Kimi Raikkonen has won this Sunday’s United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas ahead of Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and a disappointing Sebastian Vettel. 

This is the 21st Formula1 victory for Ferrari’s Finnish driver and the one that has prevented  the Mercedes’ star from sealing his fifth world title. 

The driver from Stevenage is now forced to wait until next week’s Mexican Grand Prix to get his coveted crown. 

There, at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, a seventh position will suffice for Lewis to become world champion.

This was a surprising and very well-deserved victory for Kimi Raikkonen who hadn’t climbed to the top of the podium since the Australian Grand Prix of 2013. Also spectacular was the come-back of Max Verstappen who finished second from an 18th starting position. 

Sebastian Vettel gave yet another disappointing performance which left him out of the podium. After touching Ricciardo and being sent spinning on the track, he could only manage fourth. Behind him came Valtteri Bottas, another driver which his failing to shine despite his powerful machine. 

Regarding the Spaniards there was a bit of everything. Carlos Sainz came in seventh while Fernando Alonso had to retire after touching Lance Stroll on the first lap. 

Kimi, a lightning start

Kimi Raikkonen made his intentions clear as soon as the green light came on. He passed Hamilton to take the lead while the fight between Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel was taking place behind. 

It was then that Vettel made yet another of his many mistakes this season and touched Ricciardo’s Red Bull in an attempt to overtake the Australian on the 13th turn of the first lap. The German was sent spinning and back to the 18th position, from where he would have to renounce his winning hopes and start a quest to climb back positions. The Italian press is going to be merciless. 

Eight laps later, the smiley Aussi himself had to retire after a problem with his Red Bull, and a virtual Safety Car was subsequently deployed on the 11th turn. 

Hamilton took the opportunity to enter boxes and change to soft-compound tyres. The Briton emerged from his pit-stop on third position and at 8,524 seconds from leader Raikkonen. 

Ferrari stretches Kimi’s only pit-stop

Lewis pushed his machine as much as he could in an attempt to open some ground between himself and the chasing Ferrari, well aware that his two-stop strategy depended on it. The effort, however, was straining and blistering his tyres and the performance of his W09 started to suffer. 

Hamilton went back to boxes on the 38th lap, giving the lead once more to the flying Finn. Lewis emerged in fourth and with Kimi Raikkonen holding a four-second advantage. On his fresh tyres, it was ‘hammer time’ for the Briton who was determined to close in the distance.

Raikkonen, Verstappen and Hamilton together until the end 

The Briton first had to deal with Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen. He passed his docile team-mate with no opposition and soon he was right behind the Dutchman. 

With two laps to go, he came in line with Verstappen and nearly passed him, but the number 3 from Red Bull was fierce defending his position. 

Meanwhile, at the front, and with just one second to spare, Kimi Raikkonen escaped towards the glory. Ferrari’s last champion (2007) kept his position and took his first victory in almost five years. 

Mercedes and Hamilton will have to wait a whole week to secure the Driver Championship Title. It was the outstanding one-stop strategy of Ferrari and a sensational defence from a re-born Raikkonen that sealed the deal. Mercedes made a mistake with its two-stop approach…just for a few seconds.

All images: F1.