Pit Stop: Lewis Hamilton deserves to be head of pack heading into US Grand Prix

Three races left in the season and Lewis Hamilton has a lead in the championship of 17 points. It's been quite a turnaround, and the Russian Grand Prix proved a few things.

Firstly, the gods seem to be smiling on the Briton. After his travails in the first half of the season, his progress now seems serene. Arch-rival and teammate Nico Rosberg is scrabbling to keep up. His ill-advised late braking at the start of the race in Sochi seemed to be the mark of a man who is not at ease with himself or the situation he finds himself.

It's probably fair to say that Hamilton deserves to be where he is heading into this weekend's Grand Prix in the United States. He is only the fourth person to win a record nine races in a season and he's equalled the British record of 31 career wins set by Nigel Mansell.

If you are driving that well, you deserve to win the championship. Rosberg is a fine driver. He proved that in Russia by climbing back to second place by driving for 52 laps on one set of tyres. However, he wouldn't have needed to do that if he hadn't made the braking mistake under pressure from Lewis that flat spotted his first set of tyres.

Since the Mercedes pair came together in such controversial circumstances at Spa, Hamilton has had the advantage. Rosberg found it difficult to deal with the fallout of the incident and his 29-point advantage in Belgium has evaporated within a handful of races.

These guys are all mentally hardened, but small things can play on your mind. Given the shenanigans that have gone on between the pair this season it was always going to be fascinating to see who would win the psychological arm wrestle. After Monaco, you wouldn't have put your house on Hamilton being in pole position on that matter.

The problem of course is that the form that Hamilton has shown in the last few races could all be for nothing if it goes wrong in the double-points debacle that is the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi. Let's hope for all concerned it doesn't come down to that.

The constructor's championship has already been sewn up by Mercedes after yet another one-two finish in Russia. The team must be congratulated for a richly deserved win. Only they seem to have completely got to grips with the new engine regulations for this year.

No wonder they have objected to proposals from other teams that one in-season engine development step should be permitted. The others desperately want to bridge the gap, but Mercedes quite rightly feel they shouldn't have to give up their advantage. Of course, they haven't said this outright. Diplomatically they have claimed it would mean they couldn't supply engines to customer teams at current cost.

One man who might have a wry smile on his face after Mercedes wrapped up the constructors' title is Ross Brawn. This F1 genius was forced out of the team last year in a power struggle.

A lot of the British press have suggested Mercedes' current success is down to him.

After all, he won both driver's and constructor's titles with Brawn GP before selling to the Germans. Then he proceeded to start all over again and put them, Moses like, within sight of the promised land.

Finally, as we get ready for the awesome (as the Americans taught us to say) spectacle of the Austin race track, let's pause to praise the Sochi circuit. It's a decent track in a spectacular setting and the long, flat out turn three around the plaza that housed the Olympic flame is going to be an F1 classic.