F1: Hamilton Delighted With Inaugural Austin Win

Formula 1

F1: Hamilton Delighted With Inaugural Austin Win

Lewis Hamilton's victory over Sebastian Vettel at Austin was hard-earned...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted November 18, 2012 Austin, TX

Lewis Hamilton started second and finished first in Austin. (Image: SPEED)

Lewis Hamilton picked up at Austin where he finished in Indianapolis five years ago by winning his second consecutive United States GP.

Hamilton dropped to third at the start but first passed Mark Webber and later Sebastian Vettel to score a popular victory.

“It’s been a great weekend. To be able to beat Red Bull and Sebastian is definitely a tough challenge, but we managed to do it today,” said Hamilton. “I don’t know; we weren’t so bad in the first stint, but it was very difficult to follow and to get past. We pitted maybe two laps before Sebastian, so then he came out quite far ahead, but traffic really worked out quite well for once.

“Traffic usually catches me out, so I was glad that it worked slightly in my favor at some points. But what a great feeling to win the first Grand Prix here, back in the States. I won the last one here as well, so I’m massively proud.”

Hamilton admitted it was hard to keep up with the Red Bull of Vettel, given the RB8’s speed.

“They’re pretty strong everywhere,” the McLaren driver said. “The first sector is very difficult to follow through Four, Five, Six, Seven. Such high speed it’s quite difficult to follow through there. The place where he really extended his gap was the exit of Nine.

“That was really where, in the most important part, where he made over a second gap, so I was struggling to remain close. As I said, with traffic it all worked out really well. I knew that lap would be the lap that I would have a chance, so I turned the engine up and got close.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.