Track Torque: Time for some stars and stripes

THIS Sunday is the third race on the new track in Texas, leaving just Brazil and Abu Dhabi (UAE) still to come.

Lewis Hamilton won the first in 2012 in a McLaren and Sebastian Vettel won it last year in in his Red Bull.

Who’s turn will it be this weekend?

I think Hamilton is on a roll and unless teammate Nico Rosberg in the other Mercedes is really quick or has a better reliability, Hamilton will take the race.

After these two we should yet again see the two Williams Mercs prominent with the new flying Finn Valtteri Bottas and a resurrected Felipe Massa doing an excellent job in the new Williams FW36s which are getting better and better and now are not far off Hamilton and Rosberg’s Mercedes works team.

At the last race in Russia Bottas, but for a slip in the last corner, would have had pole position as he had the fastest time around the track up until then. Next in line, we should see the current world champion, Sebastian Vettel hassled by his teammate Daniel Ricciardo in an improved Red Bull if only they could modify their engines which they are not allowed to touch until the end of the year at least. This is due to rule stabilisation in the interest of saving costs but when one makes a technological leap on another it leaves a time gap before they can play catch-up. Vettel loves the Austin track, winning here only last year and could be a thorn in the side of the Mercedes pair.

At Ferrari I expect an angry Fernando Alonso to go even quicker than normal so that he might carry the car very high up indeed with his tremendous talent.

Hot news on the Spaniard – he is probably going to McLaren Honda for 2015 although there is a chance that he could go to Lotus Mercedes for one year taking much needed sponsorship with him to the former great team that is on the spot at the moment. Fernando is likely to be in the top five at the finish and could make it onto the podium.

Teammate Kimi Raikkonen just hasn’t the potential at present and would surprise us if he keeps up with Alonso. At McLaren Mercedes both Kevin Magnusson and Jenson Button are now pretty well equipped with a state-of-the-art machine and they also can set the cat amongst the pigeons. If they have a good run, one of them at least should make it into the top six.

Lotus Renault have a slight chance of getting into the top 10 with Romain Grosjean being a better option than teammate Pastor Maldonado while Force India could do better particularly with Nico Hulkenberg or a fiery Sergio Perez, good on his day. For financial reasons both Marussia and Caterham may not make it to America so it will be left to Sauber and Torro Rosso to fight for the remaining places. Russian Daniil Kvyat can usually be counted on to give us an exciting drive.

Qualifying is on Saturday at 9pm and the race is on Sunday at 10pm.

Enjoy watching the fastest cars in the world racing in big bold Texas!