Lewis Hamilton is officially a six-time Formula One world champion after he finished second at the USA Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Brit, who has now won the title in five of the last six years, was expected to confirm his victory and did just that.

It means Hamilton moves above Juan Manuel Fangio in the all-time leaderboard and is just one behind Michael Schumacher's record of seven titles.

Hamilton has also matched last season in clinching the title in the 19th of 21 races, having done so with a fourth-place finish in Mexico in 2018.

As for British racing, Hamilton now has twice as many titles as any other British driver in history, with his six dwarfing Jackie Stewart's three.

The 34-year-old must have thought his chances of dominating Formula One were slim back when he joined Mercedes in 2013.

Sebastian Vettel ended that season winning his fourth consecutive championship but Hamilton simply took over the following year.

Titles in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, and now 2019 cement him as one of absolute greatest ever - his only failure in that time was a five-point loss to his own teammate, Nico Rosberg.

As for the race itself, Hamilton quickly moved from his fifth-place on the starting grid to set up a battle for second with Max Verstappen.

He didn't need to win, of course, but that didn't make him ease up - to the point where he was getting warnings.

"Ok Lewis we're going to the end with 32 laps remaining, this will be close with Verstappen at the end of the race," he was told.

"Do I have a chance to win?"

"It's 16 sec to Verstappen 21 to Valtteri [Bottas], we may need to make a stop.

"This is critical that we make the one-stop work Lewis, you managed 24 laps on that medium tyre."

"Give me a target, work with me, man."

That wasn't the only warning, either.

"Lewis, these lap times will put you in contention for the win but we need to have tyres for the end of the race," he was told shortly afterwards.

He couldn't quite overtake Bottas, however, and had to settle for second.