AUSTIN, Texas -- Lewis Hamilton took a commanding victory at the U.S. Grand Prix to give his slim championship chances a boost at a crucial point of the season.It was Hamiltons first victory since the German Grand Prix in July and moves him to within 26 points of teammate Nico Rosberg, who secured second despite losing a position to Daniel Ricciardos Red Bull at the start. At one stage it looked as though Hamilton might finish with two Red Bulls between him and Rosberg, but as Max Versatppens race unravelled with a slow pit stop and engine failure, Rosberg capitalised with a free pit stop under a Virtual Safety Car caution period.Rosberg can still win the title by claiming a minimum of two second places and a third place at the remaining three grands prix, but the result brings an end to his run of five races finishing ahead of Hamilton. All Hamilton can do at the remaining races is emulate his impressive form in Austin this weekend and hope Rosberg runs into trouble.Ricciardo held on to third place, but will be frustrated not to come away with more. The Red Bull driver passed Rosberg on the opening lap by getting up the inside of the Mercedes at Turn 1 and completing the pass on the outside of Turn 2. He appeared to have Rosberg covered when he made his second pit stop on lap 25, but Rosberg ran longer into the race on his second stint allowing him to take advantage of Verstappens failure on lap 33.Verstappen had been closing on Rosberg at the start of the second stint, but ultimately did not have the pace to pass. In his eagerness to switch to fresh tyres for his final stint, the 19-year-old pitted before his team had called him in and he arrived in an empty pit box with no one to greet him. The mistake shuffled him behind both Ferraris but it proved to be irrelevant when a grinding sound from his Renault engine brought him to a halt just four laps later.The stricken Red Bull brought out a Virtual Safety Car period, requiring drivers to slow their pace to a predefined lap time and hold track position. By pitting under the Virtual Safety Car, Rosberg was able to make his stop while Ricciardo was going slow on track and therefore lost less time than he would have in normal racing conditions. The Mercedes emerged from the pits 2.5s ahead of Ricciardo, an advantage he grew to 15.1s by the end of the race.Kimi Raikkonen would have been in an interesting battle for fourth with Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel had it not been for a loose wheel nut at his final stop. The Finn was on an aggressive three-stop strategy of super-soft, soft, super-soft, super-soft, but at the final visit to the pits he was given the green light to go before the right rear had been properly attached. His race came to an end 500 metres later at the exit of the pit lane under orders from the Ferrari pit wall. The incident allowed Vettel to take a lonely fourth place at the end of the race, 23.4s off Ricciardo.With a routine second half of the race at the front of the field, Fernando Alonso provided the entertainment for COTAs large crowd. In the final 29 laps the McLaren driver fought his way from ninth place to fifth at the finish. The impressive drive came with two bolshie overtaking moves at the end of the race as he barged past Felipe Massa on lap 52, before running off the road as he lunged past Carlos Sainz for fifth place on the penultimate lap.The contact with Massa led to a puncture on the Williams and the Brazillian finished seventh behind the Toro Rosso of Sainz. Sergio Perez took eighth for Force India after recovering from a spin on the first lap when he was tagged by the second Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat. Jenson Button took ninth place for McLaren ahead of Romain Grosjean, who secured the last point on offer for American team Haas.The title battle continues in one week south of the boarder in Mexico, where Rosberg started a run of seven consecutive victories 12 months ago. Vans Old Skool Ireland . The Cleveland Indians, Tampa Bay Rays, and Texas Rangers all won on Sunday meaning the Rangers will host the Rays in a play-in game on Monday. Wholesale Vans Old Skool . The showiest items on Calgarys lot were forwards Mike Cammalleri and Lee Stempniak. Both will be unrestricted free agents this summer. http://www.cheapoldskoolireland.com/ . Now, with Game 6 set for Fenway Park and an 8:07 p.m. ET first pitch, the Detroit Tigers face the unenviable task of having to beat the Boston Red Sox twice, on the road, to advance to the World Series. Wholesale Vans Authentic . Traditional contenders Brazil, Greece and Turkey drew the other three spots to complete the 24-team field for this summers tournament in Spain, basketball governing body FIBA announced Saturday at its meeting in Barcelona. Cheap Vans Old Skool . Vettel was 0.168 seconds faster than Red Bull teammate Mark Webber around the Suzuka circuit. