The action was non-stop in Sunday’s 2015 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix and only on lap 49 of 56 did Lewis Hamilton move ahead of Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg to seal victory - and with it a second successive world championship, the British driver’s third in total.

The only other man who could have prevented Hamilton tying things up in Austin - Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel - took third place in a race which featured two virtual and two actual safety-car periods, and one in which the eventual outcome was never anything but impossible to predict.

"That’s the greatest moment of my life," was how Hamilton summed up his emotions over team radio after taking the chequered flag for this tenth win of the season and the 43rd of his career, becoming only the second Briton after Sir Jackie Stewart to become a three-time world champion.

As the weather gods finally smiled on the Circuit of The Americas, for a long time it looked like Mercedes’ one-two in a crash-strewn race was going to be the wrong way round, with Rosberg seemingly headed for victory. Hamilton needed to be in front of the German in order to ensure that he outscored Vettel by nine points.

Rosberg had lost the lead as Hamilton aggressively eased him aside in the first corner, but retaken it from Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo during the pit stops on the 19th lap and held it through various virtual and real safety car interventions until the 48th lap.

Then, under pressure from Hamilton, he slid wide in Turn 2, and suddenly the roles were crucially reversed. Hamilton, who had clearly struggled initially on intermediate tyres on a very slippery track, was thus able to take not only to his 10th win of the year, but the one that would allow him to realise his life ambition of matching his hero Ayrton Senna’s three championships.

It nearly didn’t happen in Texas, however. Vettel had driven brilliantly to climb from 13th on the grid to seventh in a rough opening lap, and was set to run to the finish on a set of medium Pirelli slicks after his pit stop, until the safety cars foiled that gamble. On fresh soft tyres he was hounding Rosberg in the closing laps, and had he overtaken him, Hamilton would have had to wait longer for his new crown. But a deeply disappointed Rosberg held on, by half a second.

Via formula1.com. Photos via Sutton Images.