Nico Rosberg edged out teammate Lewis Hamilton to secure pole position during Saturday’s qualifying showdown but as always its the race day that counts. And so it was for Lewis Hamilton who left the State of Texas counting the most points after he secured victory at the US Grand Prix. The race began under a safety car period after two thirds into lap one of the 56 lap race, caused by a collision between the Force India of Sergio Perez and the Sauber of Adrian Sutil, the resulting debris scattered across the circuit and needed removing. Sebastian Vettel unintentionally removed some of the debris causing his Red Bull to suffer a tyre puncture. He pitted and spent the race chasing shadows eventually finishing 7th thanks too a revised pit stop strategy, though he was 95 seconds behind the race victor and very nearly lapped. The first 25 laps of the race contained little excitement and seemed rather processional up and down the field. Rosberg held off Hamilton with quite some ease, the two separated by a 2.5s gap. By turn 12 on the 24th lap, a tight 2nd gear left hand corner, Hamilton made his move and sliced into the lead. It was an opportunity full of risk, more daring than calculated, as Hamilton was braking from the following straight and from a few car lengths behind. The brake issues that troubled his qualifying run were absent when he made his bid for the lead. It seemed Rosberg was caught unaware of Hamilton’s intentions as the two entered the apex side by side. Rosberg yielded too Hamilton and from there on the team mates were separated by at least 2s, Rosberg didn’t have the outright pace to mount a challenge and Hamilton seemed to be in control throughout the final half of the race. Daniel Ricciardo secured 3rd for Red Bull leap frogging the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa who qualified ahead of him. Massa seemed to be on course for his first podium of the season but his William’s pit crew fumbled his last pit stop and left the Brazilian mounting a late counter attack but to no avail. Massa’s team mate, Valtteri Bottas, finished a subdued 5th. Fernando Alonso mustered a 6th place finish for Ferrari while team mate Raikkonen struggled home into 13th. The Spaniard is expected to replace Jenson Button at McLaren next season. Button suffered suspected damage to the floor of his McLaren, possibly a result of picking up debris from the first lap incident, which left him struggling in the points and holding up a cue of cars for the last quarter of the race. His grip and therefore resolve eventually broke and he finished in 12th position. Button’s team mate, Kevin Magnussen, fared better with an 8th place finish with the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado and Torro Rosso rounding off the top 10. Hamilton’s victory at the US GP extend’s his lead over Rosberg too 24 points with two race’s remaining. Victory at the Circuit of The Americas saw Hamilton notch up 10 race wins for the the season, wining the last five in row, in total he now has 32 career victories and becomes the most successful British F1 driver of all time, besting Nigel Mansell’s race tally’s of 31 wins. Race Result: