@Formula 1 United States Grand Prix commentary & coverage of timing and results

Lewis Hamilton wins sensational US GP as the drivers' title goes to the final round

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/top-stories/mclarens-lewis-hamilton-wins-sensational-us-gp-as-the-drivers-title-goes-to-the-final-round/story-e6frfkp9-1226519293770#ixzz2Cc9nUb3N

Lewis Hamilton wins sensational US GP as the drivers' title goes to the final round

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/top-stories/mclarens-lewis-hamilton-wins-sensational-us-gp-as-the-drivers-title-goes-to-the-final-round/story-e6frfkp9-1226519293770#ixzz2Cc9nUb3N

2012 United States Grand Prix: Formula One Race Results
Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	56	Winner	2	25
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	56	+0.6 secs	1	18
3	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	56	+39.2 secs	7	15
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56	+46.0 secs	11	12
5	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	56	+56.4 secs	12	10
6	9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus-Renault	56	+64.4 secs	4	8
7	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	56	+70.3 secs	8	6
8	12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	56	+73.7 secs	6	4
9	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	56	+74.5 secs	9	2
10	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	56	+75.1 secs	10	1
11	15	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	56	+84.3 secs	15
12	16	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	56	+84.8 secs	18
13	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	56	+85.5 secs	17
14	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	55	+1 LAP	16
15	11	Paul Di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	55	+1 LAP	13
16	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	55	+1 LAP	5
17	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	55	+1 LAP	21
18	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	55	+1 LAP	22
19	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	55	+1 LAP	19
20	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	54	+2 LAPS	20
21	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	54	+2 LAPS	23
22	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	54	+2 LAPS	24
Ret	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	16	+40 Laps	3
Ret	17	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	14	+42 LAPS	14
Note - Grosjean and Massa dropped five grid places for unscheduled gearbox changes

6.32pmWelcome one and all to live F1 coverage, where today they race in Texas. It's a pivotal race in the battle for the championship. Leader Sebastian Vettel has been dominant this week and starts on pole position.

6.34pmHis rival Fernando Alonso is back in seventh, despite only coming home ninth in qualifying. Romain Grosjean already knew he was to incur a grid penalty, but Felipe Massa has now given his teammate a boost by changing his gearbox and taking a penalty. Alonso will now have a better side of the track from which to attack the first corner. Massa is once again sacrificing himself for the good of the team.

6.37pmClick here to read more on Alonso's promotion.

6.40pmGrid positions:

1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
2. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
3. Mark Webber (Red Bull)
4. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
5. Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)
6. Nico Hulkenburg (Force India)
7. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
8. Romain Grosjean (Lotus)
9. Pastor Maldonado (Williams)
10. Bruno Senna (Williams)

6.44pmApologies, I hadn't factored Massa's demotion. A quick manual refresh will see the problem corrected.

6.47pmMartin Brundle is on his grid walk for Sky Sports. He's spoken to Matt le Blanc, who can't see past Vettel winning. He's spoken to Lewis Hamilton, who looked unusually chilled. Most importantly, he's spoken to Sebastian Vettel, who doesn't seem to care that Alonso has moved up a place on the grid.

6.50pmThe atmosphere is very American... as you'd expect, being in America and what have you. The national anthem is booming and a parachute(ist?) unfurls the stars and stripes as he falls to the ground. It's all very over the top and cheesy. That's Texas.

6.52pm"It's difficult to find a driver like me," Massa tells Sky Sports News. True.

7pmThe activity on the grid has cleared and the drivers are about to embark on their formation lap.

7.02pmThe drivers try desperately to get some heat into their tyres. The team's have found track temprature to be inconsistent this weekend and it could take a few laps for them to properly warm up.

7.03pmWe're in position and ready to go. Here come the lights...

LAP 1Vettel gets a great start and Webber storms past Hamilton into the first corner! Alonso is up into fourth!

LAP 1Schumacher is up into fifth. Perez has had a decent star as well and he is into 11th from 15th.

LAP 2Raikkonen squeeses past Schumacher and into sixth place! The German left him far too much room... and now Grosjean gets the inside line on the seven-time champion!

LAP 2Raikkonen is now behind Grosjean and Schumacher! It's hectic stuff at the CotA!

LAP 3Hamilton takes Webber but the Red Bull gets more thrust out of the corner and retakes the McLaren!

LAP 4Hamilton finally takes Webber cleanly and is now speeding away from the Aussie. He's chasing championship leader Vettel now.

LAP 6Vettel clocks the fastest lap of the race so far at 1.44.

LAP 7Grosjean has spun his car. He's not out of the race, but he's dropped behind Massa. And to compound his woes, Perez now passes him as well.

TOP 10:Vettel, Hamilton, Webber, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Raikkonen, Di Resta, Massa, Perez, Schumacher

LAP 10Schumacher is holding off Button in the battle for 11th place. The German went a little wide and gave the McLaren half a chance.

LAP 10Hamilton is hunting Vettel down. He's faster in every sector of this lap. The McLaren is absolutely flying, but so is the Red Bull. And the Red Bull is far more reliable.

LAP 10Button gets past Schumacher, but the cars just touch each other. No damage done.

LAP 13Hulkenberg and Raikkonen battle for fifth place. It's a right old tussle but the German is holding him off. Raikkonen is not going away though...

