It's official folks! Lewis Hamilton has claimed his third consecutive F1 world title with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, making it his sixth overall championship title.
With the 2019 world title under his belt, Hamilton is now just one championship title away from equalling the all-time record of most championship wins by a single driver, which is currently held by the living legend Michael Schumacher. Though decided two rounds before at the 2019 Japan GP, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport became only the second team in F1 history to win six straight constructors' titles. As there are two more rounds left in the 2019 championship (Brazil & Adu Dhabi), Hamilton is on course to break another record of most championship points scored by a driver in a single season. He currently holds the same for the 2018 season, securing 408 points. At present, he sits atop the leaderboard with 381 points. If he is able to secure all of the 52 points up for grabs in the next two rounds, he'll improve his own record by 25 points!
To sum up the 2019 season so far, Hamilton has scored 10 victories in the 19 rounds that have concluded. His teammate, Valtteri Bottas, took his win tally up to 4 by notching up a last-minute win in the 2019 US GP. In the other five rounds, two victories have been scored by Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen, and the remaining three are shared by Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc & Sebastien Vettel, with the latter securing his only victory of the season at the Singapore GP.
As for the US GP, Hamilton started the race from P5 after a disappointing qualifying session. Therefore, the grid ahead of Hamilton comprised Leclerc, Verstappen, Vettel, & polesitter Bottas. However, Hamilton moved into third place within the first lap, overtaking both Ferraris. As both Verstappen & Bottas were committed to a two-stop strategy, Hamilton was able to regain race lead, as he was on a single-stop strategy. Since Hamilton needed to finish eighth or above to win the world title, he wasn't under much pressure to win the race. This became apparent when Bottas, with a fresher set of tyres after his second stop, was able to overtake Hamilton in the final stages of the race. As a result, Hamilton's immediate focus turned to keep Verstappen at bay for the second place, which he managed to do successfully.
For those not aware, Lewis Hamilton won his first world title in 2008 with McLaren Mercedes. Since then, all his titles (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 & 2019) have been won with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport.
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