Sebastian Vettel went unchallenged in the United States GP as he raced to his record-breaking eighth successive win.
Starting from pole position, the Red Bull driver pulled ahead of Romain Grosjean into the first corner on the opening lap and it was game off.
With his race engineer Rocky informing him that it was about lasting the distance and not setting the pace, prompting Vettel to put in a controlled performance.
Reliquishing the lead very briefly when he came in for his one and only pit stop on lap 27, he was back in front when Grosjean two laps later.
Making amends for last year's lost victory, Vettel raced to his 12th grand prix win of the season and his eighth in succession. That was yet another milestone for the German who now holds the record for most successive wins in one season.
Behind him Grosjean finished second after Mark Webber seemed to lose pace during their podium battle. The Aussie, though, was soon back on song but unable to chase down the Lotus.
Lewis Hamilton had a lonely race in fourth place, finishing ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg.
Sergio Perez was seventh in his penultimate race for McLaren with Valtteri Bottas, Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button completing the points.
There was only one incident of note in the race which was when the Safety Car was brought out on lap 1 for four laps when Adrian Sutil and Pastor Maldonado made contract resulting in the Force India driver spearing into the barriers. Maldonado later pitted for a new front wing after being shown the black-and-orange flags.
Meanwhile, Heikki Kovalainen's chances of scoring points on his return to the grid were undone when he had to pit on lap 32 for a new front wing. His KERS later gave up leaving him down in 15th place.