United States GP: hats off to VettelPublished18 November 2013Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage caption, The United States Grand Prix weekend got off to a bad start when first practice was delayed for poor visibility by 40 minutes because of fogImage caption, First practice was then stopped when the medical helicopter didn't turn up. When it eventually made an appearance, there was only enough time for 30 minutes of runningImage caption, Heikki Kovalainen was parachuted into the Lotus team at short notice to replace Kimi Raikkonen in Austin and did a decent job qualifying eighth before problems with his car saw him finish 15th in the raceImage caption, The Circuit of the Americas' signature corner is the steep uphill run into the hairpin Turn One which is similar to Spa's Eau Rouge corner in BelgiumImage caption, Felipe Massa struggled for pace all weekend in Austin as he comes to the end of his Ferrari career ahead of a move to Williams next seasonImage caption, The skies were overcast for practice and qualifying, but it was not doom and gloom for Sebastian Vettel who waltzed to his eighth pole position of the seasonImage caption, After his performance in qualifying, Sebastian Vettel was the favourite to take his eighth consecutive win of the season to break Michael Schumacher's record set in 2004Image caption, The Austin paddock was full of celebrities on race day, including Mask of Zorro star Antonio Banderas, American actress Melanie Griffiths and Law Abiding Citizen actor Gerard ButlerImage caption, Finn Valtteri Bottas had the strongest weekend of his rookie season with ninth in qualifying and eighth - and his first F1 points - in the raceImage caption, Romain Grosjean has been in a rich vein of form since team-mate Kimi Raikkonen announced he was leaving Lotus and that continued in Austin as the Frenchman took his fourth podium in five racesImage caption, In winning the United States Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel claimed his 12th win of the season and 38th of his career to keep him on course to match Alberto Ascari's record of nine consecutive wins, set over the 1952 and '53 seasonsImage caption, Vettel said he was very "proud" of becoming the first man to win eight consecutive races in a season, having won every grand prix since Formula 1 returned from the summer break at the Belgian Grand PrixMore on this storyAbu Dhabi GP: Vettel's twilight triumphPublished3 November 2013Japanese GP: Vettel on the vergePublished13 October 2013Singapore GP: Sebastian Vettel's night to rememberPublished22 September 2013Italian GP gallery: Tears, tantrums and tifosiPublished8 September 2013Belgian GP gallery: Vettel's walk in the parkPublished25 August 2013British GP: Rain, home hopes and a cuddly toyPublished30 June 2013German GP gallery: Tyres & firesPublished7 July 2013Gallery: Racing is as hot as weather in HungaryPublished28 July 2013