page_title: 2014 United States Grand Prix
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: 2014 United States Grand Prix / Background
caption_attribution_description: DTM,Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters,F3 FIA European Championship,FIA Formel 3 Europameisterschaft,Hockenheimring,Max Verstappen,Motorsport,Siegerehrung,Van Amersfoort Racing
context_page_description: The 2014 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 2 November at the Circuit of the Americas in Travis County near Austin, Texas. It was the 17th round of the 2014 Formula One World Championship and the 36th running of the event held as part of the series. The 56-lap race was won by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton after starting from second position. His teammate Nico Rosberg finished second and Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo was third. It was Hamilton's tenth victory of the season, his second at Austin, and the 32nd of his career.
  Rosberg won the pole position by recording the fastest lap in qualifying and kept the lead on the first lap. The race was neutralised by the deployment of the safety car for four laps when Sergio Pérez, Adrian Sutil and Kimi Räikkönen made contact. During the first half of the race, Hamilton ran close behind teammate Rosberg to conserve fuel but braked heavily through portions of the track to prevent brake glazing.
context_section_description: The 2014 United States Grand Prix was the 17th of the 19 rounds of the 2014 Formula One World Championship, and the 36th running of the event as part of the series. It was held on 2 November at the 5.513-kilometre (3.426 mi) 20-turn Circuit of the Americas in Travis County, Austin, Texas. The sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), elected to retain two drag reduction system (DRS) activation zones from 2013: one was on the straight between turns 10 and 11, and the second was on the straight linking the final and first corners.
  The circuit was changed following the 2013 race. At the request of motorcycling's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, some sections of turn ten's asphalt run-off area were replaced by gravel and some light panels were mounted closer to the ground to improve visibility. Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the yellow-banded soft and white-banded medium dry compound tyres to the race, as opposed to the Hard and Medium tyres in 2012 and 2013. The event's official name was the 2014 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.
  Before the race, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton led the World Drivers' Championship with 291 points, ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg in second and Daniel Ricciardo third. Valtteri Bottas was in fourth place with 145 points, and Sebastian Vettel was two points behind in fifth. While the Drivers' Championship had not been won, Mercedes had won the World Constructors' Championship in the preceding Russian Grand Prix. Red Bull were in second place on 342 points; Williams (216 points) and Ferrari (188) were third and fourth and McLaren were fifth with 143 points.
  After spending the majority of the season behind Rosberg, Hamilton had won the previous four races, converting a 29-point deficit into a 17-point lead over his teammate. With three races left, Hamilton said he would prioritise not allowing any negative thoughts consume him and would take any opportunities presented to him: "We've just got to do our due diligence and work as hard as we can to make sure we don't have any problems." Hamilton hoped to achieve his fifth consecutive victory of the year: "A lot of the American side of my family come to the race, plus I won the first F1 GP at the circuit back in 2012 – it's a special one for me. I really enjoy going there and I'm looking forward to another great race." Rosberg aimed to improve on his best finish in Austin and lower Hamilton's championship lead. He said Mercedes targeted "a big finish" to their season, declaring he would not concede defeat until the final round, and hoped to maintain the level of entertainment for the fan base.
  After both Friday practice sessions, the FIA tested for the first time a new system called the Virtual Safery Car, which is in response to minimising the risk of serious accidents and injuries, such as those suffered by Jules Bianchi at the Japanese Grand Prix. Its aim is to force drivers to slow by about 35 per cent in an accident zone, with the aid of a dashboard display. Drivers agreed it was a worthwhile system that, however, required refinement for further testing at subsequent races before it was introduced for the 2015 season. Caterham and Marussia were each granted permission by the owner of Formula One's commercial rights Bernie Ecclestone to miss the race due to both teams having long-term financial problems and entering administration. This was the smallest field entered into a Formula One race since the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix. There were driver changes for the first free practice session. European Formula Three Championship third-place finisher Max Verstappen replaced Jean-Éric Vergne at Toro Rosso for the second time in 2014, and Williams reserve driver Felipe Nasr drove Bottas's car.
  The press reported that the Sauber, Lotus and Force India teams had considered withdrawing from the race to signal a message to Formula One's commercial leaders about its financial state following Caterham and Marussia's non-participation in the race. Ecclestone stated that if two of those teams left Formu
caption: Max Verstappen replaced Jean-Éric Vergne for the first free practice session for the second time in 2014.
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.7 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2014:11:19 14:53:36", "Image Artist": "Stefan Brending", "Image Copyright": "Stefan Brending", "Image ExifOffset": "230", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[49, 98929/5000, 0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[8, 340547/10000, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "336", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "544", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "14913", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:10:18 16:55:35", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:10:18 16:55:35", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "70", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "70"}