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was two tenths of a second off Vettel. "The car balance is decent, but I think we can still improve," Vettel said. Yorkshire 275 for 9 (Lehmann 58, Bresnan 56, Berg 5-54) v HampshireScorecardDont look down, look up goes the old Yorkshire adage about whether to bat or bowl first at Headingley. A few hundred miles south at the Ageas Bowl the proverb is ever-more appropriate, as overhead conditions appear to be shaping the game at Hampshires ground with increasing regularity.Upon winning the toss in this crucial match, with repercussions for the top and bottom of the Championship table, Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale looked up, saw a cloudless blue sky and opted to bat. With the two most recent first-innings scores at this ground being 637 for 7 and 548 for 6 Hampshire would have been forgiven for preparing themselves for another long stint in the field, having last week been run ragged for 137.4 overs in their most recent Championship match at Taunton.In a season in which fortune has frequently frowned on Hampshire, with injuries and illness robbing them of some of their best players, they could probably hardly believe their luck when after just 20 minutes of play, in which Yorkshires openers had looked relatively untroubled, the sky was suddenly choked by dense and leaden clouds. Five minutes later the floodlights were on, a couple of balls jagged sharply past the outside edge and the whole feeling of the occasion had been transformed. What followed was an engrossingly competitive day that ebbed and flowed as readily as the clouds rolled in and out, in which ball dominated bat for large swathes of it and ended with Hampshire in a decidedly better position than perhaps even they would have envisaged at 11am.If Hampshire are indeed relegated this season, which remains likely, the locals are unlikely to see cricket bearing the intensity and meaning of that which they witnessed in the morning session for some time. The air was heavy with import as Ryan McLaren, Brad Wheal and Gareth Berg stared the top order of county crickets northern powerhouse straight in the eyes and matched them blow for blow, beating the edge by getting the ball to spit, bounce, seam and swing.As well as Hampshire bowled in that opening session it was the catching of Will Smith that could be largely credited with the wickets of Yorkshires left-handed openers. Both Alex Lees, against McLaren, and Adam Lyth, against Wheal, tried to force ballls through the off side delivered from round the wicket that were arguably not wide enough to do so too, and on both occasions Smith, diving to his right at a wide gully, first with two hands and then spectacularly with one, was there to intercept the ball inches above the turf.ddddddddddddThe brilliance of Smith did not rub off on to James Vince, whose catching struggles continued as he dropped England team-mate and possible rival for a winter tour spot, Gary Ballance, twice in less than 15 minutes at third slip. It was third time unlucky for Ballance however when wicketkeeper Lewis McManus did not make the same mistake as his captain when a hint of swing extracted a fine edge to leave Yorkshire teetering at 57 for 3.It was then that the pendulum began to swing back towards Yorkshire as Gale and Jake Lehmann combined in a 62-run partnership either side of lunch that arrested their slide. Lehmanns counter-attacking innings of 58 from 73 balls made for enjoyable viewing. He is a punchy player, unafraid to play his shots and his quickness to pick up length is an enticing trait.After Gale was squared up by McLaren and Lehmann brilliantly caught by Jimmy Adams playing one cut shot too many, the game swung towards Hampshire again only for Tim Bresnan to wrest it back with a typically tough fifty from No. 6.It was after tea with the floodlights on and dark skies above that Hampshire built on the foundations of their strong first two sessions. A superb spell by Berg, in which he took 3 for 13 from five overs and got the ball to move wickedly off the pitch, gutted Yorkshires lower order, instigating a dramatic collapse from 212 for 5 to 234 for 9. The three wickets sealed Berg his first five wicket-haul since September 2011. He, like Hampshire more generally, were assisted by the conditions but it took skill to utilise them.Just how important Yorkshires unbeaten tenth wicket partnership of 41 between Jack Brooks and Ryan Sidebottom was will become apparent after Hampshire have batted. This felt like a good day for Hampshire, especially after being put into the field, but batting was not easy and Yorkshire have the bowlers to cause real damage if helpful conditions persist. ' ' '