Strong podium finish taken away after Lewis challenged for victory at the Circuit of the Americas
Lewis Hamilton finished second but was later disqualified from Sunday’s United States Grand Prix, while George Russell came home seventh but was ultimately classified fifth.
Starting third and fifth respectively, both drivers suffered difficult starts with Lewis dropping to fourth and George to eighth.
They both began to fight back quickly though, and Lewis moved up to P2 behind the McLaren of Lando Norris in the early stages.
Max Verstappen, in P3 at that stage, triggered the first round of pitstops. With both the one and the two-stop looking viable, both Lewis and George stayed out on track for a few laps longer and ceded track position to several runners – but their tyres soon dropped off too much, forcing them to commit to a two-stop strategy.
Running on the Hard tyre, Lewis began to close again on Norris and Verstappen before taking the Medium tyre for his final stint.
He utilised the tyre offset to the Hard-shod McLaren and the Red Bull to pass Norris and set off after Verstappen, falling less than two seconds short of victory at the flag.
George ran a similar strategy; he closed within a few tenths of the Ferrari of Leclerc in the final stages but had to settle for P7 across the line.
Post-race checks showed the plank wear levels on Lewis’ car were beyond the allowed limit and he was subsequently, along with the Ferrari of Leclerc, disqualified.
As the team heads to Mexico, the gap to Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship is now 22 points.