Lewis Hamilton wins sixth F1 championship at US Grand Prix as Bottas wins!

Lewis Hamilton has won his sixth drivers' championship at the Circuit of the Americas, with the Brit finishing second as his teammate Valtteri Bottas overtook him for the race win at the United States Grand Prix in the final laps.

Hamilton has now won three consecutive world championships and five in the last six years, truly dominating the turbo-hybrid era of F1 history as the 34-year-old fought off his Mercedes teammate for the final part of the race as he was desperate to win his championship in style.

Max Verstappen then almost picked off Hamilton in the final laps as well, as the Dutchman tried to make it consecutive P2's in the United States although a late yellow flag denied him an overtake. He finished in third behind Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel finished his race after just nine laps as the suspension of his Ferrari broke coming out of turn nine, with his teammate Charles Leclerc ending the race in fourth in an off-day for the Italian team.

Bumpy start

Pun intended. Pole-sitter Bottas got away very well off the line, as did Hamilton from fifth place, getting past both Ferraris with ease as the SF90's seemed to really struggle to get their tyres on temperature. Vettel dropped to seventh as he reported heavy understeer.

Behind the top five, there was contact coming out of turn one between Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz, with the former having to pit after the first lap as he got tagged on his rear right tyre. He went on to finish in fifth place.

Then, drama struck for Vettel. The German's suspension suddenly snapped on the rear right coming out of turn nine of lap nine, with Vettel's SF90 seemingly collapsing because of the very bumpy Circuit of the Americas.

Different strategies

While Verstappen and Bottas tried to make two-stop strategies work, Hamilton opted for the one-stop to gain track position, putting in a long stint on the hard tyre as he led the race for a large chunk of it.

Eventually, with less than 10 laps to go, Bottas managed to catch up and pick off Hamilton, who was a sitting duck on his old hard tyres on the back straight as the Finn claimed back the race lead.

Verstappen also licked his lips in the final laps of the race as he came within DRS range of Hamilton, until a beached Kevin Magnussen at the end of the straight caused double yellow flags to throw a spanner in the 22-year-old's works. Hamilton hung on to second place that way, although it wouldn't have mattered anyway in the grand scheme of things, as the now six-time champion would've won the title if he finished eighth or higher.