LAP 13Raikkonen and Hulkenberg are side by side and the Lotus is much quicker on the straight. The Finn attacked the outside line when the Force India ran a corner a little bit wide. Superb driving at 130 mph.

LAP 14Jenson Button is starting to fly. He's setting fast sectors all over the place but is caught in a bit of traffic. If he can get a clear run he could easily launch himself into the points.

LAP 15Jean Eric-Vergne is out of the race. He went wide and his Toro rosso is stationary on the gravel. Yellow flag is out.

LAP 17It's a two-way battle between Vettel and Hamilton. Great stuff. Both cars are looking fast, but it's the German who is in front at the moment.

LAP 17Mark Webber is out of the race!

LAP 18The yellow flag had been put away but it's back out again as Webber's car sits on the side of the track.

LAP 18It started as a DRS failure and has escalated into a full blown mechanical problem. Unfortunate for the Aussie.

LAP 19Massa posts the fastest lap of the race at 1.42.

TOP 10:Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Raikkonen, Massa, Di Resta, Perez, Senna, Button, Ricciardo

LAP 21Hamilton is coming into the pits for a tyre change. He's going on the harder compounds. Alonso follows suit, but the Ferrari garage is considerably slower than the McLaren's.

LAP 22Alonso is back out in sixth.

LAP 22Vettel's pit stop was rapid.

LAP 23Raikkonen is in second at the moment, splitting Vettel and Hamilton. The Finn is yet to pit for a new set of tyres, however...

LAP 23Jenson Button lurks menacingly on Alonso's shoulder. He's having a good look at the Ferrari and looks like he has his car working for him. But for how long?

LAP 24And there you go, Button sails past Alonso on the straight.

LAP 24Meanwhile, Hamilton is attacking Raikkonen. The Englishman wants to get in front of the Finn as soon as he can in order to chase down Vettel, but the Lotus team will be trying to get Raikkonen into a position to attack Alonso once he's pitted for new tyres. There's battles all over this track. Fascinating race...

LAP 25Raikkonen comes into the garage... and it's a poor effort by the Lotus garage. The Finn emerges from the pit lanes and Alonso just holds onto his place.

LAP 25Jenson Button sets the fastest lap of the race.

LAP 26Massa and Button are running third and fourth ahead of Alonso. Both are yet to pit, however. It should be as you were before the tyre changes...

LAP 28Now Lewis Hamilton sets the fastest lap. The McLaren's are flying.

LAP 32Vettel's lead over Hamilton is just over two seconds. It's been pretty much the same gap all race.

LAP 32Hamilton has just taken a massive chunk out of that gap though. The gap is 1.6 seconds now.

LAP 33Hamilton continues to eat into Vettel's time. It's now under one second!

LAP 35It's a brilliant battle this one. Hamilton is within DRS range now and Vettel is having to pull some defensive manoeuvres.

LAP 36Button finally pits and comes back out in seventh place.

LAP 37Vettel is now the fastest car on the track.

LAP 38Hamilton is trying his best to have a say in this championship race. Both front runners are driving very well. There has been little in the way of crashes all over the circuit today. Great racing.

LAP 39Button cuts inside Grosjean nicely and moves into sixth.

LAP 40Beautiful move by Massa to get past Raikkonen! It was similar to how the Finn took Hulkenberg on the same corner earlier on.

LAP 41Hamilton attacks Vettel! The German holds him off, but for how long?!

LAP 42Felipe Massa sets the fastest lap of the race.

LAP 42Hamilton breezes past Vettel and into the lead! The Red Bull could do nothing but relent! The last thing he needs is a catastrophic crash!

LAP 43Vettel sounds unhappy on the radio, he thinks that Hamilton got too close to his rear tyre. It looked fine to me...

LAP 44Hamilton now sets the fastest lap of the race. It's a brilliantly convoluted mess at the moment. Vettel in second, Alonso third. Raikkonen and Button are battling behind them.

LAP 45Fantastic manoeuvre by Button! He and Raikkonen were wheel to wheel for three corners, with the McLaren edging in front of the Lotus!

TOP 10:Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso, Massa, Button, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Senna, Hulkenberg, Maldonaldo

LAP 50Hamilton is not exactly speeding away from Vettel. In fact, it looks like the German is gaining if anything. It's nothing too seriosu for Hamilton, he's still got a lead of around 1.3 seconds.

LAP 53The two Williams cars have a little bit with each other. Maldonado squeezes past Senna, and they touch as well. Good move, but it's a bit risky when it's on your teammate!

LAP 54Vettel sets the fastest lap of the race.

LAP 54Quickly broken by Massa...

LAP 55... and now that's been broken by Hamilton. There's a lot of pace out there.

LAP 55So with two laps remaining, it's Lewis Hamilton leading Sebastian Vettel. The title race will be alive in Brazil if all things stay the same. Red Bull will also take the contructors championship today.

FINAL LAPHamilton is now on course for a well-earned victory.

LAP 56LEWIS HAMILTON WINS THE UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX!

LAP 56Vettel sets the fastest lap of the race but can only come second. Alonso comes home third, meaning that Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso take the podium spots for the very first time together.

LAP 56Massa finishes fourth. He's has a great race.