United States Grand Prix facts

Formula One will attempt for the 10th time to crack the United States this weekend when it returns to America after a five-year absence.

Riverside, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Long Beach, Phoenix and Indianapolis have all played host at some stage over the past 60 years, but without much success.

Now, a purpose-built £250million facility just outside Austin, Texas, in the Circuit of The Americas, will try to woo a sceptical audience.

Going into the 19th and penultimate race of F1's longest campaign, there is still a title at stake, with Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel 10 points clear of Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari.

Here, Press Association Sport brings you the usual array of facts and stats:

Venue: Circuit of The Americas, Austin, Texas

Circuit length: 5.516km/3.752miles

Laps: 56

Race distance: 308.896km/191.165miles

Number of corners: 20 (11 left/9 right)

Tyre compounds to be used: hard/medium

Overtaking chance: Into turns 1, 11 and 12

Estimated lap time: 1min 37secs

Full throttle per lap: 60%

Gear changes per lap: 58 (race = 3248)

* Sebastian Vettel will become the latest driver to join the 'ton-up' club when he competes in his 100th grand prix this weekend.

* In his previous 99 races, Vettel has been on pole 35 times and taken the chequered flag on 26 occasions, along with 19 other podium finishes.

* Kimi Raikkonen's win for Lotus in Abu Dhabi was his first since the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix, although he took a two-year break from F1 in 2010 and 2011.

* It was the first for the team from the factory in Enstone since the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix when they were known as Renault.

* And it was also the first time the name Lotus had topped the podium since the 1987 US Grand Prix East in Detroit when the late Ayrton Senna was at the wheel.

* Raikkonen has now had 15 consecutive results in the points. Only Michael Schumacher (24), Sebastian Vettel (19) and Fernando Alonso (18 & 17) can boast a longer run.

* Schumacher has now failed to score a point in his last five races, the worst run of his entire F1 career.

* The only two active F1 drivers to have won a US GP are Schumacher (5) and Lewis Hamilton (1), who won the last event on American soil at Indianapolis in 2007.

* There have been 27 different winners of a Formula One Grand Prix in the USA, whilst there have been nine different winning teams.

* The only American driver to have won an F1 grand prix on home soil was Mario Andretti in 1977.

* Simulations suggest the circuit has more corners over 250kph than Spa and more below 100kph than Hungary.

* A qualifying lap time of around one minute and 37 seconds, and a race lap time of 1min 42secs, are predicted.

PA