First F1 race in Austin – Hamilton beats Vettel to victory

Lewis Hamilton won the first F1 race in Austin on this day in 2012 after he defeated Sebastian Vettel in Red Bull who started from pole position, overtaking him on the longest straight with DRS assistance.

After speculation that the Formula 1 will return to Indianapolis and Ecclestone plans to race in New York, on 25th May 2010. Austin (Texas) has signed a ten-year contract, which includes the construction of a completely new, modern racing track named Circuit of the Americas.

Circuit of The Americas in Austin is completely new circuit on which F1 races are held from 2012. when Texas became the host of the long-awaited return of Formula 1 in the United States.

Disagreement about the contract between the owner of the track and Bernie Ecclestone at the end of 2011. almost disrupted plans about the race, but the race is still left in the calendar for the 2012.

The first race attracted just under 120,000 spectators and a fight for the first victory on the new track was between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. Hamilton passed Vettel who started from pole position 14 laps to goe and claimed his second consecutive victory at the US Grand Prix after his triumph at Indianapolis in 2007.

Vettel complained about the traffic in form of Narain Karthikeyan in the fast first sector as Hamilton closed on him more than in any other lap before that and finished his move on DRS straight.

German was still leading in the drivers’ championship with 13 points ahead of Alonso before the last race of the season in Brazil, and Hamilton won his fourth race of the season, which was also his last victory for McLaren.

Hamilton won the most pole positions in 2012 (7 or 8 or if we add ‘pole’ from Spain which he lost due to lack of fuel for the analysis), but he was not the title contender because of the unreliability of the McLaren MP4-27.

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