Hamilton could seal his fourth world title – and draw level with Vettel – if he out-scores him by 16 points at the Circuit of the Americas.
The Brit has already won the US Grand Prix five times in his career and last time he won the title, he did so in the States.
The Mercedes driver would dearly love to do so again but will need to win and have Vettel finish outside the top five in order to build an unassailable lead with three races remaining after this one.
- Heavy morning rain in Austin has eased, race should start dry
- Lights out due at 8pm UK time
- Grid: 1st Hamilton, 2nd Vettel, 3rd Bottas, 4th Ricciardo, 5th Raikkonen
US Grand Prix 2017 LIVE – latest updates from COTA
7.15pm: The drivers have already been out on track of course, parading on the bus in front of the crowd.
The track is entirely dry it appears which should take some of the pressure off Lewis Hamilton – not that it would bother him, apparently.
“I love pressure,” Hamilton said.
“It’s part of the game. The pressure of being in an intense battle is what excites us as a team and all my mechanics, that’s why we try to operate at our best always in the heat of those moments.”
7pm: I would like to have been a fly on the wall in the hotel room when Lewis Hamilton woke up this morning: not in a weird way, just to see what he made of the heavy rain.
As was forecast, an enormous downpour soaked the Circuit of the Americas overnight and early this morning, conditions which the Brit could have viewed two ways. Either he could worry that Mercedes might not show the ultimately dominant pace they have had in the dry – or he could believe that the wet conditions make it more likely for Vettel to drop out of the top five and give him the chance to seal the title.
But the track has dried out in the sun and the wind so this is all, unfortunately, academic.
The weather is still going to be a problem though – the wind caused some real problems for the drivers in practice and it is pretty blustery.