitlane so far.

• 19:34 Lap 18

  Webber walks away from his car, forlorn is the only word to describe him.

• 19:36 Lap 18

  Driver Positions

  Pos		Driver
  1	0	S Vettel
  2	0	L Hamilton
  3	4	F Alonso
  4	0	K Räikkönen
  5	6	F Massa
  6	7	P Di Resta
  7	8	S Pérez
  8	2	B Senna
  9	3	J Button
  10	8	D Ricciardo

• 19:36 Lap 19

  Everyone in the top ten has gone up, up, up. That's partly down to Webber and partly to Schumacher who has dropped down to 18th!

• 19:37 Lap 20

  A quick replay of Fernando Alonso shows him run wide off track, no damage done sticking to the tarmac, but he's obviously pushing hard to catch the duo ahead of him.

• 19:38 Lap 21

  Hamilton looked like he was losing a little bit of time there, but he has dived into the pitlane anyway. A good clean stop from the McLaren team.

• 19:40 Lap 21

  As Lewis left the pits, Alonso came in and it was a slow stop for the Ferrari - a problem with the rear right. He's away after losing a couple of seconds there.

• 19:41 Lap 21

  Vettel comes in from the lead of the race, an incredibly quick stop.

• 19:42 Lap 23

  Button hasn't pitted, he's caught up to the rear of Alonso now, having started on the different compound.

• 19:43 Lap 23

  Vettel remained in the lead after his stop, with Räikkönen (not stopped) between him and second place Hamilton.

• 19:44 Lap 23

  Button sails past Alonso easily down the back straight.

• 19:45 Lap 24

  Hamilton has passed Kimi now, so moves back up to second place. Räikkönen comes into the pitlane from third.

• 19:47 Lap 24

  It was a slow pit stop for Räikkönen, which has let Alonso off the hook - his own delayed stop would have put the two on track at roughly the same time.

• 19:47 Lap 26

  The McLaren drivers are currently trading fastest sectors, albeit on different tyre compounds. Hamilton sets the fastest lap of the race so far.

• 19:48 Lap 26

  Massa is up to third now, with Button behind him - but the pair have still to stop.

• 19:50 Lap 26

  Interview with Mark Webber: "Alternator, ultimately in the end, so we lost the batteries in the car, KERS, gearbox sync. We knew we were in trouble, it was a long way home from there. I think it's disappointing to lose a good result here for myself and for the term, and there's more nerves for our reliability in general."

• 19:50 Lap 27

  Championship Prediction

  Pos	Driver	Pts
  1	S Vettel	280
  2	F Alonso	255
  3	K Räikkönen	204

• 19:52 Lap 28

  It looked like we were going to get some early field spread, but after almost thirty laps, we've just got two drivers who have been lapped - the two HRTs.

• 19:54 Lap 30

  Pit stops have been happening all through the field now, so that we're left with just Button, Ricciardo and Rosberg without a stop.

• 19:55 Lap 30

  Ricciardo is all the way up to fifth place at this point!

• 19:56 Lap 30

  And Ricciardo pits.

• 19:58 Lap 32

  Hamilton sets the fastest lap of the race so far, a 1:41.632, and he's now just 2.1 seconds behind Vettel again.

• 19:59 Lap 32

  Vettel made light work of passing backmarker Glock, Hamilton struggled and had to trail him for another couple of corners. The gap is still down to 1.6 seconds though.

• 20:01 Lap 33

  The gap between Vettel and Hamilton is ebbing and flowing as they feed through the backmarkers. 0.99 here, 1.353 there.

• 20:02 Lap 34

  They're so close now! It's really quite tense out there.

• 20:03 Lap 35

  We've still got Button in third who hasn't stopped yet. Those hard compound tyres are working really well, and it must be a one stop strategy for him. Meanwhile, Rosberg, on a similar strategy, pits.

• 20:04 Lap 36

  Vettel responds to the pressure by setting the fastest lap of the race, but he's not shaking that McLaren off.

• 20:05 Lap 36

  Button finally dives into the pitlane on Lap 36. It's medium compound on the McLaren and off he goes.

• 20:05 Lap 36

  Button comes back out into seventh place, behind Felipe Massa.

