Wily veteran Kimi Raikkonen gatecrashed the party in the United States GP, grasping a first win over 51/2 years, the champion-in-waiting Lewis Hamilton realized he would need to wait another week for his moment of history.
Hamilton strained every sinew in pursuit of his prize, weaving all over this Texan track in his quest to hunt down Max Verstappen, but ultimately had to settle for third place and a coronation deferred.
Given Hamilton holds a 70-point lead over Sebastian Vettel, his only challenger, with just 75 to play for, it is all but certain that Hamilton will secure his place alongside the immortals in Mexico City next weekend.
Raikkonen reacts to his victory
Obviously, it's been a great weekend. The car has been pretty good all the time. I got a good start and needed to push hard. In the end, the tyres were not in good shape. We had enough speed and we kept it consistent, just to try to keep the tyres alive. Obviously, I am much happier than finishing second. I'm happy but let's see.
Max Verstappen reacts
Good start, good first lap and then very quickly we were into P5, P4. We made the right call to undercut Valtteri and we could do our own race. Unfortunately the last few laps I ran out of pace on the supersofts. It was a good fight into the hairpins, in the right-hand corner I was pushing. Happy to stay in second.
Hamilton reacts to a disappointing third place
Big congratulations to Kimi, he did a great job, no mistakes. Verstappen did a great job as well. He was on a slightly better tyre than us. I thought we would have been able to do better. We just have to keep working and keep pushing to the next race. I think ultimately, it was very, very close. After I did my stop it was 12 seconds and it was way, way too far. Ferrari have picked up their game this weekend.
Arrivabene reacts
Always proud of the guys, even more, when we are winning races. It was great, thank you the USA.
Toto Wolff reacts
We lacked the pace today. I said don't close it too early they are still very fast. Let's go to the next one. It's very difficult to overtake but I think it was worth the strategy and now we have to re-think if there is something we could have done better. We put on a good show altogether and that's most important.
Vettel reacts to fourth place
Happy for Kimi. Not happy with my race. I think I must have been in his blind spot. Obviously, the corner keeps tightening, I couldn't get out of it any more and we made contact. It's a shame. Like that obviously, a big loss for me to come back.
