United States GP review: Five-star Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg flops again

Eight laps from the end. Nico Rosberg has had a really poor season by his standards, and conceded the lead to Lewis Hamilton twice at a key point during the race – first when he was forced out wide on Turn 1, and then on Lap 48 when he simply seemed to forget how to drive, allowing his team-mate the time and space to go past. With the seething rivalry plus last season’s nonsensical accusatory shenanigans, it’s no wonder that most of the time the pair seem to barely be speaking to each other at all.

Five stars out of five. It would be churlish to rate him otherwise as he wrapped up his third world championship. He had an excellent start, nicking past Nico Rosberg on the first turn, although he conceded the lead to Daniel Ricciardo for a while. The Red Bull couldn’t outlast a Mercedes, though; and once Rosberg took the advantage, Hamilton knew he could outgun his skittish team-mate.

“That’s the greatest moment of my life.” Lewis Hamilton got rather weepy as he crossed the line and his team immediately grabbed the radio to tell him he was a three-time world champion. The sobs were audible, and then he gathered himself enough to tell his family that he loves them.

Let’s give some credit to Jenson Button. Nice to be able to give him some props not based on his marvellous employment of dry sarcasm over the radio. His double overtake on Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo eight laps from the end was brilliant, demonstrating the value of those years of F1 experience – as the younger men went wheel to wheel, he simply sat back, and then zipped past the pair of them while they were distracted.

That late pit stop from Mercedes, calling in their championship leader, evidently unsure that he’d be able to make it through the last few laps on those rapidly degrading tyres. It was a risk, but a calculated one – on the fresh rubber he burnt his way round the track and took top spot on the podium.

Those Circuit of the Americas marshals deserve a shout-out this weekend. What a terrible few days it must have been for them, coping with that dreadful weather, and they were kept very busy today with all the collisions and crashes – Dany Kvyat’s lurch into the barrier caused them no end of trouble as they spent a good ten minutes picking bits of carbon fibre bodywork out of the safety cordon.

A quick wave to Manor Marussia’s Alexander Rossi, the first American to race in the United States Grand Prix for eight years, and who made it through to the end unscathed.

And Kimi Raikkonen didn’t emerge unscathed, exactly, but he managed to extricate his Ferrari from an actual solid advertising hoarding grounded in gravel. Admittedly the effort basically destroyed the car from inside out, but the fact he did it at all deserves acknowledgement.

Hurricane Patricia did her work and drew qualifying to an early close as the rain lashed the Circuit of the Americas once more. And then the FIA emerged with this absolute waste of trees. I mean, they’ve got to file the reports, but you’d hope they’d try to avoid looking quite this daft and jobsworthy.

Events in the US are always good if you’re looking for famous folk. Even when there’s nothing happening except precipitation. Matt Le Blanc joined the Lotus team for Saturday’s washout (and was there again for the race).

And knight of the realm Sir Elton John missed his beloved Watford’s excellent win at Stoke in favour of watching this race, and looked thoroughly flabbergasted at the drama.