Raikkonen has won the 2018 United States GP, after leading for most of the race thanks to a superb strategy from Ferrari. Verstappen finished second, his teammate Ricciardo retired today. Hamilton finished third and was not able to seal the title fate.

Top ten at the US Grand Prix 2018 were: 1. Raikkonen, 2. Verstappen, 3. Hamilton, 4. Vettel, 5. Bottas, 6. Hulkenberg, 7. Sainz, 8. Ocon, 9. Magnussen, 10. Perez.

Hamilton started the United States GP 2018 from pole, a race that brought him to his fifth F1 title win. Vettel started from fifth after collecting a penalty for failing to slow down under the red lights. This is round 18 of 21 in the championship.

Raikkonen managed to jump Hamilton for the lead, the Brit took second while Bottas was third. There was a series of collisions on the field, major one being between Vettel and Ricciardo, leaving the Ferrari spinning. There was another collision on turn 12 involving Sauber.

Leclerc took his Sauber to the pits after the spin, so did Stroll, Grosjean and Alonso. Vettel was now down the order, Mercedes took note and advised Hamilton on what was going down the order. Alonso and Grosjean later retired after the contact incident, with the McLaren driver saying his rivals are impossible to race with.

Vettel was up to P8 by lap 7/56, Verstappen on the other end had started from the last row and was up to P6. Meanwhile, the stewards decided to take no further action on the Vettel-Ricciardo incident.

Ricciardo’s car stopped on the track prompting the VSC, and just like that the Red Bull was out of the race. Vettel had jumped Sainz for sixth, while Verstappen was now running fourth with the fastest times among the leaders. Hamilton managed to pit under the VSC, and rejoined behind Bottas in third on soft tires.

Hamilton was back in second after Bottas lifted off on the main straight, allowing him to cruise through to P2.

“I cannot keep him behind” Raikkonen told Ferrari, referring to Hamilton who was now 0.2s behind him.

Bottas stayed out as Verstappen was brought in to the pits, Ferrari man Vettel was also running and yet to pit. The Red Bull rejoined behind Raikkonen, just when Bottas made his stop, and Verstappen was now ahead of the Mercedes. Raikkonen passed Vettel for second, and was now chasing Hamilton.

Vettel made his stop on lap 27, taking on some softs like his rivals, before he pitted Verstappen was able to pass him successfully without contact. The Ferrari man rejoined in P5 behind Bottas.

Hamilton stopped again on lap 37, picking up soft tires before rejoining in fourth ahead of Vettel. Bottas seemed to let Hamilton through to third. Under these circumstances, for Hamilton to win the championship, he needed to finish second and Vettel fifth. Verstappen was currently second.

And Vettel managed to catch up with Bottas for fourth, denying Hamilton any chance of winning the world champion today.

Raikkonen went ahead to win the US GP from Verstappen and Hamilton. Vettel bought himself some more time in the fight for the championship.

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