RANKED: The 6 best Formula 1 races in America of the 21st century

F1 History

RANKED: The 6 best Formula 1 races in America of the 21st century

Looking back at the most thrilling races the USA has thrown up since 2000

Jack Walker

Monday 8 May 2023 12:27 Updated: 12:53

For the first time in 40 years, Formula 1 has three races in the USA.

Miami, Texas, and the first-ever Las Vegas Grand Prix make 2023 a historic year, but which F1 race is the best the States has seen in the 21st century? We look back at some of the greatest.

2014 United States Grand Prix

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The 2014 United States Grand Prix saw a textbook performance from Mercedes, whose dominance in the sport was clear as day thanks to Lewis Hamilton’s unbeatable brilliance behind the wheel.

The Silver Arrows locked out the front row as Nico Rosberg led the field away with a dream start, but Hamilton overtook his teammate on lap 24.

Hamilton drove off into the distance to pick up another routine victory at the Circuit of the Americas, and Rosberg brought the one-two home for Mercedes. How the mighty have fallen.

2013 United States Grand Prix

Renault-powered cars were the class of the field in the 2013 United States Grand Prix, with all three podium finishers having Renault engines behind them.

A certain Sebastian Vettel dominated the entire weekend by claiming the race win from pole position, Romain Grosjean came a surprise second and Mark Webber made it a double Red Bull podium.

Vettel led all but two laps to claim a victory that was his eighth in a row in 2013, and his first in the USA.

2000 United States Grand Prix

The 15th round of the 2000 Formula One World Championship at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was filled with drama.

Michael Schumacher won the 73-lap race from pole position, with his teammate Rubens Barrichello second and Jordan driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen third.

McLaren driver David Coulthard had started alongside Schumacher on the front row, but was forced to serve a ten-second stop-go penalty on lap eight for moving forward into the lead before the start.

Schumacher's main title rival, Mika Häkkinen, started in fourth but retired with a blown engine on lap 26, leaving Schumacher with an unchallenged lead to clinch his seventh win of the season, despite spinning in the final stages of the race.

Ferrari re-took the lead in both championships as a result and went on to do the double.

2017 United States Grand Prix

2017 was truly Mercedes’ year, as Toto Wolff’s team secured their fourth successive constructors' championship in Texas.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel put in a scintillating qualifying lap to split the Mercedes rocket ships and flew off the line to take the lead off the line, but the combination of Hamilton’s race craft and that Merc engine was too much to handle.

Hamilton’s scintillating win and Bottas’ hard-won fifth place earned 35 points, which were enough to clinch the constructors’ championship yet again.

The other notable mention of a thrilling race was Max Verstappen, who recovered to a brilliant fourth having started all the way down in sixteenth.

2012 United States Grand Prix

The 2012 United States Grand Prix was the inaugural F1 race at the Circuit of the Americas, but as is a common theme, Hamilton took the race win.

This one had added significance because it was his last victory for McLaren before making the then highly-criticised move to Mercedes in 2013.

Starting from pole position Vettel needed to finish ahead of Fernando Alonso to win the drivers’ championship. After Vettel came up just short in a brilliant battle with Hamilton, Alonso rose from seventh to finish third to ensure that the championship would be settled in the last race of the season.

2015 United States Grand Prix

This is a race etched into the minds of every Formula 1 enthusiast as the entire weekend offered bucketloads of drama and brilliant overtaking action.

On Saturday, a rain-hit qualifying day saw Q3 cancelled due to treacherous track conditions, before a proper in-house showdown between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg on the Sunday.

An aggressive move by the Brit forced his teammate to run wide on lap 1, which was the first of a dynamic to-and-fro tussle between the two.

Rosberg faced an uphill battle to reclaim the lead but managed to do so until running wide on lap 48. This mistake from the German opened the door for Hamilton to sweep past before holding his nerve to take the win and his third drivers’ championship.