Hamilton is close and has smoked the cigar

Lewis Hamilton will have to wait another week for his fourth Formula One world championship but he has smoked a victory cigar already.

It was always going to be a long shot for the Mercedes driver to wrap up the title in Texas but on Sunday night, after winning at the Circuit of the Americas for the fifth time in six years, he was only a fingertip away.

With a 66-point advantage over Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, and three races remaining, Hamilton looks sure to become Britain's first four-times world champion in Mexico City next Sunday.

A visitor to Cuba earlier in the year, the 32-year-old puffed unconvincingly on a fat cigar as he spoke to reporters while the team celebrated a fourth successive constructors' title.

"Tastes disgusting," he grimaced.

"A guy came and gave me the cigars earlier. Every now and then some of the Cubans come along and give me some cigars. I took the box in there and handed them around to everyone.

"This is the first time for victory and I thought it was kind of neat."