Race Analysis - Put it on ice

By Dan Knutson

Lewis Hamilton will have to put his celebrations of clinching his fifth drivers' world championship on ice for at least one more week after failing to get the job done in the United States Grand Prix. Kimi "The Iceman" Raikkonen won the race that came down to a three-way battle between Raikkonen, Max Verstappen and Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel wasn't in contention for the win but finished fourth to maintain a tiny, tiny chance of still becoming the champion. Here is how that victory unfolded.

HEAD START

Hamilton got a head start on things when he won the pole in his Mercedes. It was his 81st F1 pole.

GOING BACKWARDS

Vettel, meanwhile, was going backwards down the grid. He qualified his Ferrari second, but would start fifth because of a three-place grid penalty for not slowing down enough for a red flag during practice.

MOVING UP

Vettel's penalty moved his teammate up to second on the grid, Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) to third and Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) to fourth.

WHERE'S MAX?

After breaking his rear suspension when he hit a curb in qualifying, and then needing a new gearbox and getting a penalty for that, Verstappen was 18th in his Red Bull.

TIRE STRATEGY

Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel and Ricciardo started the race on Pirelli's super soft compound slicks. Raikkonen had the ultra soft tires.

SLIPPING AHEAD

Those softer tires helped Raikkonen get a good start and slide in front of Hamilton in Turn 1 at the start of the 56-lap race.

GOING BACKWARDS AGAIN

Vettel banged wheels with Ricciardo and spun. He resumed the race in 15th.

GOING FORWARDS

Verstappen meanwhile had climbed to ninth on the first lap, and fifth by lap 7. Vettel was climbing, too, and got to eighth that same lap.

MORE BAD LUCK

Ricciardo had yet more bad luck when his engine quit on lap 9. That took him out of a good chance at a podium finish.

VSC

The Virtual Safety Car was deployed on lap 11 so that Ricciardo's stranded car could be retrieved.

DO THE OPPOSITE

With the cars running at a slow VSC pace, it opened the window for pits stops. Mercedes told Hamilton to "do the opposite" to Raikkonen. So when Raikkonen did not pit, Hamilton came in for a set of the soft compound Pirellis.

CLOSING IN

Hamilton's fresh tires allowed him to close in on leader Raikkonen and they had a battle until Raikkonen pitted for tires at the end of lap 21.

OLD VERSUS NEW

So Raikkonen's tires were 10 laps newer than Hamilton's. The latter had to pit again at the end of lap 37. Raikkonen, meanwhile, would nurse his tires to the end.

THE SET UP

That set up the thrilling final laps to the race with Raikkonen leading just ahead of Verstappen who was just ahead of Hamilton.

LUNGE OFF

On lap 54 Hamilton and Verstappen were side-by-side, but Hamilton's lunge ended with him running wide and falling back.

LUNGE OFF II

Meanwhile Vettel, in fifth, made a lunge at Bottas in fourth. Bottas slid wide off the track, and Vettel finished fourth.

BREATHING ROOM

The battle for second gave Raikkonen a little bit of breathing room, so he won by 1.281 seconds. And Verstappen crossed the line 1.061 of a second ahead of Hamilton.

KEEPING ALIVE

"I got a good start," Raikkonen said. "I needed to push hard. It was tight a few times and in the end the tires were not in the best shape. But I think it was a bit similar for Max; obviously Lewis had more tires left for the end. I had enough speed; we kept it consistent and just tried to keep the tires alive until the end."

A BIT OF PRESSURE

VERSTAPPEN: "In the end we could put a bit of pressure on (Raikkonen), but unfortunately in the last three or four laps I ran out of tires on the super soft compared to the guys on the soft around me."

NO MISTAKES

"Kimi did a great job today," Hamilton said. "No mistakes; he had a great start and managed it all the way. Also Verstappen did a great job as well. He was on a slightly better tire than us at the end so naturally a bit of a struggle. I naturally thought we would have been able to do better but this is the best we were able to do in the end."

113

It had been 113 races for Raikkonen since The Iceman had his last victory, which was in the 2013 Australian Grand Prix.

NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE

While he didn't clinch the title in Texas, Hamilton now has a 70-point lead over Vettel. The only way that Vettel can win the championship now is by winning all three remaining races, starting with the Mexican Grand Prix just one week after the U.S. Grand Prix.

"Getting slimmer," Vettel said of his championship hopes, "but we will try to head to Mexico and get the best out of our car. Maybe there are some elements we can improve."

ON ICE

While hoping to get the job done in Texas, Hamilton was okay with putting his championship clincher on ice.

"The key was that I at least finished ahead of Seb," he said, "and for me it doesn't matter when you win the championship as long as you get it done."