Why the 2014 United States Grand Prix put Hamilton past Mansell's record

Lewis Hamilton won the 2014 United States Grand Prix on 2 November at the Circuit of the Americas near Austin, Texas, starting from second on the grid. Nico Rosberg finished second for Mercedes and Daniel Ricciardo took third for Red Bull. It was Hamilton's fifth straight win, his tenth of 2014 and his 32nd overall.

What was at stake for the title contenders in Austin?

Hamilton led the drivers' table with 291 points, ahead of Rosberg in second and Ricciardo in third. Valtteri Bottas was fourth on 145 points, and Sebastian Vettel sat two points behind him in fifth. Mercedes had already won the constructors' championship at the Russian Grand Prix, so the open question was the drivers' title.

In the four races before Austin Hamilton had erased a 29-point gap, leaving him 17 points up on his teammate. With three races remaining, he said he would not let negative thoughts take over and would seize any chance that came his way. He also had family in the crowd, and he had won the first Formula One Grand Prix at the circuit in 2012.

Rosberg wanted a better result than his previous best in Austin and hoped to keep the heat on his teammate. He said Mercedes was aiming for a big finish to the season, and that he would not concede the title before the final round.

Behind the leading pair, the constructors' table had Red Bull second on 342 points, Williams on 216 and Ferrari on 188. McLaren was fifth with 143 points, and the gap between Mercedes and Red Bull was growing.

Hamilton won from second in Austin, Rosberg kept the pressure on, and a field of nine teams made the grid the smallest since 2005.

How did the circuit and tyres change for 2014?

The Circuit of the Americas is 5.513 kilometres (3.426 miles) long and has 20 turns, in Travis County near Austin. The sport's governing body, the FIA, kept two drag reduction system zones from 2013. One sat on the straight between turns ten and eleven, and the second on the straight linking the final corner and the first.

The circuit had been changed after the 2013 race. At the request of the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme, some of the asphalt run-off area at turn ten was replaced with gravel, and some light panels were mounted lower for better visibility. The formal title for the event was 2014 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.

Pirelli brought the yellow-banded soft and the white-banded medium dry compounds, where the year before it had used hard and medium. Every driver had the same choice, which made tyre strategy the main talking point before the race began.

What was the virtual safety car?

Following Friday's two practice sessions, the FIA trialled the virtual safety car for the first time. The idea responded to the danger of serious crashes, like the one Jules Bianchi suffered at the Japanese Grand Prix. Its purpose was to make drivers ease off by roughly 35 per cent in a crash area, with a dashboard readout to help them.

Drivers agreed it was a worthwhile system but said it needed refinement before it could be used at later races. It was due to be introduced for the 2015 season, if the testing went well.

Why was the field so small?

Caterham and Marussia had gone into administration in the week before the race. Formula One's commercial rights owner, Bernie Ecclestone, had granted both teams permission to miss the Austin round because of their long-term financial problems. With 18 entered vehicles, it was the smallest field to race since the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix.

Two driver changes were made for the first practice session. Max Verstappen replaced Jean-Eric Vergne at Toro Rosso, his second appearance for the team that year, and Felipe Nasr drove the Williams that had been Bottas's car in that session.

Reports also claimed Sauber, Lotus and Force India had weighed pulling out, a move meant to alert the sport's commercial leaders to money worries. Ecclestone warned that if two of those teams quit, so be it, and insisted that only competitive squads should be on the grid. Force India's Bob Fernley said a boycott was a final recourse, and Lotus owner Gerard Lopez said he had not heard of any plan.

How did practice go?

The weekend's practice ran in three blocks, two 90-minute outings on Friday and one of 60 minutes on Saturday. Hamilton topped the opening session, run on a damp surface that dried out later, with 1:39.941. Ricciardo could only run for the first 45 minutes of the session. His session ended early after a gear shift problem, and Ricciardo's energy recovery system failed, which restricted him to five timed laps.

The second session was difficult because strong crosswinds made it hard to change set-up. Hamilton set the fastest lap at 1:39.085 on the super-soft tyres, with Rosberg only three-thousandths of a second slower in second. Hamilton reported another gearbox problem and a minor hydraulic issue, while Rosberg had a concern about downshifting. Alonso was third, followed by Ricciardo, and Grosjean and Maldonado both lost control of their Lotus cars.