• 20:07 Lap 37

  Team radio to Hamilton: "Lewis, suggest save some KERS for a lap so you can use all of it on the next one."

• 20:07 Lap 37

  Championship Prediction

  Pos	Driver	Pts
  1	S Vettel	280
  2	F Alonso	260
  3	K Räikkönen	210

• 20:08 Lap 38

  Driver Positions

  Pos		Driver
  1	0	S Vettel
  2	0	L Hamilton
  3	4	F Alonso
  4	0	K Räikkönen
  5	6	F Massa
  6	2	R Grosjean
  7	5	J Button
  8	-2	N Hülkenberg
  9	1	B Senna
  10	-1	P Maldonado

• 20:10 Lap 38

  Button passes Grosjean for sixth place, he's got all the work to do again!

• 20:11 Lap 39

  Hamilton's still got DRS use to Vettel but he's not quite close enough this time. The pair are 30 seconds up on Alonso who is now sitting comfortably in third.

• 20:12 Lap 40

  Quick replay of Felipe Massa passing Kimi Räikkönen for fourth place, sitting behind his teammate now.

• 20:13 Lap 41

  Meanwhile, the Mercedes pair are struggling on their tyres. They split their strategy, and had planned a 1-stop for both, but Schumacher has had to come in for a new set of tyres and a second stop.

• 20:15 Lap 42

  The fastest lap is changing hands so often, Massa gets his hands on it for now - 1:40.572.

• 20:16 Lap 42

  Lewis Hamilton pulls alongside Vettel and sweeps past to move into the lead of the race. FINALLY!

• 20:16 Lap 42

  Replays show it was really close as Hamilton closed behind the Red Bull and just nipped to the right, it could have been a lost front wing and a puncture there. But it wasn't!

• 20:17 Lap 43

  Vettel complains on his radio that it was a silly overtake. His team try and calm him down and "concentrate on the job in hand."

• 20:18 Lap 44

  Hamilton secures his position out front with a fastest lap, he's off and away.

• 20:19 Lap 44

  Now that that's out of the way, we can look further down the grid again!

• 20:19 Lap 44

  Button still sits in sixth place, behind Räikkönen.

• 20:19 Lap 45

  Williams are currently running both cars in the points, Senna ahead of Maldonado for 9th and 10th.

• 20:20 Lap 45

  Button is hustling Räikkönen for position now, the pair of them really close but cleanly racing each other.

• 20:21 Lap 45

  Tweet from @TheFifthDriver: Cracking dice between Jenson and RAI over 5th place. Hard, but respectful racing.

• 20:22 Lap 45

  Three corners wheel to wheel with Kimi and Jenson, neither wanted to give it up but it was the McLaren who took the place.

• 20:26 Lap 48

  Gap Analysis

  Pos	Driver	Gap
  1st	HAM	1:40.406
  2nd	VET	+1.4
  3rd	ALO	+33.5
  4th	MAS	+45.3

• 20:27 Lap 49

  It looks like Vettel is now catching back up to Hamilton, the gap is reduced to about a second, he'll be in the DRS zone any second now.

• 20:28 Lap 49

  Comment from Ryan: Is this Sauber v Mercedes battle the most unexiting championship battle ever? Looks like both going to score 0 again.

• 20:28 Lap 50

  At the moment, there's also no danger of Caterham stealing back their tenth place in the constructors.

• 20:29 Lap 50

  Retirements

  Driver	Reason	Lap
  M Webber	Alternator	18
  J Vergne	Unknown	15

• 20:32 Lap 51

  Comment from rethymno racer: 5 laps to go for Vettel's alternator

• 20:32 Lap 52

  Replays show Romain Grosjean locking up massively as he chases down his teammate. He's 1.7ish seconds behind Räikkönen.

• 20:33 Lap 52

  Maldonado passes teammate Senna to move up to ninth place. Replays show there was some wheel to wheel banging into turn one.

• 20:34 Lap 53

  In the midst of the fun and games, Alonso set the fastest lap on lap 45 - 1:40.082.

• 20:35 Lap 53

  And Vettel snatches the fastest lap, with just three laps to go.

• 20:36 Lap 54

  Button's on the radio saying they're wasting lots of lap time by not using the full amount of KERS. Is there a problem there?

