Lewis Hamilton today took his 50th career victory – his 3rd in a row at the Circuit of the Americas and 7th of the 2016 season so far. Nico Rosberg completed a 5th Silver Arrows 1-2 of the season in P2.
Lewis Hamilton
I’m delighted to claim my 50th career victory. It’s been a long time coming, but most importantly it was great to have a solid race weekend. This race has always gone extremely well for me, but still, it was a massive relief when I crossed the line given my reliability issues in recent rounds. I was 100% clear on my start and I knew it was going to turn out that way. It was a nice feeling, especially after so many ups and downs. And I was able to control the race from there. It’s been great to be back here in Austin and the response from the fans has been incredible. The aim is to continue this form next week. I can’t wait to continue the Championship battle in Mexico.
Nico Rosberg
I had a good start and tried to overtake Lewis on the outside. But ultimately it meant Daniel Ricciardo had a better line out of turn 1 and was able to capitalise on this. From there it was hard to overtake the Red Bull. Our altered strategy paid off. We ran the medium tyre and that gave us plenty of options, especially when the virtual safety car came into play. The medium tyre showed some really strong pace and the car felt great. That meant towards the end I was closing in on Lewis, but it was too late. He did a better job this weekend and deserved the win. I look forward to continuing our battle in Mexico.
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical)
It’s a terrific result at what’s becoming a really special race on the calendar. Lewis Hamilton is proving to be a popular winner here. It was a really well controlled race from Lewis. He didn’t put a single foot wrong and keeps the drivers’ championship battle alive going into the final three races.
For Nico it was slightly more difficult, losing position to Daniel Riccardo at the start. We had strategic opportunities to move him back up to second but it was made a lot easier by the virtual safety car at a very convenient moment: good for us although it denied the fans an exciting battle. That’s another fantastic job from the team here in Austin and back in Brackley, Brixworth and Stuttgart and we look forward to Mexico in just a few days, where yet more great racing is to be expected.
