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Cape Town - Sebastian Vettel may have gotten the jump on Lewis Hamilton at the start in Austin but "blew" his tyres by driving unnecessarily fast; that's according to Hamilton.
Vettel made a flying start to Sunday's United States Grand Prix, taking the lead through the first corner.
He immediately built up an advantage of almost two seconds only for Hamilton to close him down.
The Mercedes driver made his move on lap six, taking the lead and ultimately the race win.
However, it could have been a different story had Vettel backed off in the corners with Hamilton saying he didn't need to push as hard as he did.
"When Sebastian got a better start than me, I didn't know how it was going to go," the British racer told Sky Sports.
"But then I noticed I was able to remain relatively close. Did I know I was going to be able to overtake him?
"Initially I was just thinking I needed to stay close and wait for the pit-stops.
"But then I could see him pushing and I was thinking 'I am pretty good on my tyres right now and he is going through that corner too quickly, he is going to kill his tyres’.
"And that's what he did - he was driving too quick through some of those corners when he didn't have to. He blew.
"If he had backed off in those places he would have been able to keep me behind, I'm certain."