• 20:36 Lap 54

  Hamilton's turn to take fastest lap now, and we're down into 1:39.913.

• 20:37 Lap 55

  Tweet from @Williams_F1Team: Both drivers pushing hard in final stages - told to play safe on radio but no team orders - they are racing! #USGP

• 20:38 Lap 56

  Final lap.

• 20:39

  Lewis Hamilton wins the United States Grand Prix!!

• 20:40

  Sebastian Vettel crosses the line second, with Alonso joining the pair on the podium. The championship is still open!

• 20:42

  Vettel did take the fastest lap of the race, 1:39.347.

• 20:44

  Hamilton climbs out of his car, bouncing and clearly ecstatic. Vettel gets a bit tangled up in his car but finally manages to extricate himself from the cockpit.

• 20:46

  Red Bull have won the constructors' championship here at the US Grand Prix, and it's three in a row for them.

• 20:46

  Interview with Christian Horner: "It's fantastic, it's all down to the team. We've joined a list of illustrious names, I think there's only three other teams have done it in the history of the sport. it's something the team has worked incredibly hard for. It's something... well, speechless, really. The race unfortunately hinged on one backmarker that didn't use his mirrors, it cost Sebastian vital time... but there was nothing between the two of them, they were trading times throughout the race. But congratulations to Lewis, and it was important to finish ahead of Fernando."

• 20:47

  Instead of the usual Pirelli baseball caps, it's Stetsons with the Pirelli logo for the three podium finishers. They all laugh but don them anyway.

• 20:48

  It's a nice big ol' trophy for Hamilton, who gives it a kiss and thrusts it into the air to big applause.

• 20:50

  Driver Positions

  Pos		Driver	Stops
  1	1	L Hamilton	1
  2	-1	S Vettel	1
  3	4	F Alonso	1
  4	7	F Massa	1
  5	7	J Button	1
  6	-2	K Räikkönen	1
  7	1	R Grosjean	1
  8	-2	N Hülkenberg	1
  9	0	P Maldonado	1
  10	0	B Senna	1

• 20:51

  A Race Control message we missed: Turn 16 incident involving Kovalainen and Glock will be investigated after the race.

• 20:52

  Podium quotes - Lewis Hamilton: "First time winner here, I'm so happy. The fans have been amazing so thank you so much. The warm welcome we've had has been fantastic... for me and my team this is so special. It's been a long time since I had a win, and I'm just so proud and grateful for the support we've had."

• 20:53

  Podium quotes - Sebastian Vettel: "First of all, thank you, as Lewis said it was incredible. I did my first race five years ago the last time we were racing in the United States. Amazing the amount of people we have all weekend, it's great for us to have so much support. Very happy for the team in particular, we won the constructors' championship. Thanks to all of you. The championship is looking a bit better after the race today, it was a close fight with Lewis. He had one chance and he took it... there wasn't much in between us all in all. A great race and a great result for us."

• 20:54

  Podium quotes - Fernando Alonso: "The circuit was fantastic but the fans were fantastic all weekend. We really enjoy and we really have to say a big thanks to all the fans coming here to support us. The layout is interesting, challenging for us, for the engineers. We enjoy racing here, thanks to the fantastic facilities. I hope we put on a good show for everybody."

• 20:56

  Ridiculously close at the end.

  Gap Analysis

  Pos	Driver	Gap
  1st	HAM	1:40.494
  2nd	VET	+0.6
  3rd	ALO	+39.2
  4th	MAS	+46.0
  5th	BUT	+56.4

• 20:57

  Championship Standings

  Pos	Driver	Pts
  1	S Vettel	273
  2	F Alonso	260
  3	K Räikkönen	206
  4	L Hamilton	190
  5	M Webber	167

• 20:57

  Championship Standings

  Pos	Driver	Pts
  1	Red Bull	440
  2	Ferrari	367
  3	McLaren	353
  4	Lotus	302
  5	Mercedes	136

• 20:59

  That was the first race at the Circuit of the Americas then, and it didn't fare too badly! The championship is still alive though, and we have just one week to wait before the final race in Brazil.

• 20:59

  I will be back with the FBFB, and you WILL be joining me, I know it. So, in the meantime, stay tuned to https://sidepodcast.com and http://f1minute.com for all the news and views, and I will see you there.