The United States Grand Prix 2017 was the 17th round of the 2017 F1 season, and took place at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, USA, on October 22nd.
Lewis Hamilton won the race from the pole, followed by Sebastian Vettel, and Kimi Räikkönen completing the podium.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 25 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 16-21: 8 stops
- Laps 35-38: 4 stops
The fastest pit stop was Valtteri Bottas's, stopping the clock at 23.254 seconds during his pit stop on lap 52, while the slowest one was was Pascal Wehrlein's, who stopped the clock at 31.334 seconds, 8.080 seconds slower than Bottas, during his pit stop on lap 3.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 1 stop. Only Kevin Magnussen, Brendon Hartley, Lance Stroll, Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen decided to try something different with a 2 stops strategy.
The race winner, Lewis Hamilton, was on a 1 stop strategy.
1 stop
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5Pascal Wehrlein
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14Daniel Ricciardo
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1Sergio Pérez
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-Esteban Ocon
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9Fernando Alonso
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2Romain Grosjean
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1Daniil Kvyat
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-Lewis Hamilton
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-Carlos Sainz
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2Kimi Räikkönen
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2Marcus Ericsson
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8Stoffel Vandoorne
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1Felipe Massa
2 stops
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1Kevin Magnussen
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6Brendon Hartley
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4Lance Stroll
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-Sebastian Vettel
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2Valtteri Bottas
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12Max Verstappen
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 0.9 positions, while those on a 2 stops strategy gained 3.5 positions on average.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 2 stops strategy was the best option, even if Lewis Hamilton managed to win the race making 1 stop.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Circuit of the Americas, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There were some incidents during the race, with 4 drivers who didn't manage to cross the finish line.
These included, Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, and Nico Hülkenberg, all of whom suffered an engine malfunction, and Pascal Wehrlein, who retired dure to damage caused by a collision with other cars on lap 5.
Engine
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Fernando AlonsoLap 24
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Daniel RicciardoLap 14
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Nico HülkenbergLap 3
Collision
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Pascal WehrleinLap 5
Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.239 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:33.108. Right next to him, completing the first line of the grid, was Sebastian Vettel.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that 9 out of the 10 drivers that took place in Q3 were able to improve their times.