Hamilton was fastest in the third and final session, setting 1:37.107 in cool but bright conditions. Rosberg was held up by a brake problem until the closing minutes, and a glazed left rear disc left his last attempt only a thousandth of a second quicker. Hamilton spun under braking at turn 12 after adjusting his steering wheel settings, and Vergne's car stopped when its engine cut out.

How did qualifying settle the grid?

Rosberg took pole in 1:36.067, the ninth pole of his 2014 season and the 13th of his career. Qualifying had been adjusted after the Caterham and Marussia withdrawals. Q1 lasted 18 minutes and eliminated cars 15th or lower, with the 107 per cent rule in effect, Q2 lasted 15 minutes and removed cars 11th to 14th, and the final 12-minute session decided the top ten.

Anyone who made the final part had to start on the same tyres they had used for their fastest lap in the second part. Rosberg was fastest in both the second and final sessions. Hamilton sat alongside him on the front row, but his left-front brake ran 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than the right, which hurt his pace, and he kept locking up in the second part.

Massa and Bottas filled third and fourth, while Ricciardo gained substantially on his final lap to claim fifth. Alonso was sixth. Button was seventh on the timesheets but dropped five places for a gearbox change, which lifted Kevin Magnussen into seventh. Raikkonen was eighth after sliding several times because of a front problem he could not fix.

Ninth was Sutil, and Maldonado, the fastest driver not to reach the final session, took tenth after sliding at turn 19. Perez qualified 11th, having used two sets of soft tyres to get through the first session. Hulkenberg, forecast to qualify in the top ten, lost grip at turn 12 when a torn-off visor wrapped round a front tyre, and was 13th. Kvyat received a ten-place grid penalty for an engine component change, and Vergne started 14th on an older, less powerful engine. Gutierrez took 15th ahead of Grosjean, while Vettel started from the pit lane after taking a sixth power unit component, having first completed a single lap on soft tyres to satisfy the 107 per cent rule.

How did the race start?

A crowd of 107,778 watched the start at 14:00 Central Time, under dry skies with air at 23 degrees Celsius (73 degrees Fahrenheit). The track was between 31 and 34 degrees Celsius (88 and 93 degrees Fahrenheit). Every driver except Vettel, Kvyat and Hulkenberg started on soft tyres, and those three began on the mediums.

A strong crosswind through turns three and five caused the cars to oversteer. Rosberg kept the lead into the first corner, and Hamilton stayed second after putting his car at an angle towards his teammate. Massa held third ahead of Bottas, who had lost ground to wheelspin.

Further back, Perez tried to nip through on Sutil's left, but he had too much speed for the gap and slid into the back of Raikkonen's car. Raikkonen continued, but Perez then ploughed into Sutil, and the two front wheels locked together, wrecking both suspensions. Sutil was out, and Perez limped his battered car into the pit lane, retiring there.

The incident brought out the safety car so that marshals could clear debris. The safety car pulled in after lap four and the race went green again, Rosberg ahead of Hamilton with both pulling clear of Massa in third. Ricciardo got past Alonso for fifth by running across the artificial grass, which made Alonso back off through the turn three and four switchback.

The stewards opened investigations into Vergne, Maldonado, Button and Gutierrez for speeding behind the safety car on lap seven. Button was later cleared, while Vergne, Gutierrez and Maldonado were given five-second stop-and-go penalties for their next pit stops. Hamilton stayed close behind his teammate to conserve fuel and to compare the two cars, braking heavily at certain corners to prevent his brakes from glazing. His left-front brake was running cooler, since the safety car was slower, and the tight second half of the lap made it hard to reach the DRS zone before turn 11.

What happened in the first round of stops?

Red Bull brought Ricciardo in for medium tyres on lap 14. Bottas had little defence at that moment, and he was overtaken on the outside for fourth place. Rosberg pitted from the lead on lap 15 and dropped behind his teammate, and Hamilton stopped on lap 17 for a front wing change, rejoining with more of a gap.

What did the result mean for the championship?

Hamilton's victory moved him further clear of Rosberg in the drivers' standings, and Ricciardo's third place eliminated him from the title contest. Mercedes had already secured the constructors' championship, and the win added to its lead over Red Bull, which had stood at 245 points. Red Bull had been second on 342 points going into the weekend.

The race also gave Hamilton a record. He passed Nigel Mansell's tally of wins by a British driver in the sport's history. Meanwhile Bottas moved further ahead of Vettel in fifth.

Williams stretched its gap to Ferrari, holding fourth in the constructors' table with two races still to run. With Caterham and Marussia absent, nine teams remained, the lowest number since 2005.