Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton really likes Austin.
“This race, the whole weekend, Austin, the city, the atmosphere, it’s been unbelievable,” said Hamilton. “It’s the only Grand Prix that I go out to dinner every single night. There is no other grand prix where I go out to dinner every single night.”
Those dinners were just the fuel Hamilton needed to win his fourth race at Circuit of the Americas in five tries. Combining those wins with his 2007 victory in Indianapolis, Hamilton has now won five U.S. Gran Prix titles – the race was not held between 2008 and 2011.
He says it almost feels like a home crowd.
“The support we have here this weekend is almost like the British Grand Prix,” said Hamilton.
The win keeps Hamilton in the hunt – for now – for the drivers’ championship. He is trailing his Mercedes AMG teammate Nico Rosberg in overall points and needs to win the last three races and have someone else finish ahead of Rosberg.
Rosberg did his part Sunday with a second-place finish. It was the third year in a row he finished behind Hamilton at Circuit of the Americas.
“It’s always a battle between us,” said Rosberg. “Sometimes he wins. Sometimes I win. And this weekend wasn’t going to go my way. So, I gave it everything, a good fight.”
Of the 18 races held so far, only two have been won by someone other than Rosberg and Hamilton. Rosberg’s nine wins are two ahead of Hamilton and still holds a 26-point advantage in the driver standings with just three races to go.
Officials at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport are reminding passengers to expect heavier than usual passenger traffic at the airport as F1 fans now leave Central Texas.
Passengers leaving Monday morning are encouraged to get to the airport two hours before their scheduled departure time. Airport officials say some airlines have added flights or larger aircraft specifically to handle F1 departing passenger traffic. They also say four of six busiest departure days ever at ABIA have been Mondays after F1 weekends.
