Lewis Hamilton (P2, Fastest lap, 19 pts): 8.5/10
Mercedes hasn't been beaten at the Circuit of the Americas in the modern hybrid engine era, so surely Lewis Hamilton was banking on a win here in order to bolster his bid for a record eighth drivers championship title. The weekend certainly started off in that vein with Hamilton and his team mate Valtteri Bottas blowing away the competition in first practice. But after that it palpably started to slip away and out of their hands, with Sergio Perez showing Red Bull's form in FP2 and FP3 and Max Verstappen sealing the deal by taking pole from Hamilton by a not-insignificant two tenths on Saturday afternoon. Hamilton's only chance was to get the jump on Verstappen at the start of the race, and he duly did so with a magnificent start. Did Mercedes then get panicked into making the wrong call when Red Bull made a bold gamble on early pit stops? It cost Hamilton the lead, and while there were still hopes that they could use fresher tyres at the end of the race to hunt down Verstappen for victory that ultimately proved impossible to achieve given the dirty air, high temperatures and tyre degradation. You can't help but think that Mercedes were out-thought this weekend even though Hamilton himself provided everything he was asked for in the cockpit. "I really thought for a second we might be able to win. I gave it absolutely everything out there. It was such a tough race, but unfortunately we couldn't convert it."
Max Verstappen (Pole, P1, 25 pts): 9.5/10
With just five races remaining in the season after Austin, there was a real sense coming into this weekend's United States Grand Prix that this could be a crucial tipping point in the epic drivers championship title battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. If Red Bull could hold their own and win at one of Mercedes' strongest venues then surely Verstappen would be favourite to come out on top at the end of the season? Friday didn't exactly start all that promisingly for them - although Verstappen was third quickest in FP1 it looked like the Mercedes drivers had a clear advantage; and in the afternoon Verstappen sounded properly out of sorts as he struggled to get a clean lap in. He found himself in the unfamiliar position of being slower than team mate Sergio Perez in both FP2 and FP3 but then the lights suddenly went on in the afternoon and he blasted to pole as if there had never been any doubt. Losing the lead at the start of the race wasn't part of the plan, but the Red Bull pit wall adapted deftly even if Verstappen himself had doubts that an early firs stop would work. But work it did, and he was able to rebuff everything that Hamilton was able to throw at him on his way to this eighth victory of the season, and possibly the most significant of them all to date. "We managed to hang on in the end. We definitely gave it our all today as a team."
