Lewis Hamilton fought his way to victory in the U.S. Grand Prix as Fernando Alonso put in another fabulous drive to keep himself in title contention after Sebastian Vettel finished in second, one place ahead of his Ferrari rival.
At the Circuit of Americas, Hamilton wore the biggest smile, as the McLaren driver, in his penultimate race for the team before making his move to Mercedes, put away the recent disappointments to rise to the top step of the podium.
However, all eyes were on Red Bull's Vettel and Ferrari's Alonso, with the two finishing second and third respectively. The result means, Vettel is 13 points clear of Alonso with 273 points, meaning a second or third place finish in the final Grand Prix in Brazil will guarantee the German his third straight drivers' championship title. Vettel's second place also meant Red Bull sealed the constructors' title.
"It was my 100th grand prix, and amazing the amount of people we had all weekend," Vettel said. "It's great for us to have so much support, very happy today for the team in particular.
"We won the constructors' championship so, thanks to all of you, it's been a great year, now we've got another station coming up in Brazil and as you said, in terms of the championship it's looking a bit better after the race today.
"Obviously it was a close fight with Lewis, he had one chance and he took it. After that I tried to stay with him and maybe pass him again but he was probably as quick as I was and there wasn't much in between us. All in all, a great race and a great result for us."
Alonso was again relieved to take a place on the podium with his Ferrari car well below the pace of the Red Bull's and McLaren's. "We know our championship keeps alive maybe thanks to the first laps," he said. "We always qualify around seventh or eighth and we finish the first lap in the first three or four positions normally and then after that the race becomes a little easier when that happens.
"When you are in the leading group, and today we knew that was a good chance, try to overtake people at the first corner, and then the pace on Sunday normally improves so we knew that if we are in the leading group we can more or less keep the pace.
"Today (it was) not possible to keep pace with these two guys, that they were too far ahead but enough to keep for the guys behind. And then I think this podium, after all the difficulties we went through this weekend is like a victory for us.
"Losing three points maybe was in no-one's thoughts I think yesterday night or Friday night after seeing the practice, so we are really happy again to have a very good Sunday and score again good points."
Drivers' Championship Standings: 1. Sebastian Vettel (273); 2. Fernando Alonso (260); 3. Kimi Raikkonen (206).
Constructors' Championship: 1. Red Bull (440); 2. Ferrari (367); 3. McLaren (353).
