The USA Grand Prix was a packed one, and full of expectation. There had been some strong words from Fernando Alonso earlier in the week that were picked up and exploded by the press.

There seems to be a rift growing between Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, and wouldn't you expect this? Both are racers and hugely competitive, and for the current World Champion to be continually beaten by a first time Formula 1 racer, you must expect some tension.

However the claims that McLaren-Mercedes are biased towards Hamilton because he's British have been put down by Ron Dennis. In fact he says there's no bias at all and both drivers are treated equally. For them they just want a one-two finish.

Then there's another newcomer on the grid who is going to find out if he can take the pace of a full race. Sebastian Vettel is standing in for Robert Kubica, can he do something special here, or will he get in the way of the other drivers?

As soon as the lights had gone Alonso was battling Hamilton. He had a better start off the grid and was right up Hamilton's tail, pushing him to try and get past. This happened for quite a few corners until Hamilton started to stretch something of a very small lead between them.

Further back on the starting grid though things weren't so easy and Ralf Schumacher made what looked like a terrible mistake and careered into the side of David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello. Schumacher was out of the race immediately and quite rightly so.

Coulthard and Barrichello struggled after that with obvious damage to their cars and were soon out of the race. Coulthard was interviewed afterwards and was quite pragmatic about it all, but he was quite clear that it wasn't his fault.

Schumacher was living in a fantasy world when he said that he might not be to blame. With all the concern over the possible end of his career this year, you might think he would be a bit more careful about his performance on track and his claims off track.

Hamilton pulled a little further away from Alonso, but only by a few seconds, and behind them Felipe Massa wasn't too far away either, indicating a possible threat from Ferrari.

On lap eleven the stewards announced that Takuma Sato was under investigation for passing under yellow flags which had been shown for the first corner madness from Schumacher.

However that didn't really matter as on lap fourteen as Sato clipped the grass and spun off to get stuck in the gravel. He tried to drive out, but the rear wheels just dug themselves in and he was stranded.

Leaping ahead for a moment, later on about lap forty-seven, the stewards seemed to get the craziness that Schumacher was suffering from and announced a penalty for Sato on the next race. Now bear in mind that in this race, had he kept going, he would have received a ten second stop-go penalty. For the next race he's given a ten place grid penalty.

That's tough, considering that he would most likely have been pulled in for a ten second stop-go if he hadn't spun off, being dropped ten places for the next race is extremely harsh.

Back to the race and by lap nineteen Alonso and Hamilton were fighting as they keep trading fastest lap times. At this point there was less than four seconds between them.

On lap twenty-two Nick Heidfeld spun off the track but managed to limp on, and it seemed to be a sign of things to come.

Briefly on that same lap Alonso took the lead as Hamilton pitted. The word was that they were pitting early because they were concerned that a safety car might come out and ruin their strategy. Could Alonso have stretched out a lead while Hamilton was in the pits?

Apparently not because as soon as Hamilton was out of the pits Alonso headed straight in. So when he came out he was still behind Hamilton.

The race was on though and Alonso was really pushing and trying to get closer to Hamilton he was closing the gap inch by inch.

A surprising burst of pace came from Kimi as he showed that he still had fight in him. He was racing and looked to be more confident than ever with the car underneath him. On lap twenty nine he was lapping as fast as the leaders were, although they were going through traffic at the time Kimi's lap times were much improved.

By lap thirty two Alonso had taken the gap to Hamilton down to a mere one second. Hamilton seemed to be very hard on his brakes as you could see the brake dust flying off them at the end of the pit straight, much more than Alonso.

Then on lap thirty seven a large group of traffic appeared in front of Hamilton and Alonso could surely smell his chance. He carved that lead down to 0.7 seconds, but the traffic had cleared and Hamilton was ready to fly. Except they were coming onto the pit straight and Alonso was close enough for the slipstream.

He dragged behind him and used the drive to pull around him, inching alongside and racing to the first corner.

That's where Alonso lost his chance as he broke first,. Hamilton held on a moment later and broke to take the first corner.

That obviously frustrated Alonso as on the next lap he pulled right off the line and right up to the pit wall. Was it a message to the team? Whether it was or not Alonso was not the fastest driver on the circuit and couldn't beat Hamilton.

The gap continued to be under a second between the two for some time.

Vettel is Robert Kubica's replacement for the moment, until doctors give him the okay to return, and he was doing amazingly well on the track. By lap forty two he was sitting in ninth.

Kimi was also doing well, at least better than usual, and was now producing lap times that were even quicker than the leaders. On lap forty nine he even took the fastest lap of the race.

On lap fifty Alonso was the first to pit and was out fast. There was some thought that perhaps Hamilton would stay out a little longer, but that wasn't to be. As they came to pass the pit lane entrance Hamilton dove in and took his pit stop. Eyes were on the straight for Alonso.

As Hamilton crept along the pit lane Alonso could be seen tearing down the start-finish straight, it was going to be tight going into the first corner. Hamilton just makes it out in front of Alonso and pushes to stay in front.

He makes it stick and Hamilton stays in the lead of the Grand Prix once again.

Heidfeld wasn't so lucky as come lap fifty six he was struggling with the car and losing places. Resigned to the fact he drives off the road and parks it.

The most embarassing moment of the race was not the World Champion once again being out driven by the rookie, no, it was the Honda of Jenson Button being passed by the Super Aguri of Anthony Davidson. The race Honda car being overtaken by last years race Honda car. More hard work ahead for the Honda team it would seem.

Another surprise happened on lap sixty nine as Nico Rosberg's engine gives out dramatically, and he pulled off the circuit with the oil burning away behind him. He casualy exited the car and showed his frustration at the car.

Now that wasn't the surprise, the surprise was that the retirement put Vettel into the points for his first race.

The last moment was Liuzzi pulling into the pits and retiring. The race completed with Hamilton continuing to lead ahead of Alonso and taking the chequered flag.