Lewis Hamilton is heading to Austin with hopes of achieving his 10th win of the season. The Mercedes driver will also be looking to extend his Championship lead over team mate Nico Rosberg as we head into the final three races of the 2014 season.

In the third running of the Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, there will be a diatinct shortage of competitors, as all the headlines this week have been focused on the downfall of two of the sport's backmarkers. Caterham and Marussia have both entered administration in the past week and this means they will miss both this weekend's GP in the US, and also the next race in Brazil.

This means there will be only be 18 cars on the circuit on Sunday, the shortest amount of drivers in a race since the infamous 2005 US Grand Prix at Indianapolis, where only six cars started due to tyre problems eliminating 14 cars. Also, Marussia will have probably only ran one car again this weekend as a mark of respect to their driver Jules Bianchi, who remains in a critical but stable condition after his crash at Suzuka four weeks ago.

The news also means the only American driver in the paddock, Marussia's reserve driver Alex Rossi, will not get a run out at his home Grand Prix.

The advantage Hamilton has this weekend is that he has already won here before. In 2012 whilst driving for McLaren, Hamilton won the innaugural event here and is certainly strong around this track, which is known for its steep first corner.

Rosberg is running out of chances to catch Hamilton in the title race. As despite the final race of the season being double points, Rosberg isn't guaranteed to win that race, and needs to ideally win at both Austin and Interlagos for him to stand a chance going into the title decider in Abu Dhabi.

The only problem Mercedes and their drivers have is that their cars are notoriously unreliable, with both Hamilton and Rosberg suffering retirements from technical issues. Should either driver retire here, it could blow the title race wide open. Should Rosberg retire and Hamilton win, he'll be 32 points ahead and in pole position for the title.

Be sure to catch VAVEL's live coverage of both the Qualifying and the Race. With our coverage starting at 4pm on Saturday and 6pm on Race Day.